Enriched and Inspired A level Mathematicians

A variety of opportunities beyond the curriculum (Maths - 10/11/2024)

Our sixth form mathematicians had the opportunity to prove their problem-solving skills in the 2024 UKMT Senior Maths Challenge early in October. Of the 75 participants, seven achieved Gold certificates, twenty-seven achieved Silver certificates and twenty-six achieved Bronze certificates. This year saw a special achievement from Kenneth, achieving gold and qualifying for the Olympiad – all the more impressive as he is still in year 11. Earlier in September two year 12 and two year 13 girls were invited to participate in the Maths Olympiad for Girls - a competition designed to attract more female students into studying undergraduate mathematics. We are very proud that Harriet from year 12 achieved a merit certificate and Florence from year 13 achieved a distinction. Florence is applying to study maths at University in September 2025.

A number of our students have signed up as teams participating in the MEI 2024 national Ritangle competition. This involves a weekly challenge question over a ten-week period, ultimately leading to one team being declared the national champions.

In November twenty-five of our year 12 students head to Nottingham Playhouse for the Maths Inspiration show hosted by Sammie Buzzard. Sammie is a glaciologist and climate scientist, based at Cardiff University. Her research focuses on the melting of Antarctica's ice shelves, using maths to model how and where ice shelves may become vulnerable to sudden collapse. Three working mathematicians inspire our students with interactive presentations: Patterns, Predictions and Juggling; Risk and Reward; Maths at the Video Game Arcade.

For those of you who like a maths puzzle we have included three of the twenty-five questions from this year’s senior Maths challenge questions (no calculators allowed). Reproduced with the kind permission of UKMT. Further questions and solutions available at https://ukmt.org.uk/