ITUMELENG SEMOLI

The adrenalin was certainly felt during the ASSA Mathematics Team Competition, yet it was nothing our mathematicians in the making couldn’t handle. Tebogo Thobane (Gr11) and Itumeleng Semoli (Gr10) were selected for the EMS Siyanqoba FS/NC Senior A Mathematics Team that participated in the National Competition and came 10th out of the 106 teams that entered.

The selection process for the team was over a three-week period of completing challenging mathematics questions in preparation for the competition. On the day of the competition, each learner wrote an individual Olympiad paper. The ten learners with the highest results were then selected for the senior A team. They achieved outstanding results.

After the official team was selected, a team paper was introduced where each team member had the choice of either tackling a question on their own or working on finding a solution with another team member. The questions covered a wide range of various maths topics which enabled the team members to choose a topic that they were comfortable with.

Dr Elsie Schoombie, Prof Johan Meyer and Mr Jon Smit aided in preparing this team for the competition. Dr Schoombie handed out gift bags to congratulate team members on their amazing results.

It’s clear that Itumeleng and Tebogo both love maths. They regard Mr Henry van Coller as an inspiring and awesome mathematics teacher. Maths is in his blood and you can tell that he knows what he is doing. His passion for maths shows that he in touch with his subject. He shares his knowledge in a way that it is not difficult to understand and comprehend. His reasoning is logical and he explains it in a way that one can follow. He isn’t super serious and tells maths jokes which they enjoy. Henry Danger is our super hero.