Mathematics Games Afternoon

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The Kilvington Mathematics Games Afternoon is another example of a Continuous Innovative Project that has been recently refined. Kilvington recognises that effective mathematics teaching relies on knowledge of students’ pre-existing ideas and the implementation of effective strategies to support students in their development of more sophisticated mathematical understandings. To achieve this, both at our School and in our local area, a number of teams from local primary schools were invited to participate in the Kilvington Mathematics Games Afternoon. Twenty-four students from Years 5 and 6 competed in three main events: a team Problem-Solving Challenge, a Swiss Competition and a Relay Competition. Kilvington Year 6 student Bridie English said: ‘Our teacher asked us if we would like to compete. The games part of it was really fun and some of the questions in the last activity were a bit hard but we did OK. I really liked moving around the tables and interacting with kids from the other schools.’

Questions in each part of the competition are based on the VELS Dimension areas of Number, Space, Measurement, Chance and Data, Structure and Working Mathematically. Students work collaboratively while being exposed to a range of question types. The Academic Dean of Mathematics at Kilvington, Helen Cole, commented: ‘The Kilvington Mathematics Games Afternoon project aims to increase students’ numeracy levels whilst developing their confidence and competence with numbers. The students had lots of fun using their mathematical knowledge to solve challenging problems and play strategy games in a competitive setting.’