The Prep School had fun getting to grips with 'Maths Down on the Farm' week

Every Autumn Term, we deliberately put the normal programme of maths lessons on a brief hold for just one week, and we have an enormous amount of fun exploring and unpacking the maths behind an unusual topic or an area of particular interest that is beyond the normal reach of the syllabus.

This term our focus was ‘Maths Down on the Farm’ and all the students from Year 3 to 8 had a great time coming to grips with some of challenging and fascinating maths that working on a farm and raising animals involves. In some of the classes they did some serious data crunching trying to get to grips with what makes for a successful and prosperous dairy farm. In other classes they were challenged to design, research and run their own small holding and cope with all the mathematical hurdles required to make a reasonable profit in this tough sector of the economy.

We always try, in every single lesson, to make the maths they are learning as relevant and as meaningful as possible, but these special weeks, where we can let the children take the initiative and control the direction of their projects, depending on what interests them, are always tremendous fun. It is wonderful for the children to see the concepts and methods they have mastered in the run up to this week being put to the test in a real-world context.

All-in-all a superb week with plenty of challenges and loads of exciting mathematical investigations.
Mr Shaw.

Click here to see the photographs in our Flickr album