Friday 27th September saw teams from Garvestone, Beetley St Mary’s, Thomas Bullock, Beeston, Scarning, Mattishall, North Elmham, Yaxham and Dereham descend on Northgate for the 3rd annual Primary Team Maths Challenge. Teams of 4 made up of either Year 5 students, Year 6 students or a mix, were all set for the competition with three rounds ahead of them.
The first round was a group round which involved 10 problems teams had to solve. It was up to them how they went about this, with many teams deciding to split into pairs. The questions required careful thought and understanding of key mathematical knowledge and certainly provided a challenge. There were some great conversations going on around the questions, with lots of working out to help get to the solutions.
The second round was a logic round and appeared to be a favourite of many teams, who scored highly. Using clues, teams had to work out the order 5 clowns were standing in along with their hat, shoe and hair colour. With just 3 points separating the top four teams it was all to play for in the final round – the relay. Teams were split into pairs and took it in
turns to answer questions in the time allowed, running to their teachers each time to pick up a new question. There was a great buzz in the room as they tried quickly to solve their problem to gain as many points as possible.
As the scores were added up, certificates were handed to all participants. Everyone involved had put in a huge amount of effort and the team work on display was fantastic. Mr Darlow, Assistant Head, was on hand to reveal the top 3 schools. In 3rd place was Garvestone, 3 points ahead in 2nd was last year’s champions, Beetley, and in 1st place with a superb final round was the team from Matishall. They proudly showed off their trophy and no doubt will tell all their classmates about their success.
A big thank you to all of the schools for attending and making the event a big success, to the team of Year 9 markers and to Mrs Smith and Miss Theobald for organising.
