World Maths Day 2010

03 Mar 2010

Today is World Maths Day, an event which sees pupils from UK schools compete with students from around the world in a 48 hour live maths competition. The contest involves mental arithmetic tests - the more tests pupils take (up to a maximum of 500 over the 48 hour period of the contest,) the more marks they get. The highest-scoring pupils in each age group will receive gold medals, and a World Maths Day trophy is awarded to the most successful class.

The competition has become more and more popular over the years, encouraging pupils to sharpen their maths skills and showing that the subject can be great fun.

Ofsted published two booklets on World Maths Day last year, Mathematics: understanding the score – Improving practice in mathematics to help teachers improve their pupils’ understanding of mathematics and give them confidence in applying the subject. The booklets were developed from an Ofsted report which showed teaching was good in around half the schools visited during the inspection process. In the best performing schools, it was much more than routine learning of methods, rules and facts of mathematics that made a difference.

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World Maths Day 2010

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