MTS PREP SCHOOLS' MATHS COMPETITION 2006

‘Maths is coming home!’

It was a warm Friday afternoon as the Year 7 Junior Olympian Maths Club set off to Merchant Taylors'. Their intention was to participate in a Maths Trail, to tackle some investigations, and to participate in the annual maths competition against several local schools Prep. Schools.

The club members were: Hashim Bhattee, Huzaifa Khairullah, Peter Ladd, Greshan Rasiah, Shrenik Sanghrajka, Savan Shah, Peter Sinderberry, and Raghav Vohora.

The competition section involves just one pupil from each school who has to answer 15 questions under quite intense pressure, with everyone looking on – this included Mr Booth, Head of Middle School and Mr Wright, the Headmaster. In recent years Robbie Capp had won, Ishan Shah had won, and last year Alex Teasdale was runner up, eventually losing out in a tense tie breaker. Could Shrenik be the one to lead the boys back to Northwood Prep joyfully singing, ‘Maths is coming home!’

Ishan appeared just before the start of the competition and wished Shrenik well with a ‘Good luck' handshake. Shrenik took his place along with the other maths gladiators in the ‘arena' set up in the MTS dining room. One by one the questions were flashed up onto the OHP screen and the boys had only a minute or so to answer each question before their answers were scored. Every few questions the running scores were read out – this further added to the intense pressure on the competitors. It was clear from the start that Shrenik was in the leading pack but as the competition drew to a close it developed into a two horse race between Shrenik and a pupil from the Beacon. Thankfully, Shrenik kept his head and maintained his lead, eventually winning by 13 points to his closest rival's 12.

I would like to take this opportunity of congratulating Shrenik and thanking him for all the hard work he put in when preparing for his moment – you cannot expect to win by just turning up – winning takes a lot of preparation. I would also like to thank the other club members for showing such enthusiasm and determination, week in week out. They all did the competition questions and most of them matched or outperformed competitors from other schools. And finally, a huge thank you to Mr Toller (Chair of Mathematics) who, despite an intense work load, takes the time to set up and host this immensely enjoyable afternoon.

Bernie Westacott (Head of Maths)