King’s Ely mathematicians victorious in national competition

January 31, 2020

King’s Ely students were on top form in the fiercely-contested Senior Maths Challenge, bringing home a haul of Gold, Silver and Bronze certificates.

A total of 51 King’s Ely Senior mathematicians took part in the competition, which is organised each year by the UK Mathematics Trust (UKMT). More than 200,000 pupils from across the UK competed in the challenge, which is a 90-minute, multiple-choice competition designed to encourage mathematical reasoning, precision of thought, and fluency in using basic mathematical techniques to solve interesting problems.

King’s Ely’s entrants achieved a total of seven Gold, 14 Silver and 14 Bronze certificates in the competition. King’s Ely’s top scorer was Year 13 student Joe Lau, who was very closely followed by Eleanor MacGillivray, who is in Year 11. As a result of their scores, both Joe and Eleanor secured a place to sit the British Mathematical Olympiad (BMO) paper.

Daniel Grapes (Year 13), Thomas Kim (Year 12), Pyros Cheng (Year 13), Victor Hsu (Year 11) and William Wu (Year 13) also achieved impressive scores in the challenge, qualifying them for the follow-on Senior Kangaroo Paper.

Head of Mathematics at King’s Ely Senior, Audrienne Bezzina, said: “The fact that 35 of the 51 King’s Ely students who participated in the Senior Maths Challenge have been awarded certificates is a huge achievement. Roughly only the top 10 per cent of entrants achieve a Gold certificate, the next 20 per cent Silver and the next 30 per cent Bronze. We are extremely proud of our students’ achievements and we are looking forward to more Mathematics and STEM competitions throughout this academic year.”

King’s Ely’s success in the Senior Maths Challenge comes after the school came second in the annual Senior Team Maths Challenge. Held in November, Eleanor MacGillivray, David Harris, Joe Lau and William Wu represented King’s Ely at the event, which saw a total of 21 school teams competing.