By Mr Jeffryes (Head of Mathematics)

Before half term and during this week, mathematicians across the school have been competing for the coveted House Times Table Bee competition trophies.  

106 students, from Year 5 up and staff entered the first round, where they had to answer as many tables as they could in one minute. All who entered earned a much-valued House Point but only the top scores from each age group made it to the final!

Years 5 and 6 started the show off, followed by Years 7 to 9, then Years 10 to 13 and finally the staff.

In the Junior School, Aaleesha Gusswami, Mia Thacker, Leah Ben-Cohen and Zoë Vadher from Year 5 and Simone Erwig, Regan Rowley-Smith and Minnu Sooraj from Year 6 all made it to the final. They showed such amazing risk taking and resilience, and were an inspiration to all of their friends from the Junior School. Simone lifted the coveted trophy with an impressive 34 correct answers; equalling the Sixth Form highest score.  

In the Senior School, from the eight finalists, Sarah Mahmood in Year 8 and Jemima Sivills in Year 7 were victorious with an outstanding score of 32 right answers each and therefore shared the trophy. Anna Beckmann in Year 13 (34 correct answers, just beating Alex Gentry - 33 correct answers) and Maths teacher, Miss Conway (32 correct answers) won the elusive trophy for their categories. The competition was extremely tough with all finalists answering with confidence and automaticity. It was clear they had all been practising!

It was great to see so much enthusiasm and competitiveness among the staff and students! Well done to everyone who entered. We should also say a big thank you to the Maths Department, the fantastic Sixth Form Helpers and Deputy Head of the Junior School, Mrs Copp, for organising this competition. They encouraged a huge cohort of students to participate in the various different heats, they also had the tough job of reading the times tables quick enough, and recording the responses in a short space of time.

View photos from the competition here.