Tour de Maths & Casio

Tour De Maths – Thursday 28 January 2016 - LEG ONE

Tour de Maths is an inter-schools Mathematics Problem Solving Competition open to learners from grades 8-10. The competition is hosted every month, over the course of the year, at different schools throughout Johannesburg. The first leg of this year’s competition was hosted at St Stithians (Mears Hall) on Thursday 28 January.  Although the emphasis is on developing a greater love for Mathematics and improving problem solving strategies, some students are less competitive and prefer the opportunity to socialise, have a free meal and possibly win one of many spot prizes - thanks to the generous sponsorship of CASIO.  Students compete in groups of four – a pair from one school is grouped with a pair (of the opposite sex) from another school, and then the fun begins…

Currently there are 21 schools competing from all over Johannesburg. Schools may enter up to 16 students from their school. Last week we had a record number attending TdM with over 300 students packed into Mears Hall! We are pleased to note that we are currently placed 5th in the competition after round 1, (just behind Roedean but narrowly ahead of St Andrews Girls’ School, St Mary’s and Kingsmead) although there is still a long way to go in the competition.

We would also like to congratulate the pair of Kashmika Perumal and Natasja Troskie for being placed 6th overall and Jessica James & Nicole Brink for being placed 10th. This is a tremendous achievement, especially since these girls are in Grade 8, competing against Gr10 students!

Although this is a High School competition we invited our Girls’ and Boys’ Prep Students to participate and give them a ‘taste’ of what to expect when they are in High School. We congratulate Isabella Keogh and Yayra Ankude from the Girls’ Prep on winning their version of the competition.

We encourage our mathematically talented girls to be part of our team, or at least experience what Tour de Maths has to offer. Hopefully this year we can bring back the trophy!

Marc Ancillotti

HOD Mathematics: Girls’ College

We would also like to extend a huge thank you to Astrid Scheiber from Casio who came to St Stithians to donate calculators and memory sticks to our bursary girls who are studying both Mathematics and AP Mathematics. Every year, Casio are extremely generous in supporting these students and we truly appreciate their continued support.