NEW ZEALAND KIDS OUTSMART THEIR AUSTRALIAN COUNTERPARTS IN TRANS-TASMAN MATHS COMPETITION
Announcement posted by Polkadot Communications 26 Sep 2017
Students from a primary school in Alfriston, New Zealand, have beaten hundreds of thousands of other students across Australia and New Zealand to win first prize in the inaugural Matific Games – a maths competition run by leading online maths resource Matific.
Alfriston School, just outside Auckland, was one of thousands of primary schools who took part in the Trans-Tasman competition in August/September 2017, and won the top prize of $20,000.
Brent Hughes, former teacher and Teacher Educator at Matific said: “The idea behind the Matific Games was to introduce a fun and engaging way for primary school kids to enjoy and learn maths and we are absolutely delighted at the level of enthusiasm and participation we’ve seen from this first event.”
The Matific Games was based around participation by students and teachers using the Matific education resource. During the competition, students took part in over 7 million maths activities in just under two weeks. Winning schools, students and teachers will share a prize pool of over $50,000.
Michelle McCarty, Principal at Alfriston School commented: “We are super proud of the way the whole school has engaged in the Matific competition and are delighted to have won first prize. At Alfriston School, students having ownership of their learning is important to us and the competition provided a forum for students to put forward their ideas for how the school could be successful. Those ideas were acted on with each student agreeing to set a personal goal of 50 stars each; with many far exceeding that goal.
“Students loved the interactive challenges across all strands of the Mathematics curriculum and their progress and achievement has clearly been significant, including their individual and collective attitudes and approaches to learning the subject. We even had students wanting to stay at school past the end of the school day to ensure we could put points on the board! The feedback we have received to date is that the prize money is nothing short of fantastic, as is the way that all members of the school community pulled together to make this a success. Thank you to Matific for making this possible.”
In a survey undertaken with schools using the Matific resource, 87% of kids said Matific helped them learn maths, 90% said they want to keep playing Matific after the games and 79% said that they would like or love Matific to be their homework.
Being a former primary school maths teacher, Brent Hughes said that this research was a fantastic step forward for children. “We’re seeing a real attitudinal change from Years K to 6 kids regarding their approach to learning maths; the fact that nearly 80% told us they wanted maths as their homework just shows how much we are helping to change children’s attitudes towards maths in a positive way.”
With seven New Zealand schools finishing in the top ten, Brent went on to say: “We’re delighted at the level of achievement we’ve seen by kids in New Zealand and it’s great to see some Tran–Transman rivalry go the way of the Kiwis in this fantastic new maths competition.”
The top three winning schools are:
Background
Matific is part of global educational technology company whose founders include top Australian businessman Leon Kamenev, who has launched a number of high profile online companies including Menulog and HotelClub.
The aim of Matific is to make maths fun and engaging for all students and this competition was launched to introduce schools to a new, fun and simple way of approaching maths that simultaneously helps young students develop a lifelong appreciation for the subject and its applications.
The Matific resource, which is currently in 45 countries and translated into 26 languages, has been getting excellent results and making inroads in both the New Zealand and Australian education systems, following the 2014/2015 TIMSS findings which revealed both countries’ primary maths standards were slipping, sitting at 491 and 517 respectively.
Given the decline in numeracy standards in New Zealand and Australia, highlighted by PISA and TIMSS, Matific is committed to supporting primary school teachers in the classroom and helping them get students engaged in maths at an early age.
www.matific.com
Interviews and photography with/of the winning schools and Brent Hughes from Matific are available on request – please contact Emma Kirkaldy at Polkadot Communications on 0406 025 771 or Tiffany Yuen on 02 9281 4190.
Alfriston School, just outside Auckland, was one of thousands of primary schools who took part in the Trans-Tasman competition in August/September 2017, and won the top prize of $20,000.
Brent Hughes, former teacher and Teacher Educator at Matific said: “The idea behind the Matific Games was to introduce a fun and engaging way for primary school kids to enjoy and learn maths and we are absolutely delighted at the level of enthusiasm and participation we’ve seen from this first event.”
The Matific Games was based around participation by students and teachers using the Matific education resource. During the competition, students took part in over 7 million maths activities in just under two weeks. Winning schools, students and teachers will share a prize pool of over $50,000.
Michelle McCarty, Principal at Alfriston School commented: “We are super proud of the way the whole school has engaged in the Matific competition and are delighted to have won first prize. At Alfriston School, students having ownership of their learning is important to us and the competition provided a forum for students to put forward their ideas for how the school could be successful. Those ideas were acted on with each student agreeing to set a personal goal of 50 stars each; with many far exceeding that goal.
“Students loved the interactive challenges across all strands of the Mathematics curriculum and their progress and achievement has clearly been significant, including their individual and collective attitudes and approaches to learning the subject. We even had students wanting to stay at school past the end of the school day to ensure we could put points on the board! The feedback we have received to date is that the prize money is nothing short of fantastic, as is the way that all members of the school community pulled together to make this a success. Thank you to Matific for making this possible.”
In a survey undertaken with schools using the Matific resource, 87% of kids said Matific helped them learn maths, 90% said they want to keep playing Matific after the games and 79% said that they would like or love Matific to be their homework.
Being a former primary school maths teacher, Brent Hughes said that this research was a fantastic step forward for children. “We’re seeing a real attitudinal change from Years K to 6 kids regarding their approach to learning maths; the fact that nearly 80% told us they wanted maths as their homework just shows how much we are helping to change children’s attitudes towards maths in a positive way.”
With seven New Zealand schools finishing in the top ten, Brent went on to say: “We’re delighted at the level of achievement we’ve seen by kids in New Zealand and it’s great to see some Tran–Transman rivalry go the way of the Kiwis in this fantastic new maths competition.”
The top three winning schools are:
- Alfriston School, Alfriston, New Zealand
- Rosehill Intermediate, Papakura, New Zealand
- Bramfield Park Primary School, Maddington, Western Australia
Background
Matific is part of global educational technology company whose founders include top Australian businessman Leon Kamenev, who has launched a number of high profile online companies including Menulog and HotelClub.
The aim of Matific is to make maths fun and engaging for all students and this competition was launched to introduce schools to a new, fun and simple way of approaching maths that simultaneously helps young students develop a lifelong appreciation for the subject and its applications.
The Matific resource, which is currently in 45 countries and translated into 26 languages, has been getting excellent results and making inroads in both the New Zealand and Australian education systems, following the 2014/2015 TIMSS findings which revealed both countries’ primary maths standards were slipping, sitting at 491 and 517 respectively.
Given the decline in numeracy standards in New Zealand and Australia, highlighted by PISA and TIMSS, Matific is committed to supporting primary school teachers in the classroom and helping them get students engaged in maths at an early age.
www.matific.com
Interviews and photography with/of the winning schools and Brent Hughes from Matific are available on request – please contact Emma Kirkaldy at Polkadot Communications on 0406 025 771 or Tiffany Yuen on 02 9281 4190.