A very warm welcome back to all staff, students and families for Term 4! This term always tends to fly by and before we know it, Christmas will be upon us. It will be a busy term in all Mathematics classrooms with most year levels engaging in two pieces of assessment.

Year 7 students will explore the concepts of Statistics, Probability and Financial Maths. They will begin by learning how to calculate and interpret the mean and median of data sets and to construct data displays. They will demonstrate these skills with an in-class extended response. Then they will learn how to list sample spaces, calculate the probabilities of events and compare the cost of items. They will demonstrate these skills during an exam.

Year 8 students will be learning all about Measurement and Geometry this term as they learn how to calculate perimeter, area and volume of shapes and then moving onto triangle properties and congruency. Year 8 students will demonstrate these skills throughout two exams.

Year 9 students will also be learning about Measurement and Geometry as they calculate the area, surface area and volume of prisms and cylinders. They will then move onto calculations involving triangles as they learn about Pythagoras theorem, trigonometry and scale factor. They will be assessed with two in-class exams.

Year 10 students in General and Extension Mathematics will continue their work on Algebra & Number as they explore the concepts of inequalities, simultaneous equations and quadratic equations. These will be assessment with a mid-term exam. They will then finish of their year and prepare for senior by working towards a financial maths extended response based off the concept of compound interest.  

Year 10 students in Foundation Mathematics will be exploring the concept of probability as they explore sample spaces, calculating probabilities, conditional probabilities, as well as, tree diagrams and Venn diagrams.

And, finally, students complete the Short Course in Numeracy are due to complete their final course work this term on the topic of "The Work Environment" as they explore everyday numeracy skills involving time, percentage, fractions, measurement and shapes. We are excited for our first group of Year 10's to bank a QCE point after the successful completion of this course.  

I would also like to use this space to highlight some key reminders:

• Be prepared for class! Every student should have a notebook, stationery and a scientific calculator available for every math lesson. We are continuing to see students arrive to class without these essentials and this is limiting their ability to keep accurate notes for revision and study purposes.
• Mathematics tutoring is available every Tuesday at 1^st break and Thursday at 2^nd break in CG01. This will start in Week 2 and finish in Week 8.

All the best for the term ahead!

Tess Reeves

HoD Mathematics

tsmur0@eq.edu.au