Students from Bellerbys College London have been celebrating following the receipt of their results in the UKMT’s Senior Maths Challenge and this year has seen our students awarded two Gold, five Silver and seven Bronze certificates, with Best in School certificates awarded to our highest scoring students; second year A Level student Daniyar Tatishev from Kazakhstan and first year A Level student Xirui Wang from China. And following their success in the Senior Maths Challenge, Daniyar and Xirui have also participated in the first round of the prestigious British Maths Olympiad.
Bellerbys London STMC Team
The first round of the British Maths Olympiad (BMO1) is a very important milestone in the year for ambitious maths students as it is used to help select the UK team for the International Maths Olympiad (IMO); and although Bellerbys College students are not usually eligible to represent the UK at the IMO, it is a great opportunity for our students to compete against other talented students and pit their wits against genuine challenging maths problems!
The first round of the British Maths Olympiad consists of an exam paper containing six complex mathematical questions, with students having three and a half hours in which to answer them; which presented quite a logistical challenge for us this year – the BMO1 had to take place on Thursday 2nd December, which was one of the days that London was blanketed by heavy snow!
Fortunately, both students were able to make the competition – it certainly helps when students live on-site in our halls of residence! It wasn’t so easy for staff to make it into school that day; I only live twenty minutes walk from Bellerbys London but even I found it difficult to get into school that day! But fortunately my colleague Clive Cubitt and our principal’s new P.A., Sheila Clewley were able to make it in that day to help me invigilate the students; although we try to ensure that our students enjoy themselves when taking part in these competitions, we also have to follow the strict rules and guidelines the UKMT insist on!
Although Daniyar will have moved on from Bellerbys by the time of next year’s competition – by then he will be studying Mathematics at university – I hope Xirui will take part again!
by Dr John McDarby
Maths Teacher at Bellerbys College London
