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The sixth-formers helping QE’s youngest pupils at the Year 7 Maths Fair were the first generation to have taken part in the competition themselves.

Now in its sixth year, the House challenge features a morning of activities designed to stretch the Year 7 boys’ mathematical abilities. It was inspired by the UK Mathematics Trust’s Team Maths Challenge events.

The winners for 2017-2018 were Broughton House, with 837 points, followed by Pearce with 825 and Stapylton with 805. Broughton were subsequently presented with the trophy, the Scarisbrick Shield, in assembly. The shield is named after former Head of Mathematics, Fauziah (Gee) Scarisbrick MBE.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said: “Each team was supervised by a Year 12 Further Maths student and it was a great opportunity for these sixth-formers to interact with Year 7, whether they were supervising a team or helping with the logistics of running the event: we couldn’t have done it without their help.” She pointed out that the Year 12 boys had themselves been participants in the inaugural Maths Fair, back in 2013.

The boys took part in a carousel of activities – some were more familiar mathematical problem-solving activities (A Question of Maths) and others more practical (Tangrams). Then, all teams took part in the Relay, which combines speed in movement about the room and speed in solving a maths problem.

“The idea is to show boys that mathematical problems come in many different formats as well as to help them to develop team-working skills,” said Miss Fung.

Year 7 Broughton pupil Aradhya Singh spoke of his happiness at his House’s victory, adding: “We hope that Broughton can win it again next year.”

All six Houses were also required to create a poster entitled What is Mathematics? Each of the teams within each House had to create part of the poster and was asked to prepare in advance by coordinating the different sections so that their poster would encompass the many facets of the subject.

The award for best poster went to Staplyton; it was put on display afterwards in the Mathematics department.

Siddarth Sridharth said: “We’re really happy to have won the poster competition and that our efforts paid off,” while fellow Stapylton House member Yash Patel added: “We spent a lot of time discussing how to show Maths in the best possible way.”

Boys in Year 8 pitted their talents against each other in a competitive Dragons’ Den-style challenge, first designing an innovative product and then pitching it at the end of the day.

The event, held as part of the School’s Enrichment Week, aimed to get boys using skills in the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).

They had to design a product to solve a real-world problem, while also considering their marketing and business proposition. To create their prototypes, the participants were allocated a budget which they could use to buy the basic materials (such as card, tape and wooden sticks) from a ‘market’ in the hall.

Headmaster Neil Enright said: “This event encompassed problem-solving and combining knowledge of science, product design, technology, finance and business acumen to come up with a new product that was a practical proposition – and all in the space of a day. The boys successfully produced some very interesting and promising proposals.”

All boys in Year 8 took part in the challenge, which was split across two days. It was led by Simon Kettle, Executive Director of STEMworks, a not-for-profit company dedicated to promoting STEM. Simon also judged the boys’ projects.

Afterwards, Simon said: “The students were given the opportunity to design and develop ideas that use some new, cutting-edge technologies. I talked through a few new materials and the associated technology – and the students did the rest. They came up with a wide range of new product ideas, with the best being presented in the Dragons’ Den.”

The winners’ product on the first day, which they named SOLAcharge, used small portable solar panels to charge a mobile phone. The second-day winners designed Simon’s particular favourite – SafeSensors, a sports helmet which not only protected the head but also had built-in impact sensors that could notify the team coach or doctor of any impact that would require a player to be treated or substituted (in cases of concussion, for example).

Other ideas included mobile phones with in-built smoke alarms, smart baths (that would self-regulate temperature and could not over-fill), and even a helmet capable of styling the wearer’s hair!

A team of Year 9 QE mathematicians have come second in the final of a national competition that attracted entries from more than 150 teams from across the UK.

The team, named Perpetual Motion Squad, was one of three QE teams among the 13 who reached the final of the Edge Hill University Mathematics Challenge, which was held at Ormskirk in West Lancashire. Six QE teams had previously qualified for the second round of the competition.

The boys were accompanied to the final by Mathematics teachers Joelle Simpson and Michael Smith. “They had a very early start but used the journey to good effect to put the finishing touches to their presentation,” said Mrs Simpson. “All the boys did exceptionally well to reach the final. The judges were particularly impressed with the Perpetual Motion Squad, as the team had come up with a solution to the problem which had not been previously considered.”

Team members Abishek Balajee, Joshua Bonafe, Siddhant Kansal, Manav Khindri and Filip Olszewski spoke afterwards of their pride in securing the runners-up spot.

The competition provides pupils with an opportunity to tackle engaging mathematical activities while developing teamwork and communication skills. Participants also had to think about ways of integrating ICT within Mathematics and to develop problem-solving skills.

In the two qualifying rounds, the boys had to produce posters showing solutions to a given problems. Round 1 offered a choice between a problem involving factors and another involving calculation. The second round gave a choice between a geometry problem and a speed/distance problem.

At the final, teams had to present their solution to a panel of three judges. Each team had 15 minutes to display their poster and make their presentation.

In their discussions with the finalists, competition judges were looking for evidence of:

• Clear and accurate solutions
• Good display of mathematical and problem-solving skills
• Critical comparison of alternative approaches
• Original and imaginative presentation of the solutions
• Evidence of teamwork and communication between team members
• Evidence of the use of ICT.

