Thursday 27th September saw Northgate High School host the second annual Primary Team Maths Challenge. Teams of 4 mathematicians from Beetley, Dereham Church of England Junior Academy, Hockering, North Elmham, Scarning, Garvestone, Thomas Bullock and Necton descended on Northgate to see who would be crowned this year’s champions.
Mrs Smith and Miss Theobald from the Maths department welcomed all the competitors and then it was down to business. The first round was the group round. This consisted of 10 questions to complete in 30 minutes with teams able to complete them individually or as a group. These questions really tested their understanding and application of some core skills as well as communication and team work.
The second round was a logic round related to competitors in a skiing competition, with pupils using the information given to sort who came from which country, where they finished, how long they took and the colour hat they wore. This seemed to be a strong round for most of the teams with some managing to score maximum marks with time to spare.
The final round was certainly the most competitive – the relay round. Each team was split into two and seated at different parts of the room. Team A ran to get their question, completed it and got it checked by a teacher. If it was correctly they got the next question and gave to Team B, if not they had another chance to get it right. This continued for the 30 minute time limit with the potential for teams to answer up to 20 questions and gain valuable points towards their totals.
The competition was complete and it was time to add up the scores. In a hard fought competition the results were revealed. There were only 4 points separating the top 3 teams! In 3rd place – Scarning, 2nd place – Thomas Bullock and the winners for 2018 were Beetley.
Teams certainly seemed to enjoy the day and were asked what they liked about the event. They commented,
‘It was fun and exciting’
‘I liked competing against other schools’
‘They were really encouraging and supportive’
‘Brilliantly organising, good fun. We loved the relay!’
‘The friendliness’
Congratulations to all the teams who took part – there was some fantastic Maths and teamwork on display.
