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.”