Success in national Mathematics competitions has resulted in Henry Jaspars (S2) and Jack Chambers (S3) of Robert Gordon’s College receiving invitations to participate in prestigious Maths camps later this year. They are competing above their age ranges alongside the top school mathematicians in the country.
Mr Simon Fogiel, head of mathematics at Robert Gordon’s College said: “Henry’s performances in the UK Mathematical Trust’s British Mathematical Olympiad papers have already seen him travel to Hungary for a training camp over the Christmas break, but he is now one of only 20 students in the UK that will attend the International Mathematical Olympiad training camp at Trinity College, Cambridge during Easter. This achievement is even more remarkable considering Henry is 4 years younger than the majority of pupils who will be attending the camp.
“Jack’s performance in the UK Mathematical Trust’s Intermediate Challenge have seen him qualify for an even more challenging follow-up paper in the coming weeks and now an invitation to Summer School later in 2019. The Summer School sees 48 students, who are the top 1.5% of all students who participated in the challenge, gather together for a week of activities to further develop their skills and interest in Mathematics. Like Henry, Jack is invited to this event ahead of his years, as most participating pupils will be 1 year older than him.”
Henry shared: “I am really looking forward to the upcoming Trinity camp. At the camp, I hope to learn how to approach Olympiad-style problems and be immersed in mathematics for the week. I am very grateful for all the support that I have received.”
Jack commented: “I feel honoured to have been invited to a Summer School this year, and hope to further develop an appreciation of maths there, whilst meeting other like-minded individuals. I am eagerly anticipating it as it offers an incredible opportunity for me to expand my knowledge of numerous mathematical ideas and concepts. This crowns a remarkable year for me and I have been fortunate enough to have been supported by many members of the Maths department throughout the year, who have been engaging and inspiring. I hope to learn from this experience so that I am enabled to achieve more successes in the future.”
These prestigious accolades cap an eventful year in Mathematics for Henry and Jack, who both represented the College in June 2018 at the national final of the UKMT’s Junior Team Challenge, where they were part of the team that finished 22nd out of well over 1000 competing schools in the UK. This resulted in Robert Gordon’s College winning the “Best in Region” prize as the highest placed Scottish school.
Mr Fogiel concluded: “Pupils in the mathematics department have a long history of both curricular and extra-curricular achievement at Robert Gordon’s College. They are given many opportunities to push themselves beyond the core syllabus and repeated success in such competitions is a source of great pride to all teachers.”
