How academic opportunities help Kingsley fulfil his potential

Being a student can sometimes feel like a balancing act between boredom and stress. They’d like the classwork they do to be just challenging enough to be interesting, but not so difficult that they get the urge to mercilessly attack their own fingernails.

It’s one of the many things that schools and teachers strive to achieve for their students. And at Wyong Christian Community School in New South Wales, they appear to be doing a stellar job with one particular teenager.

Kingsley is a 13-year old who lives in Wyong with his parents, his brother and his sister. He’s the oldest of the bunch, and as the official setter of examples, unfortunately, that means he can’t get away with quite as much as his two younger siblings. He likes spending his time at the local mountain bike park with his friends Jamison, Hunter, Tristan and Ari. He also enjoys playing piano, guitar, and solving maths problems that are years ahead of his grade.

Let’s skip back a little. In 2022, when Kingsley was in Year 6, he was consistently achieving high marks in his Mathematics tests – a sign that the work wasn’t quite challenging enough, and that he needed something a little tougher to remain engaged and learning optimally. His Extension and Enrichment teacher – Mrs Livette – tried assessing Kingsley on a variety of higher-grade tests:

Kingsley has one of those brains that seems to be almost hard-wired for maths, so this intervention was an important one for him. To thrive, we all need to be challenged, especially when we have an aptitude that can make “normal” work tedious. Without a hint of arrogance, Kingsley knows that he has a natural flair for mathematics and he truly enjoys being challenged beyond his typical year level:

The challenges that Kingsley receives at Wyong Christian Community School have a big impact on how he feels about his education generally. He loves the school because “they provide him with lots of opportunities, especially in Maths and Music” – his two passions (when he’s not doing daredevil mountain-bike jumps).

What other opportunities does the school provide that makes Kingsley enjoy his time there so much? In addition to the extension work he completes for Maths, Mrs Livette advocates for another valuable and popular way to engage bright students: academic competitions! In Kingsley’s case, that means the APSMO Maths Olympiad, the da Vinci Decathlon, the Bebras Competition, and of course, ICAS.

These competitions provide Kingsley with the rare chance to compete against his peers academically; to really push himself and see what dizzying heights he might reach. For ICAS 2023, as you might have guessed, Kingsley did very well in Mathematics, achieving a distinction. That means he was in the top 10% of the entire country.

Here’s what Kingsley had to say about ICAS:

Again, it’s all about providing students with the chance to show us what they’re made of; to help them find and fuel those energy-boosting passions that can transform how they feel about school – no longer a dreary obligation, but a genuine pleasure. Kingsley’s mum agrees wholeheartedly:

The work that Mrs Livette is doing is passion-stoking in its finest form – the hallmark of every great extension teacher. Without these important opportunities, Kingsley’s engagement in his Mathematics classes may have quickly fallen off. Breezing through tasks might feel relaxing and confidence-boosting, but it’s far from engrossing. And for someone of Kingsley’s mathematical talent and energy, he needed more.

Credit to Mrs Livette and Wyong Christian Community School for prioritising these kinds of opportunities. They clearly want their students to be engaged and working at their academic limits; that often elusive goldilocks zone where they are fully absorbed in their work because it’s just right for their abilities – a psychological state that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called “flow.” Kingsley is incredibly grateful, which is one reason why Mrs Livette has become one of his favourite teachers.

We hope that this story has helped show the impact of providing worthy extra-curricular opportunities to students, and illustrated the wonderful influence of great teachers like Mrs Livette.

We wish Kingsley the best of luck in this year’s ICAS competition!