11 March 2021
 
Dear Parent/Carer,
 
We would like to invite pupils to enter the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge again this year. This is run by the University of Leeds and is a highly thought of national competition. Scissett Middle School enters this competition each year and many of our pupils are awarded bronze, silver or gold certificates. The questions encourage thoughtful responses and should appeal to children who enjoy puzzles of a mathematical nature; the competition is a multiple-choice question paper which lasts for one hour.
 
Pupils will take the challenge between 26th and 29th April; the UKMT are doing a mix of paper and online entries this year, so schools are being given a bit more flexibility with the timings. A full set of results and certificates are usually returned within 7 weeks.


This year pupils from 8RW and 8AGR, taught by Mrs Howarth, will automatically enter into the challenge and do not need to pay; these pupils will sit the paper in one of their Maths lessons during that week. We feel that these pupils will benefit from the questions, as it will help them with their problem solving skills in class; we would however, like to continue to accept entries from other pupils in Year 6, 7 and 8. This is more difficult to organise this year due to social distancing and class bubbles, so these pupils would need to sit the online version of the paper at home. The details of this will be finalised nearer the time; it is likely that we would be able to offer a couple of windows during those 4 days for pupils to complete the paper at home, for example:
between 5pm and 7pm on either the Monday or Thursday. There will be a cost of £1.30 to cover the entry fee for these pupils, if your child is in receipt of free school meals the cost of the entry will be paid by school.


If your child would like to take part, please pay on ParentPay by Friday 19th March 2021 (you do not need to do this for pupils in 8RW or 8AGR). Please encourage your child to take part, past challenges are available from Mrs Robinson if they would like to practise some questions.


Yours sincerely,

N Robinson

Mrs Robinson
Head of Mathematics