Published on: 21 November 2014



Christ Church has once again excelled in the Australian Informatics Competition (AIC) and Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC). The School was awarded two medals, 15 prizes and 46 High Distinctions in the Senior School, and one prize and nine High Distinctions in the Preparatory School.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Jan Honnens said while AMC problems were based on pure mathematics, involving the ideas and concepts from the traditional Mathematics curriculum, AIC problems were related to the modern world of computers, programming and using intriguing logical and algorithmic thinking to find solutions.

Once again, Christ Church received the highest number of prizes for any school in Australia in the AIC including seven out of the 80 prizes awarded. Mr Honnens said more than 400 Christ Church students contested the AIC paper with Anthony Tsang (Year 11), Nicholas O’Callaghan (Year 11), Devin He (Year 10), Nicholas Pizzino (Year 10), Thomas Waring (Year 10), James Annear (Year 8) and William Hu (Year 8), securing prizes.

In the AMC, Nicholas Lim (Year 12) and William Hu (Year 8) were among only 30 students in Australia to receive medals for their exceptional results. Christ Church also received eight prizes awarded to Nicholas Lim (Year 12), Nicholas Pizzino (Year 10), Devin He (Year 10), Kohsuke Sato (Year 9), William Hu (Year 8), Joshua Chan (Year 8), Matthew Hamdorf (Year 8) and George Schulz (Year 7).

Prep School Mathematics Co-ordinator Anthea Feaver said she was delighted to report that Matthew Bailey (Year 4) also received a prize in the AMC. High Distinctions were awarded to Gaius Gould (Year 4), Sean Morgan (Year 4), Roman Green (Year 4), Cameron Minchin (Year 5), Rafe Haselhurst (Year 5), Ashley Porter (Year 6), Djimon Jayasundera (Year 6), Christopher Wallwork (Year 6) and Joshua Fry (Year 6).

Mrs Feaver said Year 6 students Joshua Fry, Ashley Porter and Djimon Jayasundera had also been invited to attend an enrichment workshop run by the Australian Mathematics Trust, based on their competition results.

Recently, a number of Years 7 to 9 also competed in the Western Australian Junior Mathematics Olympiad at UWA.

Head of Mathematics Khee Lim said while most teams were Years 8 and 9, Christ Church also had some Year 7 teams compete. “The atmosphere was tense and nerve-racking as the students battled against each other and raced to solve the challenging problems under time constraints,” Mr Lee said.

In the team event, Year 9 students Arnold Chen, Lumina Gajanayake, Kohsuke Sato and Keaton Wright won the Most Outstanding Year 9 Team Performance while the Year 8 team of Akio Ho, Rohan Maloney, Oliver Terry and William Hu was awarded a merit prize.

In the individual section, merit prizes were awarded to Year 9 students Kohsuke Sato and Geoff Sang, with William Hu awarded second place in the individual Year 8 category. More than 440 students from 37 schools across the State took part in the competition.