Nrich Primary Maths Fair June 2024

We held our second Nrich Fair during activities week. Students in the primary department delved into exciting mathematical enrichment activities throughout the morning and were supported by a group of students from Years 7, 8 and 9. Everyone had so much fun completing each of their age-related tasks. Read on to hear about the enjoyment the pupils had.

Assembly - What is Maths?

All the students in the primary classes started the morning by gathering and thinking about what is meant by maths and what skills are important in solving problems. Hannah and Laila from Secondary described some of the skills that would be developed in the morning’s Nrich activities.

A few of the students in each of the primary classes were invited to participate in the Starburst Challenge, an adapted Nrich game. The question posed to the participants was, "If the sweets on the plate you go to are to be shared out equally when you stay there, which would be the best plate to go to?"

The contestants then had to decide which plate they would go to. There was a choice of 4 sweets, 8 sweets or 12 sweets on three plates.

Dorothy (Year 6) solved the puzzle at the end of the challenge and explained it well, “ If there are 8 sweets shared between three children, they would have two each then are 2 sweets leftover. They would have two-thirds of the last two sweets each.”

The Nrich puzzle was a great start to the morning’s class activities.

Foundation and Key Stage 1 Maths Challenges

There was a real buzz of excitement in the younger primary classes as the students completed their rotation of challenges.

In reception/Year 1 Lana enjoyed the Butterfly Flowers. “ I could see 1 and 8 next to each other made 18 as it’s 10 and 8”

Anna liked the ‘All change’ activity and Atlases’ favourite activity was Next Domino.

In Robin class, the pupils really enjoyed the interactive games. When asked for their favourite ones, Laila’s was Seeing Squares, “It was fun.” Homa chose Poly Plug Rectangles and Change Around was Ron and Jack’s. Aphra had really enjoyed the Starburst challenge and getting the sweets! According to Gemma, “Everything was very fun. I loved the Animal Race.”

The favourite maths story for Robin’s class was ‘The Great Pet Sale’.

Maths puzzles and problems in Key Stage 2

The Key Stage 2 classrooms were equally full of exciting puzzles and problems to solve. At the end of the morning’s activities, the pupils in Toucan and Eagle class completed a survey about their favourite maths activities. The top choice in Toucan was ‘Noah’ and 'Discuss and Choose’, whilst in Eagle class, ‘Always, Sometimes or Never True - Shapes’ came out top.

‘Frogs’, ‘Treasure Hunt’ and the ‘Factors and Multiples’ game proved to be the most popular interactive games.

The two classes listened to maths stories at the end of the morning. Top choices included: ‘Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci’ in Eagle and ‘The Boy Who Loved Maths’ and ‘365 Penguins’ in Toucan.

Here are some of the students' thoughts from Toucan and Eagle about the Nrich Maths Fair: