Jett spends HSC maths visualising his answers. He is Mosman High’s dux

1 week ago 3

Seven hours. That’s how long Jett Thompson has to complete his HSC mathematics extension 2 exam.

While students around him furiously scribble their working out on a piece of paper within their three-hour time limit, the legally blind Mosman High School student will stare ahead, complex calculations happening inside his mind.

For Jett, maths is a puzzle that just makes sense.

“There is no ambiguity in maths,” he said. “That works well in the way I think. As I read the questions I imagine the equation in my mind’s eye … I can solve it by moving things around in that imagined area.”

Jett Thompson, the dux of Mosman High School, studying for his HSC exams.

His calculator speaks to him, reading out the numbers and he writes his answers with a brailler. It has been this way since Jett was eight years old and suddenly lost his vision.

“I fell down the stairs one time because my vision had started to deteriorate, and I hadn’t noticed. We booked an appointment with the optometrist, thinking I would need glasses or something basic, but they said we have to go straight to hospital,” he said.

Scans revealed a brain tumour. He was operated on the next day and, when he woke up, his eyesight was gone.

School changed for Jett after he lost his vision. No longer able to easily play sport or video games, he poured himself into his academic work.

“I think because it was one of the few things I still could do easily, without vision. School really became more important,” he said.

“I wanted to prove to myself that I could still do things, and I wasn’t defined by my vision, partly because I was in denial, but also because of the stereotype that I might not be able to do things any more, that I might not be able to do well at school.

“I wanted to disprove that both for myself, and for anyone else.”

And so he did, learning to touch-type, navigate screen readers and assistive technology. When he was in year five, Jett successfully applied for a scholarship to attend a space camp for visually impaired students, travelling to the United States.

Now 18, Jett is the dux of his school, shining in his high-pressure subjects: four units of maths, English advanced, software engineering and chemistry.

Every subject comes with its own challenges. In English, one of his prescribed texts was a film. “That was a bit tricky,” he laughed.

“I have to do more work to find out what is in the film, I do sometimes get frustrated about that sort of thing, but mostly I figure there’s nothing I can really do about it except try to make it work as best I can.”

In chemistry, he relies on tactile diagrams: raised pieces of paper, which he reads by holding. His maths exam is completely in braille, necessitating its seven-hour run time.

Jett’s vision support teacher Margaret Allan, who has been by his side since he lost his vision, described the year 12 student as “24-carat gold, in every way”.

“The early days were very, very challenging,” said Allan.

Jett “begrudgingly” learnt braille – a “brick wall” of a task, according to Allan – after realising it was the only way to stay connected to his passion of mathematics. While he is confident with braille, most of his work occurs in his mind, she said.

“His ability to figure, to compute in his head is, like, truly exceptional,” Allan said. “It is really out of this world.”

What is simple for Jett is incredible to those around him.

“There are vision-impaired students who do the HSC every year,” Allan said. “But what’s really quite exceptional about Jett is that they don’t tend to do the subjects that he’s doing, and they certainly don’t tend to excel in those subjects.”

Mosman High School principal Susan Wyatt said Jett was an “exceptional student”.

“His extension 2 maths teacher would set tests so much harder than normal, to challenge Jett,” she said, noting the same teacher learnt braille to help support him in his studies.

Meanwhile, Jett has made his own efforts to improve the HSC’s accessibility.

“There was no braille chemistry data set, so Jett wrote one and forwarded it through to NESA. They accepted it, it can now be used by other vision-impaired students in the future,” Wyatt said.

Over the past five years, between 10 and 15 per cent of HSC students have applied for exam provisions. Jett said he wanted students in this category to know success is possible.

“Having disability definitely makes it harder. But I think if you’re good academically, it shouldn’t really stop you,” he said.

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