SA's Top Achievers in Mathematics for 2021
9 November 2021
Western Cape learners raked in the awards when the South African Mathematics Foundation (SAMF) announced the Top Achievers in its flagship learner development programmes.
Emmanuel Rassou, a Grade 11 learner from the South African College High School, received a gold medal and was declared the overall winner of the senior division of the Old Mutual South African Mathematics Olympiad (SAMO).
Simon Oosthuizen of Westerford High School was named the SAMO best junior learner in Quintile 5.
The overall top performing schools for the SAMO and SAMC respectively were Bischops Diocesan College and Sweet Valley Primary School.
Rustenburg Girls High School in Rondebosch received a SAMO award as one of the top performing schools in Quintile 5.
Olivia Castleden and Jonathan Coolen of Somerset House Preparatory School were gold medalists for the SAMC Junior Division.
SAMC Junior Silver Medalists were Tommo Kruger (Deutsche International Schule Kapstadt), Joel Lee (Sweet Valley Primary School), Daniel Nejthardt (South African College Junior School), Noreht Nieuwoudt (Laerskool Eikestad) and Michael Tian, (Redhill Preparatory School).
The following learners were amongst the SAMC Senior Top Ten winners:
Zac Botha and Luca Caronti of Sweet Valley Primary, Jean de Vries (Kenridge Primary), Chris de Wit (Gene Louw Primary), Jeremy Liddle (Western Cape Preparatory School), Ben Maree (Rondebosch Boys' Preparatory School) and Noah Rassou (The Grove Primary).
Amongst the SAMO Junior Top 10 Winners were Simon Oosthuizen of Westerford High in seventh position, Soyeon Lee of Reddam House, Durbanville in third, Tenjun Liu of American International School of Cape Town in second and Youkyum Kim of Reddam House, Durbanville in first place.
A total of six learners were amongst the SAMO Senior Top 10 winners.
EMannuel Rasso of SACS took first place followed by Julliette Roux of Herschel Girls' High School in second place. Fifth position went to Alex Sinclair-Smith of Westerford High, Benjamin Kleyn of Hoërskool Parel Vallei in7th position, Minkyum Kim of Reddam House, Durbanville in 8th place and Kerry Porrill of Cannons Creek High School in 10th place.
Congratulations to all our Western Cape winners!
Prof Kerstin Jordaan, the executive director of the SAMF, was delighted with this year's performance. "Despite the many challenges brought about by the COVID-19 restrictions and subsequent lockdowns throughout the year, the 2021 results show that there are still dedicated teachers in South Africa who have the skills and experience to teach mathematics. As an organisation, we aim to continue with our various teacher development programmes in 2022 and believe that the results will be visible at next year's Annual Awards Function.
The Old Mutual South African Mathematics Olympiad and the NESTLÉ NESPRAY South African Mathematics Challenge are SAMF's flagship learner development programmes. Entries for the 2022 programmes open in early January 2022. For more information, e-mail info@samf.ac.za.