Queen Elizabeth’s School came seventh out of 70 schools competing in the national finals of the prestigious Team Maths Challenge. It was the first time that a QE team had reached the national round of the competition, which is organised by the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust.
Captain Nigethan Sathiyalingam and his fellow team members, Shane Mahen, Gabriel Gendler and Madhi Elango, had previously seen off 35 other teams to win outright at the regional final held at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girls’ School earlier in the Summer Term.
Congratulating the Year 8/9 team on their success, Mathematics teacher Wendy Fung said: “This competition provides an in-depth test of students’ mathematical knowledge and ability, so it is a tremendous achievement to have achieved a top-ten place from among schools across the whole country.”
The national finals took place at the Camden Centre in London and involved top-scoring teams from all the regional finals. Among the exercises that the entrants had to tackle during the competition were:
- Crossnumber – similar to a crossword, but with numerical answers
- Head-to-head – participants paired against an opponent and competed to be the first to answer questions
- Group competition – teams worked on ten questions, working in pairs, individually or together as they prefer
- Poster competition (national final only) – teams were sent information in advance about a topic for research and investigation.
At the final, they made a poster incorporating materials that they had prepared while addressing related questions given out on the day.
All participants in the national final received a certificate and ‘goody bag’.