News & Headteacher Blogs

There was a real buzz of excitement and anticipation in the school library on 5 February as Year 10 students from schools across Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Hampshire settled themselves down for the West Berkshire Year 10 Maths Feast.  This is a nationwide event organised by the Advanced Maths Support Programme – a body whose aim in life is to try to bring the pleasure and enjoyment of maths to students, in the hope that they will be tempted to study the subject further. The students got their brains into gear with the Mathematical Word Searches which were awaiting them on their tables when they arrived, and then it was time for the “feast”.
 
The first round was a “Merry-Go-Round” where four sets of questions were passed from one student to the next, with each student trying to answer any questions the previous student had not yet answered.  The competitors then moved on to six tricky, but interesting, problems.  The catch here was that they could only give four answers to their supervisor to mark.  So they had to decide which of the questions had been accurately answered and most clearly explained.  Then the students had to learn about a new topic – linear programming – and to solve some problems using this method.  And finally there was a relay round, with each pair passing on the answer to their question to the other pair (like a baton) for them to use in their calculations.

The Downs School showed great team spirit and scored highly throughout the competition.  They were beaten only by Reading School and the Abbey School.

Congratulations to Alex J, Ralph J, Jake P, Lottie W, Sam A, Sam H, Josh S, Maya N and Juliette W.