Over the last few days, there have been two exciting events on the mathematical calendar: World Maths Day on Wednesday 8 March and World Pi Day on Tuesday 14 March.  Our students took part in activities during their Maths lessons and in the Library at lunchtime.

For World Maths Day, students competed online against children around the world to answer as many quickfire maths questions as possible in a minute.  There were 10 different levels of challenge, from simple addition on level 1 to A level material on level 10!

The official competition on the day required students to complete 20 games on 4 specified levels to gain as many points as possible.  Students competed during their Maths lessons on the day, with some continuing the challenge at home as well.  There was much excitement when they were able to compete against their friends in the same game and there was plenty of positive competitive spirit.

Well done to Jack C, Morgan B, Will S and Emma M who were the highest scorers in their year group in Years 7 – 10.

In the run-up to World Maths Day, pupils were able to complete practice rounds, playing against each other and against children in a multitude of different countries. Points were awarded for participation and high scores.  Well done to Marmion who were the highest scoring House with a combined total of 57,672 participation points!  Those individual students reaching over 1000 participation points received certificates.

The event was a lot of fun, and as an added bonus allowed students to practise their number skills and challenge themselves to improve their speed and accuracy on essential non-calculator skills.

The following week was another global mathematical event: World Pi Day!  This is celebrated every year on 14 March to reflect the first digits of pi, 3.14.

There were a host of different activities in Maths lessons on the day and in the Library at lunchtimes during the week.  Year 7 students used rulers and string to measure the diameters and circumferences of circles, to discover the constant ratio between them, which is our wonderful number pi.  Year 8 and 9 students learned about the history of pi and enjoyed some pi songs.

Students took up the challenge to memorise as many digits of pi as they could (well done to Fabian V for correctly reciting 25 digits from memory) and ate apple pies while they tried to solve some pi dingbats!

And finally:

Why are mathematicians like the air force?

Because they both use pi-lots!!