Inter-House Mathematics Competition: success for Marlowe

Date: Tuesday 23 September 2008

The Junior School Inter-House Mathematics Competition took place on Tuesday this week.All four Houses put forward one mathematician from each year group and there were separate competitions for Lower School (Years 3-5) and Upper School (Years 6-8).

Both Lower and Upper competitions consisted of two sections. First, a 10 minute "quick fire" maths quiz in which each team member had to answer as many questions as possible on their own. Then a 20 minute problem-solving test, in which teamwork was essential.Once each team had worked out their answer to a question they raced their solution to Mr Austen or Mr Reames who gave one of two responses: "Yes" for correct, in which case the team was given the next question; or "No" and the team could either have another go or pass onto the next question.Frantic was the calculating and hectic was the delivery of solutions and collection of further problems!

The competition was taken very seriously by all involved and there were some excellent performances in the individual sections. Lily Gibbons (Marlowe, Form 3) scored 19 out of 20 and Joseph Young (Chaucer, Form 4) scored 26 out of 30.

When at last all the scores were totalled up, victory went to Marlowe House, followed by Chaucer, then Roper and Becket Houses.

The experience gained has helped prepare pupils for the inter-school competitions later in the year. Well done to everyone who took part and special thanks