Merry Christmas 2012

.. And a very Happy New Year for 2013

Here is a Christmas tree plotted in Autograph by Lydia (Y12).  The functions for the graph can be seen at the bottom. (You can click on either graph to see a full size version)

And here is a close up of the star at the top, again with the functions that created it underneath

Have a great holiday!

PSHEE House results...

Here are the house results from the PSHEE day least week.

We have calculated the average (mean) for each house, and the results are below...

4th place is Fitzmaurice with a mean loss of  £8675.56
3rd place is Lansdowne with a mean loss of £7593.57
2nd is Shelburne, having lost a mean £6182.82


Congratulations to Kerry, with their mean loss of only $4318.60!

For individual team results, see the post below.

Well done again to all teams, especially those that did turn a profit!

Another Amazing Business and Enterprise PSHE Day

Today year 10 came to school ready to do business.

We started by learning about finance options available, from banks loans and mortgages to overdrafts, and payday loan companies.  Students played with a loan calculator, and were astounded with the amount of interest payable on some loans.  Here is the loan calculator they played with - put some numbers in and see how much you could end up paying (Interest rates taken from website "typical APR" values).



Students worked in house teams, and the results below speak for themselves.  These results are based purely on the business model, and do not yet take account of the public vote, results of which next week.

Massive congratulations to all teams, although looking the profit / loss column, Lord Sugar need not worry too much just yet!

Here are the results, from highest to lowest.



Well done to those teams that made the profit!

NewLetter Puzzle

Each week in the school newsletter (that goes home on a Friday, or is available at www.johnbentleyschool.com) there is a maths puzzle.

This week's is about the gender if children in a family, and I'm keen to collect your answers.

Use the form below to submit your answers, and if you get it right you will get a mention in next week's newsletter.  Good luck.

More Exam Success

Hot on the heels of superb AS and A level results  last week, were fantastic GCSE results yesterday.

In year 11 many students exceeded their expecations and targets, at every level, from A* through to G.

Especially noteworthy are the three students who all achieved the new A* Distinction grade in their GCSE Further Maths.  They (and others) are now looking foward to studying Maths and Further Maths with us at A level.

129 Year 10 students also got GCSE Statistics results yesterday.  This is the largest number of studetns we have ever entered for this exam, and it was our best ever year of results, with the most A*s ever achieved, and the highest A*-C rate.

Congratulations everyone.

Well done Year 13

Once again JBS Maths students have excelled at both A Level math and AS Further Maths.

Out of our 19 students, particular congratulations go to Lucy for her (very well deserved) A* result, the second year running one of our students has achieved this exceptional result, and also to the 8 other students achieving grade A.  This gives a phenomenal result of 47% of students achieving either A* or A grades, a fantastic result.

When we also include the B grades, we have a figure of 63% achieving A*-B.

Well done all round, Y12 who got their AS results now have the bar raised even higher!

Fractal Enrichment

As part of Enrichment 2012 we have been creating Fractal art work.  Most designs are based on Koch Curves, Sierpinski Triangles and similar, but we have also explored the maths of the Mandelbrot!
Here are some of our creations...

This last one is our fractal wall of fractals...

And to finish - a maths / fractal joke...

Q:   What does the B stand for in Benoit B Mandelbrot?

A:  Benoit B Mandelbrot...

Design a Theme Park

Today was the Year 7 Economic Well Being "Design a Theme Park" day.  As well as teams from John Bentley we welcomed Y5 teams from many of our feeder primaries.

This was a house competition, and so here are the preliminary results....

In the J half of the year...

100 Points go to Lansdowne for an average profit of £76 756
80 Points go to Shelbourne for an average profit of £74 717
60 points to Kerry for their average profit of £71 236
and 40 points to Fitzmaurice for their profit of £66 254


In the B half...

Kerry get 100  for their £80320 profit
Fitzmaurice get 80for their £72 713
Lansdowne get 60with an average £63 932 profit
and Shelbourne get 40 for their £63 696.


A special mention to the overall winning team of Reckless Resort from Lansdowne, who made an overall profit of £91 891.


