King's Maths School

If you identify with any of these statements...

• I love finding out about cool maths
• I like the way interesting maths problems make my brain go "ooooh"
• I'm ahead of the rest of my class and am itching for input

...then our Weekly Maths Challenge Plus pages are for you!

Here we have picked out some of our favourite maths stuff to read, listen to and do. We've focused on maths that helps you to deepen your mathematical understanding, and avoided content covering maths you'll learn in the future - you'll get to see that stuff anyway and will enjoy much more if you haven't seen it all in advance. And in terms of what makes you better at maths, depth beats breadth every time.

We hope you enjoy these resources as much as we do.

Timothy Bateup, Head Teacher, King's Maths School

Navigate back to our main page here or see below for some of our favourite resources from each section.

Maths to Read

Be sure to check out: 1089 and All That, David Acheson

Take any 3 digit number (say 148) and reverse the digits of it (so we would get 841). Calculate difference of these two numbers (841 - 148 = 693) and then reverse the digits of that (so 396), and finally add them together (693 + 396 = 1089). Fantastically, this phenomenal fact is far from being unique to 148, and was the problem that find make Acheson obsessed with maths. If you want a bird's eye of mathematics in general, this is the book for you.

Maths to Do

Be sure to check out: Brilliant.org

Brilliant is the right choice for anyone who enjoys learning and problem-solving. A sleek and easy-to-navigate interface with interactive tasks to test yourself keeps your mind active with STEM topics, with excellent maths, physics and computing modules.

Maths to Listen To

Be sure to check out: More or Less

Amid everyday chaos, there’s something anchoring about turning to the numbers. Episodes explore the five-second rule when dropping food, falling fertility rates, the placebo effect and some less-than-entirely-factual claims from politicians, so come here if you want to hear the numbers behind the news.

Maths to Watch

Be sure to check out: Numberphile

Every number has a story, and Numberphile tells each tale with simple language and cute animations. Each episode has an expert in the field share a number, pattern, puzzle or shape from mathematics that they love and try to convince you to too! This is a favourite amongst students in our school because of the vast range of different topics it covers in a cool way. The series Tadashi's Toys is a great place to start!

We hope you enjoy using these resources as much as we at KCLMS have. Check out the rest of them here!