Celebrating Maths Challenge Success

UKMT Junior Maths Challenge 2016

Year 8 pupils at Bacup & Rawtenstall Grammar School achieved 16 Golds, 25 Silvers and 16 Bronzes in this year’s UKMT Junior Maths Challenge.

Hundreds of thousands of pupils in Year 8 or below from across the UK sat the Challenge, with roughly the top 7% receiving a Gold certificate, 13% Silver and 20% Bronze.

The percentages for BRGS were 26% Gold, 40% Silver and 26% Bronze.

Top scorer Paul Jackson has been invited to sit a further round called the Junior Mathematical Olympiad, while two other pupils, Ben Fishwick and Bruce Austin, qualified for the Junior Kangaroo, which is a multiple-choice Europe-wide challenge.

Maths teacher Mr Wilbraham, who organises the Challenge, said: “This is the first time we have entered Year 8 for the Challenge and their results were excellent.

“All the pupils showed a fantastic attitude in the way they approached the Challenge and they were all determined to do their very best.

“The idea behind the Challenge is to test mathematical thinking and application rather than recalling and using facts and formulae. This is something more prevalent in the current GCSE specification, which this year group will start in 2017.

“For almost four times as many BRGS pupils to receive Gold and Silver certificates, compared to the national results, shows how well they are already prepared for the challenges ahead.”

A sample question from this year’s Junior Maths Challenge is:

The musical ‘Rent’ contains a song that starts “Five hundred and twenty five thousand six hundred minutes”. Which of the following is closest to this length of time?

A: a week            B: a year              C: a decade         D: a century        E: a millennium