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!