A disturbing OECD study published in March suggested that girls lack confidence in Maths and as a consequence significantly under-perform versus boys. Moreton Hall girls’ school swims strongly against that tide.
This month Phoebe Jackson (15 ) and Georgina Lang (14) have capped an amazing year by both winning medals in the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust Intermediate Olympiad. The Olympiad is the highest level of competition for their age group and only the top 500 mathematicians in each year group are invited to participate. Competition is, of course, fierce and medals are awarded to the top 100 participants in each year group: Phoebe won the Maclaurin Year 11 Medal and Georgina won the Hamilton Year 10 Medal. Phoebe actually went one step further and was placed in the top 50 which meant she got an additional prize of a book (about Maths problems, of course!).
Head of Maths, Sean Lang comments: “It is difficult to place this achievement in context but with approximately 1,000,000 children in each school year in the UK a place in the top 100 does rather speak for itself.”
“What has been most pleasing as a teacher is the extent to which Phoebe and Georgina have taken responsibility for their own learning. They have trained – and I use that word deliberately – for this event as one might train for any demanding endeavour. They have encouraged each other and they have driven each other to excel.”