THE regional finals of the National Young Mathematicians’ Awards have taken place at Explore Learning Farnham, where children from across Farnham battled it out in a series of never-seen-before mathematical problems for a place at the grand final.

The regional winners were declared as St Polycarp’s Catholic Primary School for their fantastic team work, systematic working and most importantly their mathematical thinking. They competed against pupils from Bentley, Highfield South Farnham and St Hillary’s (Godalming) primary schools.

The annual event, organised by tuition provider Explore Learning and the NRICH Project at the University of Cambridge, is open to teams of four children from primary schools across the UK and this year is the most popular year yet, with over 700 schools competing.

Only 50 per cent of those schools made it through to the regional finals. This year there were just over 100 regional winners, and of those, five of them will make it through to the grand final in Cambridge.

Charlotte Gater, head of curriculum at Explore Learning said: “The competition really steps up a gear at this stage, and the teams who have made it this far should be very proud indeed!

“We saw some fantastic demonstrations of team work and mathematical prowess up and down the country but only the very best will make it to the grand final.”