SENIOR MATHS CHALLENGE

Once again all pupils in Years 7 to 11 took part in the UK Maths Challenge together with Sixth Form students studying mathematics. Sixth Form pupils take part in the SENIOR CHALLENGE and compete on a national basis against pupils from other schools. The challenge is fiendishly difficult and competition fierce.  Five pupils did particularly well and achieved a Gold Certificate. They are

                        STEPHEN ASHTON

                        BEN BISWELL

                        HESAM AHMADI

                        AJIT LALL

                        BEN SHIELDS

In total 61 pupils from the Sixth Form achieved a Gold, Silver or Bronze Award.

INTERMEDIATE MATHS CHALLENGE

Pupils in Years 9-11 pitted their wits against 202,238 pupils from other schools. Only 15 pupils nationwide managed to answer every question correctly.

Our lads managed to give a good account of themselves and managed in total to achieve 26 Gold, 66 Silver and 89 Bronze awards.

What is particularly pleasing is that 16 pupils did well enough to proceed to the next round.

The follow on rounds cause confusion with their weird names such as Pink and Grey Kangaroo, IMOK Cayley, IMOK Hamilton and IMOK Maclaurin. A brief explanation follows:

Entry to these rounds is by invitation and works as follows.

KANGAROO PAPERS

GREY KANGAROO                                Pupils in Y9 scoring 78 or above 

PINK KANGAROO                                  Pupils in Y10 or 11 scoring 86 or above

OLYMPIAD PAPERS

IMOK CAYLEY                                      Y9 pupils scoring 90 or above

IMOK HAMILTON                                   Y10 pupils scoring 97 or above

IMOK MACLAURIN                                Y11 pupils scoring 103 or above

The Kangaroo is given this name because the competition was first started in Australia. Cayley, Hamilton and Maclaurin are of course famous mathematicians.

Below is a list of qualifiers for the second rounds of the Intermediate Challenge

BEST IN SCHOOL: ANDREW STEWART (Y 10)

PINK KANGAROO QUALIFIERS (Y11)

MOHAMMED SULEMAN

STEVEN SOOBOODOO

MICHAEL BROWNE

JAMES BALL

BEN HALL

BEN SOWDEN

PINK KANGAROO QUALIFIER (Y10)

JAMES HENDERSON

GREY KANGAROO QUALIFIER (Y9)

THOMAS WAINFORD

JONATHAN MAYO

JOSEPH WILLIAMSON

PATRICK CHEA

CHRIS MANN

RYAN DANSIE

IMOK HAMILTON OLYMPIAD (Y10)

ANDREW STEWART

SAMMY EL BAHRAWY

RITESH RAVAL

OLYMPIAD RESULTS:

SAMMY EL-BAHRAWY was awarded a distinction and ANDREW STEWART a merit.

KANGAROO RESULTS:

Jonathan Mayo and Joseph Williamson were awarded merits in the Grey Kangaroo and Benjamin Hall and Jamie Ball were awarded merits in the Pink Kangaroo.

JUNIOR CHALLENGE

Pupils in Y7 and Y8 took part in the UK Junior Maths Challenge in April 2007. Y7 gained a total of 17 Gold Awards 30 Silver and 28 Bronze. Y 8 achieved 24 Gold, 30 Silver and 29 Bronze.

The top scorer in Y8 was Tom Hornsey and in Y7 there Dhruv Bhanotha and Stephen Silverstone tied for first place.

Sample question from a Senior Maths Challenge Paper:

The four statements below refer to a mother and her four daughters. One statement is true, three statements are false. Who is the mother?

Alice is the mother.

Carol and Ella are both daughters.

Beth is the mother.

One of Alice, Diane or Ella is the mother.

A  Alice             B Beth C Carol             D Diane E Ella

Solution

The correct answer is E.

This is how to do it. Number the four statements in order from the top. If Alice is the mother, then statements 1 and 4 are both true. If Beth is the mother, then statements 2 and 3 are both true. If Carol is the mother, then all four statements are false. If Diane is the mother, then statements 2 and 4 are both true. However if Ella is the mother then statements 1, 2 and 3 are false and statement 4 is true, as required.