Students from Salisbury named runners up in the National Young Mathematicians of the Year A team of pupils from St Mark’s C of E Junior School in Salisbury have been named runners up in the National Young Mathematicians Awards. The team of four year six pupils, made up of (Left to right) William Gardner, Eva Hurst, Finley Anderson, and Jessica Richards, fought off tough competition from 650 teams from across the country to reach the grand finale at the University of Cambridge on Wednesday (5 th December) where they were presented with their prizes by maths expert and star of Countdown , Rachel Riley. The annual competition, organised by tuition company Explore Learning and the University of Cambridge’s NRICH Project has been running for the past six weeks where teams from primary schools across the country have been battling it out to reach the grand finale. Alexis Humphrey from Explore Learning said: “We had 650 teams from primary schools enter the competition from across the UK which just shows how well our finalists have done. There were some truly remarkable scores across the board and we’re overwhelmed with how the competition has been so successful. Congratulations to the children from St Mark’s; it really is a fantastic achievement to reach the final and they should be very proud.” Explore Learning have 71 centres offering English and maths tuition to children aged five to 14. Together with NRICH, they ran workshops with local schools to encourage participation and drive enthusiasm for maths. Rachel Riley , who helped with the judging process and presented the prizes to the winners and runners up said: “I’m thrilled to have been involved in this year’s National Young Mathematicians’ Awards. I was so impressed with the standard. There is often a stigma around maths but these children are an inspiration to others to show that maths isn’t boring; it’s fun, it’s challenging and it’s made up of elements that will prove essential later in life. I’m a huge supporter of campaigns like this that encourage children not to get down when they know they have a maths lesson but to get excited, like I did when I was young! The finalists have done so well and they should be very proud of themselves.” The five finalists got through two tough rounds to reach the final at the University of Cambridge where they were set a challenging maths problem that they had to work out together within a set time. They were each assessed on their ability to get to the root of the problem, to be systematic in their approach, to work well as a team and to use good recording systems. The winners of the National Young Mathematicians’ Award 2012 were a team from Knaphill School in Woking. Fina Reidy, a teacher from St Mark’s C of E Junior School said: “We’re so pleased for our pupils to have got this far...They put a lot of work in and they should be very proud of themselves; they all tried so hard and it’s a fantastic achievement to return to school having participated in such an event. They really are the top mathematicians in the country! I couldn’t be happier and we’re all very, very proud.” The aim of the awards is to encourage children not only to improve their maths – but to LOVE maths and get excited about doing it in class. This is the third year that the awards have run, receiving the most amount of entrants than ever before. For more information visit www.explorelearning.co.uk/nyma Alexis Humphrey is available for interview. For more information or imagery please contact [email protected] / 0207 100 0858 About Explore Learning • Explore Learning provides maths and English tuition for 5-14 year olds • Children of all abilities attend Explore Learning, including children who are gifted or have special educational needs. • 16,500 children attend Explore Learning centres every week. They have 71 centres located across the UK. • All courses are aligned to the National Curriculum and Curriculum for Excellence and Explore tutors select appropriate resources for each child to ensure they cover a combination of courses, enabling them to reach their full potential. • All Explore Learning centres are located in areas that are convenient for families to attend – these include centres within shopping centres such as Westfield London, Lakeside, Cabot Circus and Sainsbury’s supermarkets. • More information can be found at www.explorelearning.co.uk About NRICH • NRICH is a team of qualified teachers who are also practitioners in RICH mathematical thinking. This unique blend means that NRICH is ideally placed to offer advice and support to both learners and teachers of mathematics. • NRICH aims to enrich the experience of the mathematics curriculum for all learners by offering challenging and engaging activities and developing mathematical thinking and problem solving skills. • More information and free resourcescan be found at www.nrich.maths.org About Rachel Riley • Rachel Riley is the numbers expert on Channel 4’s long-running quiz show, Countdown. • She feels very passionate about promoting maths to young people and makes frequent school visits to inspire children to enjoy maths. She recently appeared on Channel 4’s Dispatches documentary, Kids Don’t Count where she helped school children tackle their maths demons. • Brought up in Thorpe Bay, Essex, Rachel graduated from Oriel College Oxford with a degree in Mathematics, covering Quantum Theory, Fluid Mechanics and Applied Maths and was made a scholar in 2006. .