STUDENTS of Launceston College have taken home the gold at the UK Maths Trust’s Senior Challenge following an impressive performance.

A number of pupils from the school, which is part of Athena Learning Trust, got stuck in with the UK Maths Trust’s Senior Challenge this month.

The UK Maths Trust is the leading British charity that advances the education of young people in Mathematics and each year, students from across the country come together to show their mathematical skills, hoping to get gold and qualify for the next round of challenges.

The students in attendance took part in a 90-minute, multiple choice question first round challenge which was designed to make them think and stimulate their problem-solving abilities.

The questions on the paper are designed to challenge students to think. The focus is to create a satisfaction, and lead to solving interesting problems, not about lucky guessing. It is a challenging task, but Launceston’s students were up to the job.

Pupils were successful in achieving a range of gold, silver, and bronze certificates, thanks to their efforts.

Students achieved a range of bronze, silver, and gold certificates
Students achieved a range of bronze, silver, and gold certificates (Submitted)

Finlay and Stamatis both achieved gold certificates and have qualified for the Andrew Jobbings Senior Kangaroo competition in November. A follow-on round to the Senior Maths Challenge, the Andrew Jobbings Senior Kangaroo is a 60 minute, 20 question ‘integer answer’ challenge.

Entry to the Andrew Jobbings Senior Kangaroo is by invitation based on a qualifying Senior Mathematical Challenge score and only a few thousand students make it each year.

Discussing the students’ performance, Mr Matthew Thompson, principal at Launceston College, said: “I am so proud of all the students who took part in the UK Maths Trust’s Senior Challenge. They all did fantastically well, and we will all be cheering Finlay and Stamatis on at the next round in November.

“At Launceston College we want young people to see the beauty and fun in maths and encourage students to explore all the different aspects of the subject. We aim to develop an appreciation of maths by demonstrating its importance in the wider world.”