In the primary competition, there was an impressive average of £65 179 (beating some of our year 7!), and a special mention to the Hilmarton team of BubbleGum, who made an impressive £84 637.

Congratulations to all, and well done.

Chernoff Faces

Chernoff faces are an unusual way of looking at data.  Instead of putting data into a bar chart or pie chart, you turn the data into facial features.  Here is an example from Wikipedia. (Click on the picture to see a larger version!).There are lots of ways of decorating a face, you can change the face shape, nose size, even how far apart the eyes are!

Here is a graphic showing what you can do...

We decided to find out a bit more about our visiting year 5, and so got them to draw Chernoff faces using these rules...

Having learnt a little more about each other we sorted our faces into groups using Venn Diagrams.

At open evening, we also asked many of our visiting students to do new Chernoff Faces with these new rules

Can you spot the staff faces?  Can you spot yours?

Open Evening - Data Handling

Welcome to open evening 2012!

Here are the results of some of the data collection being done in school.

Check back for Ghost Blaster results over the weekend!

Year 6 Number Walls

We welcomed our next years year 7 into school today, and spent a lesson building number walls.

Here is an example of one.

The rule is to get each new number, you add the two numbers underneath.

It can however get tricky.  Here are some of the extension questions we looked at.

What happens if you use the same four numbers as before, but in a different order?

If you have four numbers, but not the bottom four, can you still find all the missing numbers?
Is the answer unique, or are might there be more than possible right answer?

Here is a particularly challenging example of that from a Y6 student!  Well done if you can work it out (it took me while!).

If we give you a target number for the top, how many different ways are there of finishing the wall.  We plan to have a gallery of student work up soon.


For examples of algebraic number walls you can have a look at MyMaths (remember our login and password)

Check back soon for more examples of student work.

New MyMaths Password

As of Tuesday 26th June 2012 we have a new MyMaths password.  See any member of the maths department for the new password (obviously we cannot publish it here; that wouldn't be very sensible!).

Your individual passwords and logins are still the same.

Use MyMaths.co.uk

Year 13 Revision (on Study Leave)

Dear Year 13.

On Friday 1st June you "leave school" and are officially on study leave!   You are of course welcome to come and see us right up until the exam to get any help and support you want and need.  You're welcome to come and see us after the exam for a gossip too!

Here is our Year 13 / frees schedule. You are welcome any time, but at these times we are definitely available.




Don't forget you can also follow @JBSMaths on twitter for help over half term...

Junior Maths Challenge Results

Congratulations again to everyone of the 130 students that took part in last month’s Junior Maths Challenge.  Congratulations also to the many people who had a go at some of the questions though this blog.  The questions are still there so if you want to see how you would do on some of these challenging questions aimed at year 7 and 8 you still can!

The results came in last week, and so here are our most notable individual results...

Best In School: - Joe Packer (Year 8 Lansdown), who achieved a Gold award.

Also in Year 8, Gold certificates go to Megan Luschover (Shelbourne) and Mitchell Perrett (Lansdown).

Silver certificates in Year 8 go to Will Baguley (Lansdown), Oliver Bashford (Shelbourne), and Caleb Golding (Fitzmaurice).

Bronze certificates in year 8 go to ... 

Tom	Dean		Shelbourne
Jacob	Hurst		Fitzmaurice
Ned	Fellenor		Shelbourne
Katie	Reed		Lansdown
Emily	Bradfield		Fitzmaurice
Eloise	Holmes		Fitzmaurice
Harvey	Austin		Kerry
Tia	Reeves		Kerry
Charlotte	Davies		Shelbourne
Jack	Warren		Lansdown
George	Bowman		Kerry
Olivia	Cooper		Shelbourne
Emma	Reed		Lansdown
Callum	Glen		Lansdown

In Year 7 Jack Broadhead (Fitzmaurice) won best in year, and a silver certificate.  Rhys Brennan (Lansdown), and Harley House (Fitzmaurice) also achieved Silvers.  

