Preston pupils sweep the board in maths quiz

High school pupils from Fulwood and Penwortham took first and second place in a national competition organised to celebrate Maths Week England.

The online quiz, run by maths resource provider Mangahigh, was open to all schools across England, with the learning activities included in the competition aligned to the national curriculum, supporting a nationwide commitment to raising standards.

Archbishop Temple High in Fulwood topped the national leader board with Penwortham Girls coming in a close second, beat hundreds of other schools.

The M-Fluencers Maths Week Quest competition, saw pupils tasked with completing a series of online maths challenges, with each challenge adding to the school’s total score.

And, to make the event more competitive, staff at the Penwortham school told girls that if they reached the top tier they would donate the prize money to help underprivileged children and teenagers.

Head of maths at the Cop Lane school Suzanne Walsh, said: " Suzanne said: "We told the girls that if they won anything they could use the Amazon voucher prizes to support the local Mission Christmas Appeal.

“It was a fantastic motivator. The girls really threw themselves into it.

“They were all having to work on their own at home and the enthusiasm was just amazing.”

Even when the competition ended students were emailing to ask whether they could continue to access the site and play for longer.

Suzanne added: “From a teaching perspective, the opportunity for retrieval, consolidation and mastery was outstanding.

“All assignments were flawlessly prepared, with a superb balance of retrieval, minimally different questions and mastery, which helped to broaden students understanding and ability to think like true mathematicians.”

The top 10 girls were allotted £25 each to spend on toys for the Rock FM appeal.

A spokesman for Archbishop Temple said: "We were thrilled to win . Our students had a great time participating with the tasks providing them with an insight into another world for learning mathematics.

"The use of game play and variation in their tasks engaged, challenged and inspired many to learn in such a refreshing way

". Students were able to see that hard work does pay off and the competitive element even saw many students asking for more work."

The school won £500 in voucher for collecting 10,445 points.

Mohit Midha, CEO and co-founder of Mangahigh, said: "In the midst of a global health pandemic and ongoing education challenges, it is more important than ever to find new and exciting ways to engage pupils with core subjects like maths, so we were thrilled to see such great participation in the M-Fluencers Maths Quest competition this year.

"I extend my congratulations to everyone who took part, particularly the pupils and staff at Archbishop Temple School and Penwortham Girls' High on their success, and hope that it inspires students across the country to develop a love of learning."