Mathematics

It is the season to be jolly and you have reason to be even more jolly as the HCH maths advent calendar is back!
Children from Reception Class to Year 13 are being given a different maths class each day to discuss and explore with their parents. For each correct entry a child’s name is entered into... a prize draw which will take place on the last day of the term

Year 8 have recently revised all four transformations: reflection, translation, rotation and enlargement. They tested their knowledge with this game, which can be found on the nrich website.

https://nrich.maths.org/transformationgame

A great way of testing and deepening understanding!

Time flies when one is learning a lot and we have almost reached half term. Which means the annual HCH Times Tables Challenge got under way.
The first semi-final on Monday had Year 4 up to Year 8 very close together, with Year 5 being in the first spot. Tuesday saw the older year groups battling to get... into the final and Years 10, 11 and the Sixth From left Year 5 in the forth spot, just missing out on a pace in the final.

Hampton Court House held its third annual Primary Mathematics Competition yesterday, following the rules of the UKMT Primary Team Challenge. Seven teams, with four year 6 students in each team, took part in a range of tasks and activities to accumulate points for their school throughout the day. The... tasks were designed to put the teams’ mathematics skills to the test but also encouraged the students to cooperate with one another in shuttle rounds and relays. The now renowned and fiendishly tricky crossnumber round proved to be a stumbling block for some, while other teams found the last round of the day, the team relay, to be the trickiest of all. The most important thing was that all the teams thoroughly enjoyed rising to the challenge and some friendly competition while also getting to make some new friends from other schools along the way.

Nursery class made the most of the beautiful school grounds and warm weather this morning by taking their daily maths lesson outside. The group of 3 and 4 year olds are currently working on identifying patterns of numbers and were overjoyed to run from one number to the next when instructed by their... teacher. The grounds of Hampton Court House always provide wonderful opportunities for unrestricted outdoor learning, often with several year groups working side by side to take their new found knowledge out of the classroom.

Thirteen year groups and eleven different activities, it can only be HCH Maths Day!
Whilst Nursery and Reception children brought in their teddies and counted out pasta shapes, Year 6 used their ratio knowledge to make waffles. We can now say that if the ratio is not right, the dough can look like a... paste and will not make great waffles and anything with too much liquid just runs down the side of the waffle maker and again, will not make great waffles. Year 11 were shocked by how much life costs. Opening their envelopes with their job descriptions and salaries did not cause concern until taxes had to be paid, accommodation rented, weekly grocery shop had to be accounted for and transport had to be considered. Years 3 and 4 were given room plans with the scale of 1:10, which they then had to furnish with items from the leaflet they were given, all the time keeping their budget of £700 in mind. Year 1 practised their ruler skills by creating a Mondrian-like picture, whilst Year 2 enjoyed spending their play money on our bespoke fairground (a big thank you to our two helpers from the 6th Form). Year 7 investigated setting up their own ice-cream business, looking for the best prices at whole retailers, finding out set-up costs and running costs and trying to find reasonable prices for their ice-cream in order to make a profit, but still attract lots of customers. Year 8 did some experiments, noted down outcomes and then graphed their results. Year 10 were introduced to game theory and their cheering reverberated around the theatre. Year 5 braved the weather and went outside to pass on messages using flag semaphore. Year 9 invested their money into different kinds of stickers, but the stock market dictated the stickers’ worth at different stages and trading got harder and harder, seeing some companies making huge losses, whilst others were savvy enough to quickly sell and buy whatever was most profitable.

When students budget their life for a year (including national insurance), spend money at a funfair, find treasures on giant monster graphs, buy and sell stickers on the stock market, graph various experiments, go Easter egg hunting, draw Mondrians or Hirsts or brave the cold to decipher messages using... Semaphore, then we know Maths Day has arrived!