Bronze certificates go to

Molly	Boswell	Shelbourne
Jesse	Bryant	Lansdown

As well as the individual successes above, this is a house competition, with every single student contributing to house points.  Here are the overall house scores.

Congratulations all around!

Game Theory

Everybody plays games, but did you know there is a whole area of maths dedicated to the theory of playing games? You can have a look at the Wikipedia entry for it here, but be warned, it gets quite complicated!

One of the most famous (and easiest to follow) examples of Game theory is called "The Prisoners Dilemma", and it goes a bit like this...

There are two prisoners, that the police strongly suspect of both being guilty of a serious crime, but they cannot quite prove it.  In order to get to the bottom of things, they keep the two prisoners seperate, there is no way for them to communicate.

They then get the two prisoners to confess, by offering them a deal.  The offer goes..

"If you confess, you will get a lighter sentence of 1 year.  Your partner in crime will get the maximum sentence of 5 years, as they have not confessed".  The criminal knows that if they both keep quiet, they will get a much lighter 2 year sentence as the police will not be able to pin anything on them.  He also know that if he keeps quiet and his friend confesses, then he will get 5 years while his friend only gets 1, and that if they both confess  then they can both look forward to 3 years in prison!

So, what should he do?

This problem has implications beyond prisoners in cells.  I've been reminded of this problem twice in the recent past...

1.  In the "Hunger Games" there is a choice that Katniss and Peeta have to make, near the end.  I'm not posting spoilers, but it involves some berries!

2.  When there was a possible fuel strike we saw lots and lots of queuing at petrol stations on the news.  This was a great example of this problem.  Should you panic buy or not?  The best solution would have been for no-one to panic buy, and everyone would have just bought as normal until the situation was resolved (which it was without there even being a strike).

Once one person started panic buying, and pumps started to run dry, there was a danger that those who hadn't filled there tanks would be left unable to use their cars, and so it became in everyone's interest to fill up!

Next time you have a decision to make, think about how the actions of other people impact that decision and how what you decide impacts on them.

Junior Maths Challenge

Congratulations to the 130 Year 7 and Year 8 students who took part in today's Junior Maths Challenge from the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust (UKMT).

Like the Intermediate Challenge earlier this year, the Junior challenge poses a wide range of questions, designed to test mathematical thinking, rather than simply remembering facts or techniques.

Whilst the challenge is an opportunity for students to shine individually (and we will let you know results as soon as they are in), this is also a House competition, and will contribute towards house points at the end of the year.

All questions are multiple choice, but for the harder questions guessing is very much discouraged by the unusual method of marks being taken away for wrong answers!  It is also entirely non-calculator, and although paper working is allowed (essential), apart from a pencil and rubber no other equipment is allowed.

Headline results will of course be published here and in the newsletter, but until they are here are a few questions from this year's paper to think about...

3.  Which of the following has exactly one factor other than 1 and itself?

     A 6       B 8     C 13     D 19      E 25




7.  A small ink cartridge has enough ink to print 600 pages.  Three small cartridges can print as many as two medium cartridges.  Three medium cartridges can print as many pages as two large cartridges.  How many pages can be printed using a large cartridge?


    A  1200       B 1350      C 1800     D  2400    E 5400

13.  In the multiplication grid on the right the input factors (in the first row and the first column) are all missing and only some of the products within the table have been given.  What is the value of A + B + C + D + E?


   A  132      B 145      C 161     D 178    E 193




20.  Aroon says that he is 50 years, 50 months, 50 weeks and 50 days old.  What age will he be on his next birthday?


   A 56     B  55         C  54          D 53      E 52




25.  The interior angles of a triangle are (5x+3y), (3x+20) and (10y+30), where x and y are positive integers.
What is the value of x+y?


A  15       B 14        C 13      D 12      E 11








If you want to have a go at these, feel free to submit your answers on the form below, and we'll let you know in due course how you've scored!









Good luck!

Year 9 and 10 House Maths

You may remember that some Year 9 and Year 10 did the Intermediate Maths challenge last term.

We have analysed the results, and turned them in to House points, based on the average (Mean) score of each house in each year.

Here are those results.

