UKMT Team Challenge Victory for Bancroft’s
Congratulations to our team who competed in the final of this year's UKMT Team Challenge and emerged the overall winners. The Team Challenge is an annual event which attracts teams of aspiring mathematicians from all across the UK. This year just over 1700 schools entered teams into one of the regional rounds held between February and March. From these, 88 winning and high scoring teams reached the challenging final. First and foremost, the teams fought for the kudos of being crowned the best school maths team in the UK. Teams are made up of four pupils drawn from years 8 and 9 with a maximum of two pupils in year 9. The UKMT Team Challenge is designed to offer pupils a chance to tackle a variety of engaging mathematical activities and also develop teamwork and communication skills. Teams from Bancroft’s have been entering the UKMT Team Challenge for many years; although Bancroft's teams have finished in second place before, they have never been the competition’s overall winning team.
After a long day of maths – four rounds and a poster competition – the Bancroft’s team had only lost nine marks. Whilst being proud of this score, they were not confident of their chances of success as they faced teams from Westminster, Eton and City of London. These schools have a tradition of success in the competition; Westminster, for example, has come first three times in the past six year!
Team member, Anika Vijay, writes about the experience:
“On Monday the 17 of June, the Junior Maths team consisting of Shivan Aggarwal, Zaki Lodhi, Shanuga Rubaraj and Anika Vijay travelled to the Royal Horticultural Halls, in Westminster, London with Mr Tse for the UKMT Maths Team Challenge National final. We were competing against the 87 schools who had won their regional heat, each heat consisting of approximately 30 schools. Some teams had come by plane for the competition. The day consisted of a poster competition, group circus round, crossnumber round, the shuttle round and the relay.
We lost only 9 marks throughout the challenges and were very proud of our score and our effort. After a long day of Maths and what felt like an equally long time of waiting, the results were announced. Westminster Under School, who had come first three times in six years came third this time round. Eton School came second. At this point, we were growing sceptical, because City of London School hadn’t yet been announced, and they had won for two years in a row, (in 2013 and 2014). However, we had no reason to doubt ourselves as it was announced that Bancroft’s School had come first, making us the best Maths team of our age group in the whole of the country!
All of us were very proud of our achievement, and we would like to convey special thanks to Mr Tse, who diligently prepared us for the UKMT Team Challenge. He gave us several pep talks which boosted our confidence and helped us perform on the day – we couldn’t have done it without him. Thank you, Mr Tse, for a great day out!”
not only were the team worthy winners but each of them was so modest and humble in receiving their prizes and trophy. In essence, they were model representatives for the school.
Mr Martin Flaherty, Bancroft’s Head of Maths
