Waltham Forest College whizzkids smash maths speed record

Five teenagers who got together just four times before facing rivals from 17 colleges across London in a maths competition have smashed last year’s record for speed in solving problems.

The five students from Waltham Forest College took first place in the London regional heat of the further education contest when they smashed the Tarsia challenge.

The annual contest is aimed at post-16 students who are working towards their functional skills qualification or improving their GCSE maths grade — and to get them to think outside the box.

“We always encourage students to think big,” Waltham Forest College principal Janet Gardner said. “The students demonstrated their skills and resilience by winning this regional competition. It’s a fantastic achievement.”

They were up against colleges from all over London competing in the finals organised by Mathematics Education Innovation – a charity aimed at improving maths education – , which were staged at Goldsmiths University.

Contestants were presented with the Kahoot quiz and the Tarsia Jigsaw puzzle.

The Waltham Forest team won the ‘Tarsia Challenge’ first round with a record time of five minutes and nine seconds, overwhelmingly breaking last year’s record of nine minutes and 11 seconds by Leicester College.

They went on to battle other rounds and ended up being crowned winners of the 2023 London regional FE maths challenge.

Waltham Forest College’s head of maths Ambica Sanger said: “They worked as a team despite only four sessions together before the challenge. This is a victory for our learners and a tremendous achievement for the college.”

Members of the winning team were Ali Akhtar, Katerina Borisova, Hilal Khan, Erike Markou and Vladlena-Khrystyna Zaremliuk.

The college, in Forest Road, Walthamstow, is holding its annual open event on June 7 for prospective students signing on for courses for the 2023-24 academic year.

It has around 2,000 enrolled students aged 16 to 19 on full time further education programmes, although its age-range claims to be “16 to 99”, studying alongside 5,000 adults mainly part time and more than 900 apprentices.

‘Job eligible’ Level 3 courses are offered free to adults aged 19 and over who don’t already have an equivalent qualification or higher, which are also available to anyone earning less than the National Living Wage or who is unemployed, regardless of any previous qualification.