Anna adds maths class to Hervey Bay holiday

It was quite a change for Anna Parker to hear a teacher speak in English when she attended a holiday maths class at USQ Fraser Coast recently.

The 15-year-old St Marys College student recently returned from 10 months in Japan where she attended Japanese schools. She took part in an Australian Institute of International Understanding (AIIU) exchange program.

'I have studied Japanese since I was 11 and I fell in love with the culture and language,' Anna said.

'I lived in Fukushima with five families. It was good to see what life was like in a range of different lifestyles.'

Anna coped well with school in a foreign country.

'Obviously it was hard to understand everything,' she said.

'But the maths wasn’t too difficult. In Japan the students start to learn trigonometry in Year 11 but I had already done some.

'However, most of the year it was algebra.'

Anna was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend the USQ Fraser Coast Success in Maths B classes to brush up on her skills.

The workshops are run in January each year by USQ Fraser Coast Mathematics lecturer John Murray. Almost 40 students from the region are attended the four days of classes.

Mr Murray said a few of the students may have had been coerced into attending by their parents, but not Anna.

She admits that although maths is not her favourite subject she can do it if she sets her mind to it – and she is good at it too.

'As I have been away for so long this is giving me the opportunity to prepare for year 11,' she said.

'And my family is having a holiday in Hervey Bay while I attend these classes.'