Young Minds Excel in Primary Maths Challenge
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On the penultimate week of term, primary schools from across Inspiration Trust came together to compete in the annual Primary Maths Challenge in Norwich at the Inspiration Trust Centre for Education, based at Hewett Academy.
The morning tasks for our budding mathematicians included a maths relay race and a team challenge. These consisted of a variety of problem-solving questions where solutions from one part of the problem were used by other pupils in the next question; the pressure was on for everyone to get their problem right!
The padlock challenge followed just before break, and was a highlight of the day with pupils racing against the clock to solve problems. If they managed to get the answers (to some extremely tricky questions!), they had the chance to unlock a padlock which held a star - worth bonus points for their academy teams. This challenge saw lots of academies approach the padlocks with their answers, with only the quickest pupils having a chance to win bonus points for their teams.
It was amazing to see so many pupils working together to solve maths problems, with pupils from years 3-6 taking part in the activities and supporting each other throughout the day.
In the afternoon, pupils took part in the ‘Nicola’s Jigsaw’ challenge, where pupils were tasked to find the missing piece in a 3D jigsaw. In total 7 different pieces could be made and the teams worked together to find them all. The jigsaw challenge was followed by the Eliminator task which saw pupils compete in a head-to-head competition, answering maths questions against the clock in their separate year groups. This intense challenge pitted pupils against each other in an endurance round answering maths problems from across the curriculum. Rounds got harder as they progressed with finalists facing very difficult questions under strict time limits. A winner was crowned from each year group, presented with prizes for their fantastic efforts at the end of the day.
Nicola Coe, Director of Maths at Inspiration Trust said;
“It is such a privilege to see the delight on pupils’ faces when they work together to solve the challenges. We are fortunate as a Trust to have such dedicated teachers who support their pupils to get involved. My thanks, as always, go to the Maths Central Team who make days like this possible through their hard work and dedication.”
The final challenge of the day was the practical challenge, seeing pupils work together in a live game of ‘Guess Who’ where pupils played the part of the characters. Teachers modelled successful ways to answers problems as a group without the need to speak, and then pupils were nominated to take the place of the teacher and compete for the most points.
Tom Marjoram, Maths Outreach Lead said:
“It was great to bring the primary maths challenge back this year even bigger and better than last year. The students were fantastic throughout the day and there was so much enthusiasm on show for maths. It was brilliant to see all of the teams work together and support each other throughout the day.“
The day concluded with a prize-giving ceremony for the winners, including rewards from 4th to 1st place, as well as individual awards for the winners of the eliminator rounds.
1. Stradbroke Academy
2. Charles Darwin 2
3. Cobholm Primary Academy
4. Charles Darwin 1
