Phil Moxon, AC for Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland
In the North East, 32 teams have taken part in this year’s Year 10 Maths Feast competitions. So far, events have been held at Northumbria University and The Sjovall Centre in Durham, and at time of writing, we still have two more Feasts taking place at Teeside University and King Edward VI High School in Morpeth.
Maths Feast is a fun educational challenge for teams of four students which encourages teamwork and problem solving. There are four rounds of questions, and the event takes about two and a half hours in total. All the rounds are different and one involves a comprehension exercise where students are presented with some maths which does not appear on the GCSE specification.
All the materials are available to take away and use in school. A few schools have asked the students who attended the event to lead the activities with their peers back in school, or have used the resources in Maths Clubs. For worried teachers, all the answers are also provided!
These are some of the comments from teachers after the event:
- “Had a great afternoon. Students said they had a great time and enjoyed the challenges that were set.”
- “The students thoroughly enjoyed it, as did I. It was run so smoothly by you and your team, thanks so much for giving us the opportunity. We’ll certainly be up for taking part next year.”
- “The students had a lovely afternoon and really enjoyed the competition. We’re obviously very pleased with how well they did and very proud of them and hope that they will be able to run the feast with their top-set peers during the summer term.”
- “The girls had a great day. I thought the quality of the questions was superb. Accessible but challenging.”
If you did not took part this year, please do consider entering your teams for this free event in 2020.