Here is the news as written by some of the children in Year 5.
Last Tuesday, 8 girls from year five went to Old Palace for a Maths Circus with Miss Dunn to compete against lots of other schools. We had to work in teams of 4 and as there were 8 of us, we had to work in two teams of 4, so 5G and 5D were both on separate teams. When we were sent to our tables, we got to go to get a biscuit and a drink of water or juice (later on there was hot chocolate!). A sixth form student who liked maths and was the Head Girl did an introduction of what we were going to do there and talked about a maths topic called ‘fractals’ and it was quite interesting really. Then we started the Maths Circus.
We all started with the same question on a piece of paper that we had to work out. Once we thought we had answered it, we would race as fast as we could over to the answering station at the back of the hall. If we had answered the question correctly, we would get a new sheet of paper with the next question on it. If we had answered it incorrectly, we would get a second chance to answer the question. If we got it incorrect a second time, we would move on to the next question. Sometimes the people at the answer station would point out what we did incorrectly to help us (even though they weren’t really supposed to).
5G had got up to question 5 and 5D got up to question 7 when they rang a bell to end the Maths Circus. Everyone got a certificate even though we didn’t win, but the winners got a prize as well. Everyone also got to keep the pen and pencil we were given to work with and some people now have them in their pencil cases. It was really fun and we want to do it again.
Fun Facts
- Queen Elizabeth 1st dined in the hall we did the Maths Circus in.
- Old Palace John Whitgift School is its full name.
By Juliet (5D) and Eloise (5G)
Extra note from Miss Dunn:
I was really proud of the way the girls represented Atwood through their excellent manners, teamwork skills and resilience. Although the challenges were extremely difficult to solve, they persevered and showed high levels of determination and focus…until the hot chocolate came out of course!
