On Wednesday 2nd March, five pupils were given the opportunity to represent Fullbrook in a Surrey Schools mathematics challenge at Surrey University.

 

 

Sean Woodiwiss, Jordan Martin, Duncan Robinson, Kathryn Humby and Hannah Davies, all in year 12 and studying further maths, arrived at the venue at 4.30. They realised the pressure was on when they took their seats, only to notice that they were the only college not implementing a strict uniform policy, suggesting they were the only state school competing.

The competition was divided into 2 parts. The first part being made up of 10 questions with a possible 10 marks for each question, and the second part consisting of 15 multiple choice questions.

As challenging as the questions were, the students coped well and with the help of some excellent mathematical knowledge from Duncan, managed to answer 5 out of the 10 questions confidently. Coupling mathematical knowledge with clever logic Hannah and Kathryn were able to have a good stab at the remaining questions, getting us valuable working out points.

Thinking outside the box is an essential skill for any mathematics challenge, and this was demonstrated in the multiple choice section of the challenge. Both Sean and Jordan stepped up to the plate and showed some excellent ‘outside the box’ thinking to ensure a good score in this section, with the help of Duncan Hannah and Kathryn.

The team had gone into the event low on confidence in the presence of such wealthy schools, yet due to the strong performance, after the challenge they were full of anticipation for the results. On the day, only the top 3 schools were revealed. Sadly Kingston Grammar School, Charterhouse scored an emphatic 99% and 97% respectively to take those spots, so the Fullbrook team had to wait for the results to be released later in the week.

It turns out the Fullbrook students came in an impressive 9th place out of 40, with a score of 15/15 in the second section. A big well done goes out to the students who took part in the event, and a big thank you goes out to all who arranged the event especially Mr White. Fullbrook was the only state school to be in the top 10.