For the first time in many years, Norwich School’s maths teams completed the junior and senior double at the regional round of the UKMT challenge. The senior team of Caitlin Obee, George Clements, Elliot Young and Ed Young went on to come 37th in the national final. The junior team of Anna Austin, Ben Groat, George Smith and Navaneeth Hari-Krishnan will travel to London for their final next term.
Individually, sixty-eight pupils in the 6th form and U5 sat the senior maths challenge this year. Of these, 22 earned bronze certificates, 27 silvers and 11 golds. These will be awarded in house assemblies. We also had a number of pupils who did exceptionally well and qualified for follow-on competitions. 9 pupils qualified for the senior Kangaroo. Jingjing Bai and Benedict Smith did best in this, each earning a certificate of merit. Jingjing also earned a distinction in the Girls Olympiad.
In the house competition, Valpy lead the way on 29 points, with Brooke and Coke in joint second.
The ultimate challenge for a senior mathematician has always been the British Mathematical Olympiad, and this year we had 5 pupils who sat this gruelling three-and-a-half hour paper. Caitlin Obee and Ed Young scored 10 and 22 out of 60 respectively. Zhige Yu scored 33 and earns a distinction. Elliot Young’s score of 41 placed him in the top 100 nationally, and Elliot receives a bronze medal and a book. George Clements’ score of 46 placed him in the top 50, for which he also earns a book, along with a silver medal.
In recent years we have got used to presenting medals in the Intermediate Olympiad, but George and Elliot are the first senior medallists that anyone can remember at Norwich School – a truly impressive achievement.