Challenging Primary Pupils to Succeed: Charles Darwin Primary crowned winners in Primary Maths Olympiad!

On the 8th of February, children from all six of our Inspiration Trust primary schools were excited to attend the annual Trust-wide Primary Maths Olympiad. All the students travelled to Great Yarmouth Primary Academy and got to enjoy being in a new environment. The atmosphere was electric and all our pupils were excited to be met by the numerous maths challenges.

For Diamond Academy, which joined Inspiration Trust at the start of this year, this was their first experience partaking in a Trust-wide event. They were thrilled to be joining pupils from Great Yarmouth Primary Academy, Charles Darwin Primary, Norwich Primary Academy, Cobholm Primary Academy and Stradbroke Primary Academy.

Each primary school sent a team of 8 pupils, 2 from each year group in Key Stage 2. Teams were tasked with solving problems using their maths knowledge and skills, both in teams and individually.

Lisa Coe, Primary Maths Lead for Inspiration Trust said:

 

“We were thrilled to see the children enjoying their time with us this morning. The activities were designed to challenge our highest-attaining mathematicians, getting them to be creative with maths and apply their knowledge in a competitive environment. All of the teams demonstrated great communication skills and teamwork as many of our activities required solving problems together. We have some wonderful mathematicians in our primary schools and I loved being able to celebrate this.”

 

The teams competed across the morning in different activities. Some of these were head-to-head tasks such as the Eliminator task which involved challenging the pupils to answer questions correctly for as long as possible within their year groups. There were also several team activities, these were more practical and involved being more hands-on. For example, one task required the students to fill containers to specific levels and work together to calculate this accurately, with the final challenge of the day relying on speed and accuracy whilst using their knowledge to fill a container up to a certain level, using only other containers as measuring devices.

 

Alison Hughes, Primary Director for Inspiration Trust said:

 

“We are committed to bringing pupils together across our primary schools to enrich their learning. Today we saw teams of young mathematicians challenging themselves to be the best at their subject, showing pride in their work and representing their school in the best possible way. This has been a fantastic opportunity for them to work together and improve their communication and confidence as well as test their mathematical abilities, something which we are delighted to be able to offer them.”

 

The morning culminated in a presentation where there was a cup for the winning school presented by Inspiration Trust CEO, Gareth Stevens. This year our winners were Charles Darwin Primary. Cobholm Primary Academy came in second place, with Stradbroke Primary Academy placing in third. All teams competed well and showed excellent mathematical skills when completing their tasks and all pupils were proud to represent their primary school at this event.