Congratulations to all participants in this year's competition.

The school finished 5th in the world overall!

Our Year 8 mathematicians did particularly well, coming top of the world for the whole year.

A new competition will start next academic year.

The Maths Faculty

Last half term, a group of Year 7 students had the opportunity to develop their public speaking skills, led by a group of Year 10s.

Here is a report from one of the leaders:

When I started the Ted Ed program as a student in year 7 I was shy and quiet. Although I had a few ideas about what makes someone a good public speaker, I had no idea how I could become one; by the end of the course, led by the year 10’s at the time, I felt infinitely more confident in not only my ideas but how to articulate them.

When I remembered the program at the beginning of this year, I knew immediately that it was something I had to at least try and set up. With the help of three other year 10 students (Alizah, Elvin and Tolani) I went ahead and set up the program. Being able to teach and guide younger students while running this program has been such a valuable experience and has greatly developed my empathy and leadership skills. The year 7s who took part were absolutely brilliant, both in their public speaking skills and in their resilience throughout the program.

Matilda R 10S

The students involved did a great job in a small amount of time.

Thank you to Matilda, Alizah, Elvin and Tolani for running the sessions alongside Oxbridge and Year 10 exam commitments. Also, congratulations to Chlorie, Louisa and Lucila who persevered during the Year 7 Exam Fortnight and kept going until the end.

Ms Robinson  
Challenge Coordinator  

 

The University of Cambridge is starting a new monthly e-newsletter for parents, carers and supporters of prospective applicants to Cambridge, offering support and advice throughout the admissions process.

The newsletter will address common questions and concerns and aims to offer guidance when supporting your student.

If you are interested to find out more, please click on the link below

https://app.geckoform.com/public/#/modern/21FO00rhrc4inv00kx4zcel9ro

Ms Robinson  
Challenge Coordinator  

For several months, Year 7 students have been developing their memory techniques by memorising Pi to more and more decimal places. 

In the week before Pi Day, each year 7 class had a class competition. The winner of each, then participated in a final competition on Pi Day itself – Monday 14th March 2022. 

Congratulations to the overall winner Jannat in Y7 who memorised Pi to 208 decimal places! 

Congratulations is also owed to all of the competitors for their GROWTH Mindset. There was much evidence of perseverance, hard work and risk taking over the course of the competition.  

The results are below along with photos of the champions. 

Thank you to Mr Trimithioti for making the trophy and to Ms Hafiz for her help on the day. 

Grand Final on Pi Day 2022 

Jannat 208 

Sara 183 

Alex 163 

Samia 162 

Vicky 139 

Safa 108 

Maryam 98 

 

Ms Robinson  
Challenge Coordinator  

On 9th March, 28 students had the opportunity to visit the Royal Veterinary College. 

Here is some feedback from three of the participants 

Personally, I loved this trip solely because of how interactive it was. We learnt a lot about animal anatomy while doing practical things to do with them e.g. touching and identifying types of bones from different animals and met Marshmallow and Oreo ( the cows ) while discussing their anatomy as a group. The guides were very informative and nice, it made the experience that much more enjoyable as well as easy to navigate.  

Anyone who gets this opportunity should 100% take it as it really teaches a lot of valuable information, especially if you're interested in veterinary work or animal anatomy/ anatomy in general! 

Teo  Y10 

Going to the Royal Veterinary College gave me an opportunity to learn more about animal anatomy and showed me what it would be like to attend a college. I really enjoyed walking through the museum as I saw many different body parts of animals on the displays that I haven't seen before, and probably would not have gotten the chance to see. The staff were extremely friendly and were able to answer any questions that I had. Additionally, seeing the cows was quite interesting as well. I got the chance to learn about the behaviour of cows and how to act around them. This intrigued me as I have very little experience around animals and  I now feel more confident after being educated on them. I greatly enjoyed the experience to the college and wish to have the opportunity to go on more trips like this.  

Elissa  Y10 

My favourite part of the trip was seeing the bone museum and getting the opportunity to see and analyse hundreds of bones and preserved specimens. 

The specimens ranged from birds to mammals like cats and dogs, amphibians and reptiles, birds and sea animals. 

It was definitely an inspiring and amazing experience. 

Kei  Y10

Students also learnt about pathways to becoming a Vet. As well as the 5 year degree, which requires grade As at A level, there is also a Veterinary Gateway pathway. This takes 6 years, and  is accessible with C grades. 

We are hoping to secure more dates to repeat this trip with another Year 10 class in the near future 

Ms Robinson, Ms Sulthana and Ms Rouse 

Recommended TED Talk 
The Magic of Numbers : Why everyone should love Maths by Bobby Seagull

In Bobby’s truly inspiring Ted Talk, he comments on the subject that most people don’t like maths and that they just say they don’t have a ‘maths brain’. However, he explains that maths so much more intriguing and exciting than it might look at first glance. He talks about how when he was little he first got hooked into maths by comparing football cards to create an approximate analysis of who is more skilled and how it inspired him to learn more about maths. He goes on to further explain how confidence is a big part in maths too as he showed us that 50% of adults don’t know how to work out a 5% increase of £9, even with a calculator and how they just need to persevere and challenge themselves to achieve great things in the maths field. He concludes the Ted Talk by saying that there is maths in everything, we just have to look for it and he ends with the motivational line:  ‘We are all mathematicians’. 

Kacey Loki 8S 

Here is the inspiring talk if you have not watched it yet.

Watch the interviews below to give you an idea of what to expect at an Oxbridge interview:

Demonstration Interview Videos

Want to know what an online interview might look like?

Watch two Caius History lecturers and interviewers demonstrate an online admissions interview with the help of a current student. 

Watch two Caius Maths lecturers and interviewers demonstrate an online admissions interview with the help of a current student.

We’ll be uploading further interview preparation videos to our Youtube channel (Caius Schools) over the coming weeks so we do encourage you and your students to subscribe.

Ms Robinson
Challenge Coordinator

Advice from Dan Pugh-Bevan, our schools liaison officer from the University of Oxford, is for students to have a little black book. Whenever students do anything connected with their learning, above and beyond what is learnt in the classroom, the idea is to write it down. Then, after leaving Walthamstow School for Girls, when going for interviews for colleges and universities, the book can be referred to, and the activities remembered and talked about.

The type of things to write about, could be books read, films seen, museums or galleries visited,  TV programmes watched etc

Watching Hannah Fry’s TV series about the magic and mystery of maths could be a good start:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bn9dth

Ms Robinson
Challenge Coordinator

Year 7 have been learning how to play the African game, Oware, in their maths lessons for Black History Month.

The game has a few simple rules, but takes a lifetime to master!

Students can carry on at home, playing against a computer, by downloading it from:

https://www.myriad-online.com/resources/docs/awale/english/index.htm

Ms Robinson
Challenge Coordinator