Beazley Medals: Ethan Yap and Kevin Castle scoop WA’s top high school accolades

“Is this a prank?” That was the first thing Ethan Yap said on finding out he was WA’s best student for all-round academic achievement. The 17-year-old Perth Modern School graduate was presented with the State’s top high-school prize, the Beazley Medal, on Wednesday for blitzing his Year 12 exams, attaining the highest marks across five subjects. Ethan’s win marks the eighth time WA’s only academically-selective school has scooped the award. The Beazley Medal for vocational achievement also went to a public school graduate, Kevin Castle, 18, from Kent Street Senior High School. School Curriculum and Standards Authority chief executive Juanita Healy said the phone calls she made on Friday to tell the two graduates about their success were the best she’d made all year. In both cases, their mums took the call before putting their sons on the line. “With Ethan, after I think a little bit of silence, he then said to me ‘is this a prank?’” she said. “The first thing Kevin said to me was ‘are you sure?’, and then had the good grace to ask me to thank the interview panel. “So whilst both of them are outstanding, they’re also very humble, and it was probably the best moment of my year.” Ethan, a maths whiz who also won a Subject Exhibition for topping the State in physics, said his immediate reaction had been “complete disbelief”, but he was “overjoyed” to be named WA’s best student. “It’s really good to see some of my hard work pay off, but I was also definitely not expecting it either,” he said. The Perth Modern dux also studied maths methods, maths specialist, economics, chemistry, Japanese and literature. Ethan’s proud parents first realised their only child was “obsessed with numbers” when he was just three years old. “I had started teaching him numbers after he got the alphabet,” his father, ear nose and throat surgeon Yoke Yeow Yap, said. “Once he got that it was a series, he wanted to know what comes after nine, so I taught him the number system. “So he got on the whiteboard and started going, and after a few days he had reached about 7000 on his own. And then he figured out the multiplication table.” Ethan’s mother, GP Joan Kong, said writing out numbers became the first thing he did as a toddler every morning. Later, his favourite game was squaring numbers off the top of his head. “We realised we’re just there to create the environment for him and give him the opportunities he needed,” Dr Yap said. Growing up in Malaysia, Ethan had already finished primary school when the family moved to WA when he was in Year 6. But he went to Aubin Grove Primary School in Perth’s south for a year to get used to Aussie culture before winning a Year 7 place at Perth Modern — travelling up to two hours a day on the train for six years of high school. His Year 6 teacher, Emanuel Ribeiro, who Ethan invited to the awards ceremony, said he could tell “straight away” that his new student was one of the smartest he’d ever taught. “He must have been bored in my class,” he joked. Despite both his parents being doctors, Ethan has no plans to follow them into the medical field. “I’m hoping to study mathematics and computer science, either at Australian National University or University of Melbourne,” he said. “For me, at least, mathematics is really interesting, because there’s so many areas to explore. “I’m not entirely sure if I want to do academia in the future, but I’d definitely like to pursue some research in university.” He did not believe his study regimen had been over the top. “I tried to study in blocks, rather than trying to do one whole slog,” he said. “I always had a weekly plan and I had a daily plan.” “By separating into short, 45-minute blocks, I could get everything done, and that helped me stay mostly sane for the study period.” In his down time, he played badminton, tinkered on the piano, or went running. He also volunteered to tutor younger students in maths. And now that Year 12 is over, he is practising life skills including cooking and driving. “I’m not so good at driving,” he laughed. “My Mum always tells me to stop trying to calculate the forces on the car and keep my eyes on the roundabout.” Top vocational education and training student Kevin said he was “shell shocked” on learning he’d won the coveted award as well as a VET exhibition for automotive, engineering and logistics after completing a certificate II in aeroskills. The aspiring aircraft mechanic, who was part of Kent Street SHS’ specialist aviation program, dreams of working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. “It will be absolutely amazing if I’m able to become an apprentice aircraft mechanic with them,” he said. “And that truly is my goal for the future.” His simple advice to other students was to always make sure they did their best. “Even if you don’t like the work, if it’s boring, if you don’t like the subject, always make sure you submit the work to the absolute best you can,” he said. The Beazley Medal is named after Kim Edward Beazley, a former teacher and federal education minister in the 1970s. Education Department director-general Jay Peckitt agreed the awards were a feather in the cap for public education. “It’s a great thing to see public education up there for both Beazley Medals and we’re tremendously excited and thrilled,” he said.