King's Maths School

In your own words, what is King’s Maths School?

King’s Maths School is a place where people who enjoy studying maths, and also physics, can come together and extend their knowledge as far as possible and prepare for the next step in their education, which is usually university.  

What is exciting about King’s Maths School?

It’s quite a unique atmosphere! Every single person is motivated, not just to achieve high grades, but by their passion to understand topics in a way that they’ve never been able to before, and gain a total understanding of their favourite subjects.

What is your favourite subject to study? Why?

Further Mathematics is my favourite subject. There are moments where you feel you may be stuck, but as soon as you break through those moments, it feels like the biggest accomplishment!

What have the problem solving sessions been like? 

The sessions have been really good! You begin by receiving a task and some time to address the question by yourself. You may make some progress, but often these tasks are new, advanced topics, and so our mentors slowly begin dropping hints. Even though these are small hints, our mentor’s guidance reveals so much, and eventually you get somewhere.

At the beginning of the session, you may feel like you have no idea how to even approach the problem in front of you. However, during the session we often discover that the task is somewhat related to a topic we have done in class, and that we already have the knowledge and skills to tackle the problem. Therefore, you begin to understand how different aspects of maths you’ve been taught can be applied to questions you wouldn’t even think it could apply to.

Tell me about the sports / exercise you have done at King’s Maths School?

Initially I went to the gym and used King’s sports facilities, including taking part in a group class lead by one of the university’s trainers! I also did football, and that was really good because a lot of people took part in football, and you got to see so many skills you never knew people had! We always have so much fun, you don’t even realise you are doing exercise! I’ve also been to running club, which is really nice because you get to talk to your friends along the route. It’s a nice way to clear your lungs!

When we were doing sports during exams, you get freedom from your thoughts and you stop thinking about passing or failing, it really gives you a break!

We learn about well-being in Personal Development lessons and are taught about the importance of regular exercise; it would be hypocritical to promote a healthy lifestyle and not provide the opportunities to pursue that lifestyle! Other schools may not offer sport in their timetable (unless you are studying for a physical education qualification or you join an after school sports club), and it may not be possible to use sports facilities elsewhere. Therefore, the maths school is giving us a great opportunity to learn how to bring sports and exercise into our weekly routine, and to feel good too!  

What are the teachers like?

The teachers are all very helpful; any time you want to go and see them, there will be there. As our class sizes are quite small, if you get stuck your teacher immediately notices and comes over to help. There has never been a time where a teacher has given me an answer outright; they have given me hints and encouraged me to think in different ways, but I have always had to get to the answer myself.

Understanding the topic we are learning in class is the priority of our teachers. They are not just preparing us to pass exams, they really take time to make you understand every single aspect of what you are doing – they explain everything so well! This is good for our university applications, especially our interviews, as we can explain and discuss any topic at a high level.

Do you attend any clubs or societies? 

I go to astrology club. It’s really good because it is interesting to know what the world is about, and what is out there. The club is run by a student at the school and we watch a lot of Brian Cox documentaries and lectures, which helps us to learn in an interesting way.

What do you like about the structure of the school day?

I like the late start to the day, as it means I avoid rush hour! Our classes are 50 minutes long (except double periods) which is good as this is enough time to complete the work our teachers are setting us, but not so long that we finish our work quickly and then get bored and distracted.

Has the school been helpful to you in the UCAS process?

Every single UCAS session we’ve had has been really informative. Even though this is a new school, every single teacher knows the UCAS process well and exactly how to help. They started by asking us to write down our thoughts on what we wanted to study and what universities we wanted to go to. This helped our teachers understand what our end goals were and what individual assistance we would need.

We did a lot of work on our personal statements before the summer holidays. It’s really good to get our achievements and ambitions down on paper. Our teachers gave us a lot of advice on how to come across as positive students whilst showing off our strong attributes, making us more appealing to our universities of choice.

What subject do you want to study at university?

I was a bit scared that a straight maths degree course would be too much maths for me, so I have considered a variety of options, including either mathematics with engineering or mathematics with businesses management. Mathematics with business management sounds interesting to me because I like to think that I am a people person, and I like communicating with people. I also like leadership and teamwork; I enjoy working as a team with my peers in class to solve a problem. In engineering, you work as a team as well, you don’t just build a Formula 1 car by yourself! At this school, we do physics alongside maths, meaning we get to study some mechanics and learn to apply these topics into the real world. Being in this school is definitely the right place to try for these courses.

What career do you want to go into?

I’d really like to be a manager of some sort, in an engineering or maybe even a finance company. Even if I am not a manager, I’d like to be doing something in finance, banking or engineering because I find these exciting industries where I can use my maths education, but also provides roles where I would interact with people every day.