National finals are calling for skilful King’s Ely students!

March 27, 2020

King’s Ely mathematicians have qualified for the national finals of the UK Team Maths Challenge.

King’s Ely Junior pupils Yanki Ertem and Anna Ost, and King’s Ely Senior students John Lau and James MacGillivray, travelled to The King’s School, Peterborough to compete in the regional finals of the competition earlier this month.

Despite fierce competition from schools from across the region, the fantastic foursome won and have now qualified for the national finals, which are due to be held in London later in the year.

Audrienne Bezzina, Head of Mathematics at King’s Ely Senior, said: “I am so proud of the students – the competition was very strong! They knew they had done well but they did not think they had done well enough to win, so we were all over the moon.”

More than 1,700 schools entered the first stages of the competition, with only 88 schools qualifying for the national finals.

Anna, Yanki, John and James’ success comes just weeks after James’ sister, Eleanor, who is in Year 11 at King’s Ely Senior, was one of only 20 students in the UK to be invited to attend a UK Mathematics Trust Olympiad training camp at Trinity College in Cambridge.

Eleanor was one of the youngest students to be selected for the programme following her excellent results in several mathematics competitions she has taken part in in recent months, including in the Intermediate Maths Challenge, for which she achieved 100%.

Mrs Bezzina said: “To reach this sort of level at her age demonstrates all the hard work that Eleanor puts into her Maths. This is the first time that we have had a student chosen for the training camp. We are so proud of Eleanor and pleased that her mathematical ability has been recognised at a national level.”