Wednesday, 6, October 2020
Over 22,000 students from regional NSW will make history as they take to their screens for the annual Newcastle Permanent Primary School Mathematics Competition on Wednesday 6 October 2021.
Delivered digitally for the first time, the exam will test the numeracy and problem-solving skills of year five and six students from 363 NSW schools, with awards for high performers.
Newcastle Permanent Primary School Mathematics Competition Director, Merv Curran, said every year, the excitement among teachers and students grows as the competition date approaches.
“For 41 years, this competition has identified and recognised highly talented students, and has become an automatic inclusion in the calendars of hundreds of schools. Not just a maths competition, this special event encourages important engagement with the mathematics curriculum while also showing kids how they can use maths in everyday life,” said Mr Curran.
“Teachers and parents still talk about doing the comp when they were students – there is a sentimentality about it. And I’m personally, really happy to have been a part of it for so many years.”
The Newcastle Permanent Primary School Mathematics Competition has gone from strength to strength since the first competition was first held in 1981, when just 2,337 students participated. Today, it is the largest and longest-running competition of its kind in Australia, with more than half a million students having participated since its inception.
Newcastle Permanent CEO, Bernadette Inglis, said the organisation wasn’t going to let the current COVID-19 lockdowns stand in the way of the 2021 competition.
“There’s no doubt COVID-19 has created many barriers to student learning, but time and again teachers and students have proved their resilience and found new ways of working. We know how much students across regional NSW look forward to this competition each year, so we’ve done the same, adapting to an online solution.
“Giving back to our community is at the heart of who we are as a customer owned organisation, and we’re delighted to give local students something to get excited about. Which we can see they are, by the record number of registered participants this year!” she said.
At its heart, the competition is about encouraging students at all skill levels to get enthusiastic about maths and challenge their problem solving skills.
“We wish all participating schools and students the very best of luck in the competition, whether they’re completing it from home or from school, and look forward to presenting the awards to our star mathematicians later this year,” said Ms Inglis.
The Newcastle Permanent Primary School Mathematics Competition is completed without a ruler or calculator. Winners will be awarded complimentary Newcastle Permanent accounts, with top performers also invited to compete in the annual Newcastle Permanent Primary School Online Mathematics Team Challenge in May 2022.