“He would quite happily count up the different numbers while we were going up floors on a lift,and then would add different numbers together,” his mother Kellie Phillips said.
Ethan Phillips,aged 13 and nine months,is studying Advanced Mathematics and Extension 1 for the HSCJames Alcock
But his parents didn’t realise the extent of his gift until they were taken aside by his preschool teacher and told his abilities were out of the ordinary.
The 13-year-old Caringbah High School student is this year completing Advanced Mathematics and Extension 1 Mathematics,making him the youngest HSC candidate in the state.
“It’s been an amazing thing to realise the stuff that he’s achieving and the amazing opportunities he’s had,” Kellie said.
“The HSC is before him but he’s already achieved a lot to get to this stage.”
Ethan,who took year 11 maths last year,said the jump to year 12 was not too challenging from an academic perspective. But he has had to get used to working with students older than he is.
“Those students are pretty much adults,they are pretty much independent - they have much more of a life outside of school,” Ethan said.
“There’s not that much of a common ground to talk about. But absolutely they are all really nice.”
He’s well known around the school thanks to his academic talents,but Ethan wants to be known as more than just the kid who’s good at maths. His biggest passions include computer programming and art.
Ethan knows most people expect he will do something maths related when he leaves high school,but he is also focused on finding something he loves.
“Instead of doing something that’s directly maths I was thinking a bit more about programming,” he said.
“I do enjoy maths but also enjoy programming and you need to be able to do something that you enjoy,not just that you’re good at.”
Caringbah High School principal Alan Maclean said Ethan was the youngest HSC student with whom he had ever worked.
The selective school came up with an acceleration plan for Ethan when he started in year 7,after being told he had taken high school classes in primary school.
Maclean said Ethan’s fellow HSC students were in awe of his abilities at such a young age.
“He has a wonderful mathematical intellect,” he said. “When I speak to him,he’s really not so much interested in marks but in carrying on maths learning at his own pace.
“He just loves it. There’s no sense of arrogance or specialness,he just really appreciates the opportunity that was given to him.”
Ethan encouraged other students to push themselves and try more advanced maths if they were not feeling challenged in their current year.
“They honestly might surprise themselves about how much they could learn,” he said.