Click here for a more mobile friendly version of the graph.
Congratulations Shelbourne, and again to all that took part.

Year 7 and 8 will be doing the Junior Maths Challenge on Thursday 26th April!  Good luck to them!

Year 8 PSHEE Stock Exchange

Congratulations to Year 8 for their wonderful efforts on the PSHEE day today.  Points were awarded to teams for two things...

Firstly how well they kept their accounts.  Perfect accuracy meant a score of 200, with 3 points lost for each pound difference between their actual money, and how much their accounts said they should have had!

Secondly was the quality of their presentations, how well they sold their products, again .with a top score of 200.

Here are how the teams did...

Click here for a more mobile friendly version of the site if you are viewing on your phone.


This was also a House competition, and here are the house results...


Click here for a mobile friendly version


Well done to everyone!

Fynamore Y4 & 5

Today I visited Fynamore School, and did my first session with some Year 4 and 5 mathematicians.  I'm looking forward to working with this group once a fortnight.  Here is the problem we worked on today...

Here is our summary of what we did (click to hear what the students are saying)...

NumberPuzzle
brought to you by Livescribe

Y7 Challenge Day

Well done to the 8 year sevens who went to St Mary's for a maths challenge day.  Here is what they did...

World Education Games...

The World Education Games are here!  You have all been registered, and you will have your logins and passwords before half term.  Can anyone beat Kayliegh's magnificent 72 questions correct in 60 seconds?  Can we be the highest totalling school in Wiltshire?  Will your tutor group be victorious.

Get Practising now

www.worldspellingday.com

 www.worldmathsday.com

www.worldscienceday.com

Intermediate Maths Challenge

Congratulations to the 100 year 9 and 10 students who took part in the UK Intermediate maths challenge last week.  This is a competition that set challenging problems, and is a national competition.  We don't know results yet; they get set off to the UK Maths Trust, but when they do we will let you know who excelled, although all that took part from year 10 maths set 1, and year 9 sets 1 and 2 should be congratulated for their effort in what is a very exacting competition.  Questions are multiple choice, but losing marks for wrongs answers soon discourages you from merely guessing, and don't forget, no calculators!

Example questions from this year are...

9.
Auntie Fi's dog Itchy has a million fleas.  His anti-flea shampoo claims to leave no more than 1% of the original number of fleas after use.  What is the least number of fleas that will be eradicated by the treatment?
A: 900000              B: 990000        C: 999000         D:999990          E: 999999


17.
The first term of a sequence of positive integers is 6.  The other terms in the sequence follow these rules:

• if a term is even then divide it by 2 to get the next term;
• if a term is odd then multiply by 5 and subtract 1 to get the next term.

For which value of n is the nth term equal to n?

A: 10 only               B: 13 only         C: 16 only            D: 10 and 13 only         E: 13 and 16 only

20.
A rectangle with are 125 cm2 has sides in the ratio 4:5. What is the perimeter of the rectangle?
A: 18cm         B: 22.5 cm           C: 36cm            D: 45cm           E: 54 cm

Feel free to offer your answers in a comment below!

Congratulations

... to Alex Jack and Lydia who got their GCSE Results today.

They took their full GCSE Maths early in November, having taught themselves most of the course, and being supported by the Maths team.

Their A* results (all of them) is a reflection of the hard work and attention to detail they showed in preparing for their exams.

All three will now be sitting the new GCSE Further Maths course in the Summer, and we look forward to their continued success in their mathematical studies!

Well done!

Year 7 Data Collection

We're also looking forward to
challenging you on
World Maths day 2012!

Please help my 7B2 maths class.

We are hoping  to collect data from as many Year 5, Year 6 and Year 7 as we can, from around the world.


For international visitors, this is students born between 1st September 1999 and 31st August 2002

The links below are to each group of students questionnaires. Please please complete as many of them as you feel able to do, and pass the link of this blog around your classmates  / friends / family.

We will publish the results of our data collection through this blog also. We are going to leave the forms open for a while to allow schools on holiday in January (I'm looking at you Australia!) to contribute.


Many many thanks in advance.