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.

KS4 Parents Forum

We hope you found the KS4 Parents forum useful.

Here are the slideshows from the evening, in case you either missed the evening, or want to recheck any dates.

Y10 Maths

Y10 English

Y11 Maths

Y11 English

Maths doesn't have all the answers

Many people (including maths teachers) assume maths has the answer to life the universe and everything. (The answer is 42 - Click here to find out why!).

In particular maths has the answer to "how do i make the most money?". Here is an example.

Drinks companies - Coke, Pepsi, Schweppes etc. - are big business. Their aim is (understandably) to make as much money (profit) as possible.

Therefore - you would think - they would design the cans their drinks come in to be as cheap as possible, to make more money.

To make a can as cheap as possible, you need to use as little metal as possible. This means that for a fixed Volume of 330 ml, you need to reduce the Surface Area to as low a number as possible.

Whilst this sounds complicated, the picture below is the working for this problem, as done in class with Y12 mathematicians.

As you can see, the radius of the can should be 3.74 cm and the height should be 7.48 cm. (NB - the Diameter and the Height are the same, is that coincidence). Compare this to a real can. If the maths says a can should be a certain size why are they not - the company could make more profit (by making cheaper cans).

So - your thoughts please - why do they not make the cans this size? The answer is in work you may do in Tech lessons...