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"Great teachers, great friends, and great challenges." |
Manoj Badale, Co-founder of netdecisions. |
The Mathematics Department
Sixth Form
Single A Level and AS Level candidates now follow a common program of study in 6B. In the summer, they are entered for C1, C2 and S1 modules. When the boys return from Block Leave they are taught 'off syllabus' topics for interest.
Double mathematics sets now study the modules C1, C2, C3, FP1, S1, S2, M1 and M2 in the lower sixth. The course is taught in fifteen periods a week. This year in the Upper Sixth, there is a significant number of boys taking Further Mathematics who were set 3 or below, in Year 11. To help these boys, we have decided to split the Further Mathematicians into two sets based on academic ability and to offer a slightly different diet.
Boys in the top set will be have 7 Pure, 4 Mechanics and 4 Statistics periods a week. It is the intention that the top set will eventually study all fifteen modules.
Sixth Form ICT
All sixth form students follow a course of study using the mathematical package MAPLE.
Year 11
Boys are entered for the Edexcel IGCSE specification. Assessment consists of two 2-hour calculator papers. There is no coursework. All candidates are entered for the Higher tier which covers grades A* to D.
Just before Parents' Evening boys will be given an across-the-year double period test. Questions will be taken from the worked examples and exercises in the notes to encourage revision and consolidation. A formal two-hour mock examination will take place during the first week of the Summer term.
Year 10
Topics
covered include trigonometry, statistics, geometry, and equation solving.
Year 10 incorporates ICT work using
Autograph.
Year 9
Topics
covered include algebra, iteration, area and volume, and graph work.
Year 9 incorporates ICT work using Excel and Autograph.
Year 8
Topics
covered include sequences, circles, Pythagoras' Theorem and percentages.
Year 8 incorporates ICT work using Autograph.
Year 7
Topics
covered include number work, coordinates, angles, sets, and probability.
Year 7 incorporates ICT work using Excel.
Hans Woyda Maths Competition
This is a competition involving 64 schools from the London are including all the big public schools. The first term is spent in a small league of 4 schools before the winners of the league progress to the knockout rounds. Traditionally we get to the knockout rounds and usually progress to the last 8 or 4.
The competition consists of questions on various topics given to students, one from Y9, Y11, L6 and U6. While none exceed the syllabus, they are all slightly 'off the track' and need thought.
It is fun and gets different years discussing maths together.
National Competitions
Senior Mathematics Challenge Nov 2007
246 entrants, with 24 automatic qualifiers for the next round, the BMO1, a big increase on last year
Breakdown: Gold 52, Silver 64, Bronze 60
Best in the school: Jonathan Richman from U6 with score of 117/125
Best L6th Julian Parmer with 106 and best Yr11 Neeloy Banerjee with 98.
Intermediate Mathematics Challenge
250 entrants, with 14 automatic qualifiers for the Olympiad paper (top 400 in age group nationwide) and a further 45 qualifying for the "Kangaroo papers", (still good but not quite Olympiad standard - top 1500 nationwide per age group) Breakdown: Gold 52, Silver 64, Bronze 60
Best in the school: Prasannah Nanayakkara from Y10 with score of 124/125. Prasannah has been invited to attend the National Mathematics Summer School this July. This follows his tremendous performance in the recent follow-up Intermediate Olympiad paper where he came in the top twenty nationwide for his age group.
Best Y11 Parav Pandya with 116 and best Yr9 Rishi Chotai with 100.
Five boys from Y8 were specially invited to participate and all did well, four achieving Gold, special mention to Saravanan Sathyanandha who was second best in the school with a score of 117.
Junior Mathematics Challenge
285 boys entered from years 7 & 8, out
of nearly 250,000 entrants nationwide. Altogether Habs boys earned 84
gold, 96 silver and 59 bronze certificates, a slight improvement on the
2006 performance.
17 boys (11 from Year 8 and 6 from Year 7) have qualified for the next
round, the Junior Maths Olympiad (top 1000 pupils in the country). This
two hour paper will take place on Tuesday 12th June at School.
The best Habs performance in the JMC was from Saravanan Sathyanandha from 7C.
British Mathematical
Olympiad
The next round took place on Friday 30 November with 6 challenging questions to be attempted in 3 and a half hrs. Not for the faint hearted. Julian Parmer scored an excellent 48/60 and received an invitation to join the England Squad for some training over the New Year.
Intermediate Maths Olympiad 2008
Three boys managed to get a certificate of Distinction , having come in the top 25% of entrants in their particular year group: Parav Pandya (Year 11), Prasannah Nanayakkara (Year 10) & Dylon Sivam (Year 8).
Dylon also received a medal for coming in the top 100 nationwide, a fantastic achievement considering he is actually in Year 8 and would not normally take the Intermediate papers. Prassanah received a medal and book prize for coming in the top 50. He did so well that he has been invited to attend a summer school at Birmingham University.
Junior Maths Olympiad 2008
7 out of the 17 boys received a Certificate of Distinction putting them in
the top 25% of candidiates sitting the JMO. Out of these Cian Naik (8R),
Dylon Sivam (7C) and William Lever (8M) all received a Bronze medal but
the best in school was Saravanan Sathyanandha (7C) who achieved an
outstanding result, placing him well inside the top 50 in the country and
earning himself a Gold Medal and a book prize.
Conferences
In February 2008, twenty-four Year 10 top set students gathered in the Old Boys' meeting room with Mr Whittaker, Mr Percival, Dr Nolland and Mr Haring for a day of mathematical problems. Highlights included how to bury treasure, slicing up a circle and finding out why people should be nice to each other.
In September 2007 members of the Upper Sixth Further Mathematics teaching groups attended two days of interview preparation with Mr Percival and Mr Whittaker in a hotel near Paddington, London. The weekend was a great success, and boys found the problems engaging and a useful preparation for upcoming university interviews and STEP papers.
At the end of the Easter holiday 2007, seventeen members of the Lower Sixth Double Mathematicians, accompanied by Messrs. Hyde, Percival and Whittaker set off from Euston to Liverpool for three days of knotty problems, long walks and cultural enlightenment in that splendid city. Highlights included the cathedrals, Pick's Theorem, the waterfront, the generation of Pythagorean triples the easy way and five-a-side football against a local youth club.