King's Maths School

For nearly a decade, King's Maths School has published a weekly mathematical challenge during term time designed to catch the attention of secondary school students interested in mathematics. Anyone in Year 11 or below can submit a solution which is then reviewed to provide feedback for the solver.

Having recently reached an important milestone - over 2,500 weekly maths challenge (wmc) solutions received -  we wanted to highlight the striking aspects of this popular problem-solving exercise. In addition, we would like to pay tribute to Ms Jenny Burdett who has managed the wmc for the last 8 years and is moving on to pastures new.

Originally used as a recruitment tool for prospective KCLMS students during our school’s launch phase over a decade ago, the wmc was conceived by former head teacher Mr Dan Abramson OBE. He felt it would be an ideal way to promote the formation and opening of KCLMS, one of the UK’s first specialist maths schools.

As Sae Koyama (Class of 2019) notes: “As a secondary school student, there are few opportunities to engage with maths outside of the GCSE maths curriculum. For me, the weekly maths problem was much less stressful and lower stakes than competition maths. An important part of doing maths is to have fun, and the weekly maths challenge allowed me to experience this and also find out more about King's Maths School.”

Isabella Topley (Class of 2023) concurs: “Unlike the maths problems I was given in school, I found the weekly maths challenge questions exciting because there was never a clear method to solve them. The questions also had more variation to them than school maths. The wmc definitely piqued my interest in KCLMS.”

Ms Burdett subsequently took over in summer 2016 and has done a tremendous job managing it. She notes: “I have enjoyed being able to encourage and guide enthusiastic young mathematicians, and along the way, I have learned a lot about constructing problems for them that provide just the right amount of challenge to be fun.”

It is interesting to observe the trajectory of the wmc. Unsurprisingly, the big leap in submission numbers sent in was in 2019-2020, during the first lockdowns. Since September 2023, Ms Burdett has received over 500 solutions, the highest total for any one academic year.

Many beautiful solutions have been sent in over the years. A favourite submission was from a pupil in Y2 who had attempted Challenge 297 : Solid Slices - Kings Maths School. His mother sent in photos of his investigations which entailed cutting up play-doh models.

The wmc which received the highest number of solutions was Challenge 287 : The root of the problem... - Kings Maths School. Twenty seven solutions were sent in during the 3-week gap between posting the problem and publishing the website solution.

Many participants have noted how the wmc enabled them to think imaginatively using new ideas.

Ram Marwaha (Class of 2021), who was a prolific solution sender and eventually a student of KCLMS, says: “I enjoyed being able to work on challenging problems which required a different logical approach as opposed to the standard school curriculum. I also liked being able to solve interesting maths which I may not have seen before which encouraged me to think outside of the box.”

Danylo Danylenko (Class of 2023) says: “The weekly maths problem was a great way of learning to problem solve and tackle interesting questions that you wouldn't often come across. I enjoyed the thrill of finding different solutions and searching for methods of solving a particular challenge.”

Mr Michael Bennett, Teacher of Mathematics, will assume responsibility for the wmc. For now, we thank Ms Burdett for her incredible service and commitment. Our alumni have aptly encapsulated our gratitude with the following messages for Ms Burdett:

Danylo says: “The weekly maths challenge was just a different style question altogether. It helped open up a different perspective of the various mathematical concepts. Thank you for running the amazing programme and supporting me in my attempts.”

Isabella notes: “Thank you very very much for running the weekly maths challenge over the years! Thursday evenings used to be the highlight of my week to see the next problem. The problems were always written very well. Thank you for your feedback too. It was very helpful to know where I’d made mistakes, how to improve them and to learn how to present a neat solution.”

Ram says: "It's amazing that Ms Burdett has been running these problems for so many years and it's great that they will still be carried on by someone else too. Ms Burdett's teaching was invaluable and I am grateful for how she encouraged a collaborative environment and made the learning enjoyable."

Sae concludes: "Thank you so much for all your hard work. I learnt so much from you, through the weekly maths problems before kclms, and throughout my time at kclms. I wouldn’t be where I am without all your patient support, both in lessons and behind the scenes."