The Maths Feast, organised by the Advanced Mathematical Support Program (https://amsp.org.uk/), is an enjoyable and educational challenge for Year 10 students that assesses their problem-solving and teamwork abilities. The competition consists of several rounds, each requiring different skills and strategies for success. On Friday 10 March, Mrs. Williams accompanied two teams of four Lower V students to participate in the Maths Feast at The Downs School in Compton, with the assistance of Upper VI student, Kate Stent.

“On Friday 10 March, two teams of four Year 10 students from The Abbey went to the Downs School to take part in the 2023 Maths Feast. Maths Feast is a fun, problem solving, team competition consisting of four rounds: a starter, main course, dessert and a “petit four”.

We got off to a strong start with both teams achieving full marks in the first round, where we had to order our answers to two sets of questions in descending order. The second round included true/false questions on a wide range of topics and the third – which we unanimously decided was the hardest – required each team to work together to answer questions based on Archimedes’ method of estimating π. We ended on a high note with a relay round: each team split into two pairs, pair 1 would find the solution to the first problem e.g. x=1, which pair 2 would need to use to find the answer to the next question. 

Overall, The Abbey’s teams came 2nd and 5th out of 16, but more importantly we gained a new and exciting experience of participating in a collaborative maths challenge.”  Radha, Jodie, Mady, Mehr, Ophelia, Maria, Hayley, Jemimah – Lower V.

“What a wonderful day the Maths Feast was! Both teams had fierce competitive spirits and a level of mathematical intuition I could only have aspired to in Lower V. I really enjoyed seeing their unique perspectives on the questions and providing the odd hint, although my mental maths was a little challenged at points! “ Kate, Upper VI.