Brennan

A BH Neumann Award was presented to Edward Robert (Ted) Brennan at the Quay West Hotel, Brisbane, on Friday 09 May 2003.

Ted receives his award from Professor Peter Taylor, Executive Director of the Trust.

Ted with (from left) daughter Alison, wife Judith, son James and Peter Taylor.

Citation

Ted Brennan creates a first in the BH Neumann Awards by being the first moderator of a competition paper to win it.

Ted has not just been a moderator. In fact he was one of the earliest moderators of the Australian Mathematics Competition for the Westpac Awards and has continued as such through its 25 years.

He was recruited to be an AMC Moderator late in 1978 by Peter O'Halloran when he visited Brisbane State High School to interview a sample of successful students in the first AMC held that year.

I have been Problems Committee Chairman during much of that period and the other Chairman, Warren Atkins (who is here tonight) would also testify to the legendary status achieved by Ted's reports.

Moderators are provided each year with the questions only, are asked to solve them and comment on suitability of problems within their state. Beautifully written and presented, every year Ted has provided complete, where possible solutions of his own and profound insights into the suitability of each problem. Ted's comments, which surely take many hours every year to write, have become the yardstick of the committee's deliberations.

Ted's prime claim to this award is through his contributions as outlined above. But he also has many other claims, and he is a model of his profession in showing extraordinary service to education, education in the public system in Queensland and mathematics education in particular.

Let us go over a little of his career. He was born shortly after the war in Bundaberg but grew up in Brisbane.

He completed his secondary education at Mitchelton High School which in the early 1960s was effectively an area school for students in the North-West of Brisbane.

He particularly valued the influence of several Mathematics teachers there who gave him an appreciation of Mathematical rigour, the nature of proof and strategies for solving problems. He also enjoyed the stimulation of studying with a good number of able students.

He completed a B.Sc. at the University of Queensland, taking Pure, Applied and Statistical Mathematics all to Third Year level. He valued the high quality of the teaching in the University of Queensland Mathematics Department. He then completed a Dip Ed, did some tutoring of First Year Pure Mathematics classes during his last two years at University, and later, while teaching, completed an Education Degree majoring in History of Education.

He is especially grateful for the value his parents placed on education and for their determination, despite limited means, to ensure that their four children all had a tertiary education.

After teaching at Warwick and Kelvin Grove High Schools he was appointed joint Head of the Mathematics Department at Brisbane State High School in 1977. Brisbane State High had 1900 students and is the oldest government secondary school in the city. It is a member of the GPS Sporting Associations. It is selective in academic, sporting and cultural spheres.

At "State High" he had the privilege of working with many experienced and highly committed teachers who worked hard for the school six days per week year in and year out. From them he learnt a good deal about effective classroom teaching and the importance of striving for excellence in all aspects of school life. He enjoyed running a large Maths Department and the challenge of seeking to maintain academic standards in the early years after the abolition of External Public Examinations for most students in Queensland.

He had the opportunity of teaching quite a number of outstanding students, some of whom did very well in the AMC and other enrichment activities.

He was also heavily involved in the coaching and organisation of school cricket and debating.

Towards the end of his ten years at State High he had a couple of spells as an Acting Deputy Principal.

He was appointed a Deputy Principal of Wavell High School in the northern suburbs of Brisbane in 1987 and is still there! He has been acting Principal on a number of occasions.

He continues to teach Mathematics to Matriculation level and thoroughly enjoys doing so. He believes that as far as possible every school administrator should teach - the stimulation of classroom teaching helps keep the purpose of the school in perspective. He is particularly committed to effective school organisation as a foundation for producing good student results and has written a book on school timetabling.

He was involved for 14 years in the process of setting the External Senior Mathematics I papers for what is now the Queensland Studies Authority; firstly as an Assessor (like an AMC Moderator), then as Assistant Chief Examiner for four years and as Chief Examiner 1996 - 1998.

Peter Taylor

09 May 2003