On the 15th of March, we had an amazing maths trip to St Swithun’s for a Maths Team Challenge. Stephenie L (UV), Jessica J (LV), Morolayo A (UIV) and Selina Z (MIV) left school in a minibus on Friday morning, accompanied by Mr Griffin. 

Five schools joined us in the challenge, with the first round being a group round. There were 10 questions for four of us to work together and solve in 30 minutes. It was the easiest round, as most of us had practised similar questions in school.  

The second round was more tricky! We drew graphs and faced much harder questions. One of which was especially challenging - even for Mr Griffin!  

The third round was a relay round. One of us (Morolayo) had to run and get questions from a teacher, we were only allowed to get one question each time. We could only see the next question if we got the last one correct, or we could choose to bin the question to save time. All these rounds had a time limit of 30 minutes. We have never practiced this before; however, we coped and learnt a lot whilst competing. This round was successful, and it marked the end of the team competition for this year.   

After various maths questions and facing multiple challenges, testing our teamwork and cooperation skills, we were placed in fourth position overall. There were many tactics discussed and we had a lot of fun. It was a great experience and I look forward to participating next year! 

Jessica J (LV)