Maths Challenges

It has been a busy week for Maths students.

On Tuesday February 5^th eight intrepid year 7 set off for a Maths Challenge day at St Mary’s School.  There were teams from secondary schools across Wiltshire, and here is what our students have said about the day.

“The day was fun and interesting; the maths was very challenging” – Sanna Seager (7BB – Kerry)

“I particularly enjoyed the crossword puzzle – we really needed good teamwork”  Matt Evans (7BT – Shelbourne)

“The whole day was really good, but I especially enjoyed the reley, working as a team to get the answers” – Amber Barrett (7BE – Fitzmaurice)

“The entire day was good, and it made us realise how much more maths there is to learn” – John Cook (7BE – Shelbourne)

“It was a really good day, and I particularly enjoyed the relay” – Harriet Brown (7BE – Fitzmaurice)

“I really had fun working as a team” – Leah Kent (7BN – Shelbourne)

“I was disappointed we didn’t win, but am really proud of how hard we worked and tried” – Adam Richards (7BE – Lansdowne)

“It was a fun day, and it was great to work against lots of new schools”  Molly Shearsby (7BE – Lansdowne)

Mrs Willoughby took the teams over the St Marys, and was very impressed with their behaviour, determination and effort.  A level Mathematicians Mike Willkins and Lydia West also went with them, and were similarly impressed, with Lydia commenting “the maths they were asked to do was really challenging!”


Thursday saw 59 students from Y9 and Y10 take part in the UK Intermediate Maths Challenge.  More details about that when the results are in.

Trig Graphs

You can use this applet to drag point C around the circle, and will be able to see how the points P and Q move.  If you right click on P or Q and "Show Trace" it will leave a path behind.

TrigTrace This is a Java Applet created using GeoGebra from www.geogebra.org - it looks like you don't have Java installed, please go to www.java.com C Smy, 23 January 2013, Created with GeoGebra

Snow Day 18th Jan 2013

School is shut today due to the weather (Snow Day!), but the S1 and S2 exam is still on for y12/13 (and the y11 RS exam).
The exams start at 1pm and there will be hot choc / tea / coffee available in the canteen from 12:30.  Mr Darton will be there to resiter you.

If you are revising this morning, I am around on email, or on twitter (@jbsmaths).

Good luck this afternoon.

Year 11 module results

Year 11 you have got your module results today (Thursday Jan 10th).  The score on your results sheet will be a number (called UMS), and it will be helpful to you to convert this into a grade.

Here is the table that converts a UMS into a (decimalised) grade (it is the same scale for the unit 1 score you got last year).  (To open the table in a new window, Click here).

Calculator You can use our Grade calculator to give you an idea of what you need to get in the summer exam. Click here to find it.  (This calculator can get quite busy, and sometimes breaks - please bear with it and let Mr Smy know if it is giving silly or completely wrong values!) Your maths teacher will talk to you over the next couple of weeks to work out the plan for moving forward, and achieving the highest possible grade for each of you.

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!