Trent College: Y5 Marvellous Maths Morning 2024
We hosted a Year 5 Marvellous Maths Day for pupils from external primary schools and The Elms. The children focused on reasoning and problem-solving skills, combining an element of friendly competition whilst developing essential collaborative teamwork.
They all enjoyed the activities to test their logical thinking, including codebreaking – Bletchley Park style, a Maths relay, outdoor treasure hunt and a race against time in alien escape rooms!
It was a brilliant day and great to see so much enthusiasm, hard work, and energy from all the pupils taking part!
Aims
The aim was to provide an opportunity for higher attaining Year 5 pupils to stretch their critical thinking in maths.
We wanted to provide a competitive environment for those more able mathematicians to develop new problem solving skills and to inspire them to further studies and investigations.
Background
This is planned as an annual event to be held at Trent College for Year 5 pupils.
Trent College has an extensive primary school partnership programme, working with pupils and teachers in the local community to provide opportunities to share our facilities and teaching expertise. We offer a broad range of events across sport, creative and academic, and this is one of our planned workshop days run by the Trent maths department.
This was established in 2023 and will now run on an annual basis.
Resources
The morning was totally funded by Trent College.
It involved five members of staff - three teaching and two non-teaching for whole day workshop.
Our maths department planned and resourced fully all of the sessions.
Our External School Liaison Manager oversaw inviting the external schools and the booking process for the event.
We had access to the Careers Centre all day, the Library and Outdoor Classroom for two periods in the morning and two maths classrooms in the afternoon.
The Catering department provided drinks on arrival, breaktime refreshments and a hot lunch in our dining hall for visiting children and staff free of charge.
The event ran from 9.30am to 3.00pm, and took around 2 days of preparation time.
Impact
Y5 parent, The Elms “E was telling us all about the maths day, he loved it! Sounds like he really got a lot from the day. He loved the activities and looking after the other pupils during the treasure hunt. Sounded like his maths brain was really stretched too which is awesome!”
Y5 teacher, EMCVA "Brilliant! Loved the outdoor element and the opportunity to use different classrooms for the escape rooms too. It was really great to move around and not stay in the same space all day."
Y5 teacher, Plumtree "I enjoyed seeing the children so engaged in Maths activities."
25% of the activities scored 5/5 from the teachers in terms of engagement and challenge for the pupils, with 58% scoring 4/5 and 16% scoring 3/5.
The pupils all rated the treasure hunt 5/5, with the maths relay getting 4/5 and the coding and escape room all at 3/5 or above.
Pupil Involvement
The day had 10 pupils from The Elms, 4 from another independent school and 16 from visiting state primary schools - all mixed Year 5.
Frequency
We hold two maths events per academic year - a maths morning for Year 6 in December and a whole day workshop for Year 5 in June.
This will continue annually and involves between 3 and 6 of our partnership primary schools on a recurring basis.
