This term, Miss O’Connor in our senior Maths department has been keeping local primary school mathematicians busy with her newly-launched NHEHS MathsWhizz challenges.

The MathsWhizz challenges are unusual problems set each week to get students seeing Maths in the world around us. The challenges are uploaded to the junior school firefly and sent out in the Junior newsletter each week as well as being sent to all the primary schools in Ealing which registered their interest. The aim was to get  Year 3-6 primary school students throughout Ealing competing with each other and enjoying Maths in the unusual circumstances we find ourselves in. 

 What gave Miss O’Connor the idea for doing it? How have they been received?

“A colleague and I were discussing ways we could reach out to our students and those in other schools during lockdown. The secondary school cipher club and I had been organising an event to invite primary schools to visit in the summer term but this obviously would no longer be able to go ahead, so we decided to launch the MathsWhizz challenge.

Feedback has been very positive from the junior school students who are contacting me directly saying they’ve had a lot of fun taking part. The teachers in charge of Maths in local primary schools have also been thanking us for sending them out and that their students have also been really enjoying them.”

Which has been the most fun challenge so far?

“I think I have been the most impressed with the symmetrical artwork challenge. Students were very creative with this, with some designs done on a computer, others half printed and half copied images, some hand drawn and some paper cuttings. Creating the paper structure was also popular and successful as students realised just how strong 10 sheets of paper and some sellotape can be. One student even stood on his! “

Has anything surprised you with the entries so far?

“The surprising entry for me so far was in challenge 4, when I asked students to create an overhang off the edge of table. Nikita in our Year 4 group managed a very impressive 272 cm with a very creative choice of objects from around the house. It was not at all as I expected as I had intended for students to stack books that lent over the edge.”

Other challenges have included reciting prime numbers and using symmetry creatively.

Details of this week’s challenge can be found on Twitter here. Good luck to everyone taking part!