UKMT Maths Challenges 2022

Pupils at BRGS have again excelled in the UKMT Maths Challenges this year.

In the Senior Challenge in the autumn, four students – Aaron, Callum & Dan (Year 12) and Angela (Year 13) - achieved Gold certificates which allowed them to qualify for the Senior Kangaroo

Aaron went on to achieve a Merit award in the Kangaroo, which placed him among a very small percentage of students countrywide.

Year 10 sat the Intermediate Challenge in February and 95% of the 81 entrants received a certificate – by some distance our best results. The vast majority of those certificates were Gold and Silver.

Twelve students qualified for the follow-on rounds, with George sitting the Hamilton Olympiad and the others taking the Pink Kangaroo.

George won a Distinction for his performance in the Olympiad, while a different George earned a Merit certificate for the Pink Kangaroo.

Thirteen Year 8 pupils achieved Gold certificates in the Junior Maths Challenge at the end of April, with Mikolaj, who scored the highest mark in the Challenge, qualifying for the Junior Mathematical Olympiad. His result will be available after the summer break.

The other 12 pupils sat the Junior Kangaroo follow-on round and achieved the school’s best-ever results, with Daniel, Roy and May all being awarded Certificates of Merit.

The initial Junior Challenge was taken by 60 Year 8 pupils and they achieved excellent results overall.

Around 300,000 pupils in Year 8 or below from across the UK sat this Challenge, with roughly the top 7% receiving a Gold certificate, 13% Silver and 21% Bronze.

46% of the BRGS entrants received Gold, 40% Silver and 12% Bronze.

Maths teacher Mr Wilbraham, who organises the Challenges, said: “What a superb set of results for all of our Maths Challenge pupils this year.

“This is the first time all those year groups have been able to take part in the Maths Challenges since 2019/20 and given all the obstacles pupils have faced over the last couple of years, these results are testament to their dedication, determination and interest in Maths.

“The UKMT questions do test some rather abstract concepts and require thinking beyond what they would normally do in the classroom.

“Pupils are now expected to answer more problem-solving questions in their school Maths lessons and the UKMT Maths Challenges are excellent preparation for the types of questions that are increasingly popular at GCSE and A level.”

Pictured are the Junior Kangaroo and Olympiad qualifiers with their certificates