Team πr NOT2 comprised Athiyan Chandramohan, Nirmay Jadhav, Ansh Jaiswal, Jay Patel and Thilakshan Thayalan, who said they had developed their teamwork, organisation and communication skills throughout the competition.

Beuran Kannan, Heshanth Mogendram, Arvind Raghu, Vineeth Rajan and Dharun Srirathan made up Team Mathsala. In their feedback, they said they found the project fun as it consisted of geometry, CAD design and programming which was very interesting for all of them.

Four QE boys acquitted themselves very well at the finals of a national Mathematics team competition.

Having first reached the Team Maths Challenge national final by winning their regional heat in March, this year’s entrants built on recent successes by QE, improving on last year’s 17th place by coming 11th out of the 88 finalists. The team, which was drawn from Years 8 and 9, achieved a score of 182 points out of 232.

The UK Mathematics Trust event included a round devoted to Leonhard Euler. Born in Basel, Switzerland, Euler is considered one of the 18th century’s most pre-eminent mathematicians and is known as the ‘father of graph theory’. He notably used graphs when he presented and solved the famous Seven Bridges of Königsberg Problem, demonstrating that it was impossible to devise a journey that would cross all seven bridges in the Prussian city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad in Russia) only once. Euler also studied topics including number theory, combinatorics (an area of Mathematics concerned primarily with counting), geometry, mathematical analysis, as well as mechanics, fluid theory and music theory.

The team had won the regional heat in March, thus qualifying, for the national final of the competition at the Royal Horticultural Halls. The overall winner at the challenge was Westminster Under School.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said: “The boys did very well; to reach the National Final is an incredible achievement in itself, as 1,742 teams entered this year’s event.”

In addition to the poster round focusing on Euler, there were the following activity rounds:

• Group circus, which involved working on practical Mathematics problems
• Relay race – a combination of speed across the room and speed at solving problems
• Cross-number challenge, similar to a crossword, but with numbers
• Shuttle, which is a series of mini-relays against the clock.

Calculators were not permitted.

Team captain, Shimaq-Ahamed Sakeel Mohamed, of Year 9, took part alongside Bhunit Santhiramoulesan and Agrim Sharma, of Year 8, and Dan Suciu, of Year 9. Shimaq-Ahamed said: “We had a great day at the challenge and really enjoyed working as a team.”

A record total of 14 local schools took part in this year’s QE Primary Challenge Day.

Now in its fourth year, the event features a range of enjoyable and stimulating activities focused on English and Mathematics, with competition rounds adding a little friendly inter-school rivalry to the mix.

QE Headmaster Neil Enright said: “We enjoy maintaining close links with local primary schools and this was a great opportunity to host a large number of their pupils and staff for this day of enrichment activities designed to stretch and challenge the children participating.”

Assistant Head Michael Taylor started proceedings, welcoming the primary school children and encouraging them to enjoy their day.

The competition rounds included interactive games and tasks comprising a spelling competition, a limerick-writing challenge, number puzzles and logic problems. Teachers Greg Lee and Marco Saccardi, of the Mathematics Department, and Robbie Hyland and Alex Ulyet, from English, each ran one of the rounds and enjoyed chatting to the participants.

The winning primary schools in the various rounds were as follows:
• Limerick-writing: Livingstone
• Logic: Christ Church
• Spelling bee: Underhill
• Crossnumber puzzles: Monken Hadley.

The overall winners were the children of Christ Church, with St John’s N20 coming second and Northside in third place. Elena Print, Headteacher of Christ Church, said later: “They had a fabulous time and came back full of excitement, and enthusiastic to tell us all about it!”

Mr Enright presented the winners with their certificates at the end of the event, congratulating all participants.

Each primary school team was accompanied by a QE Year 7 pupil who spent the whole morning looking after that team. Organiser Wendy Fung, who is QE’s Assistant Head of Mathematics, said: “I was very grateful for their help in ensuring that the Year 5s felt at home and for supporting their teams so enthusiastically.”

All boys in Years 7 & 8 took part in this year’s Junior Maths Challenge – and the overwhelming majority took gold, silver or bronze for their performance.

In total, some 341 of the QE entrants won certificates – a significant increase on last year’s tally of 279 – with 154 achieving gold and a further 120 taking silver and 67 gaining bronze. Nationally, it is only the top 40% of pupils who receive gold, silver and bronze certificates, which are given in the ratio 1:2:3.

As a result of their performances in the Challenge, 21 boys this year have qualified for the Junior Mathematical Olympiad competition and a further 95 have qualified for the other follow-on round, known as the Junior Kangaroo. Around 1,200 of the highest scorers nationally are invited to take part in the Olympiad.

Assistant Head of Mathematics Wendy Fung said: “We are delighted with how well the boys have done and look forward to the results of the Olympiad and Kangaroo. Much of the success among the Year 8 boys stems from the excellent guidance and help given to them at our Junior Élite Maths group by mentors from Years 10 and 11.”

Best in School certificates went to Maxwell Johnson, of Year 7, and Yash Makwana, of Year 8, who achieved identical scores of 130 out of a possible 135 in the UK Mathematics Trust competition.

“I’m incredibly pleased with my result and would like to thank my Élite Maths Mentor, Vincent Tang [of Year 11], for helping me to learn how to go about Maths Challenge questions,” said Yash.

Having achieved such signal success at the first attempt in the Challenge, Maxwell said he is now “looking forward to trying the Olympiad”.