First photos from the Scottish Challenge!

With the final cheers from the finishing line still ringing in our ears, we are really pleased to bring you the first photos from the Scottish Schools Maths Challenge!

The Mathletics Area Manager for Scotland, Iain Smith, today visited Hamilton College to be present for the final few hours of the competition. "It was fantastic to see the students so excited about the competition," said Iain "everyone was cheering on their friends in the last few minutes!"

Linda Aitken, from the Hamilton College, said "excitement has grown throughout the week as the whole junior school took part in this challenge. Children have been arriving early for school, some at 8am, to book their lap top and increase their points. Break time and lunch time have been taken over by keen mathematicians in the ICT suite. Parents have reported their offspring competing till late at night! Many of our children, as seen in the photograph, were within the top 100 students, with Blake Welch and Adam Gardner, both J5, being our youngest!"

Supporters cheering on the leading players – with an eye on the clock for the last few minutes.

Here are all junior school children who finished the Challenge on the Leader Board of the top 100 in Scotland.

The school linked up with their chief competition GRANGEMOUTH HIGH in a live Skype link for the noisy, final countdown – Hamilton College supporters in full cheering mode as they gathered their final points!!

It's all over!

That's it, the chequered flag has been waved and the first ever Scottish Schools Maths Challenge is over. Congratulations to everyone who has taken part!

Our team will now start the job of verifying all the results. Only once all scores have been validated will the final Hall of Fame and winners be confirmed. So watch this space for news.

Only TEN minutes to go!

Who will emerge victorious...?!

It's the Final Countdown!!!!!

We are now into the final hours of the challenge and Grangemouth and Hamilton College are still dominating the top places on the leader boards!

Can David E or Hamish B from George Heriots break into the top 3 student places or are Sharan M, Olivia Jane G and Anish G from Hamilton College unstoppable? Will Mr Arbuckle's class from Hamilton College pip Mr Robertson's class from Grangemouth to the top of the classes or will Miss McColl's class from Kelvinside Academy and Mrs McKellar's class from Coylton Primary lead it to a photo finish?

The points are very close between the top schools so it's anyones guess who will be crowned the best Mathletes in Scotland! Keep up the good work everyone!

24 hours to go!!!

The competition is now entering its final phase and the excitement to see who will be the winners is almost peaking.

Even if you don’t think you may win in any of the categories, don’t worry, everyone has done incredibly well and you can see if you can beat your own best score in next year’s challenge, so try to earn as many points as possible.

Remember you earn 10 points for every correct answer that you submit in the full curriculum and 1 point for every questions correctly answered in Live Mathletics.

See you all at the finishing line!

Amazing

Two days to go now and Sharan M is holding the lead by around 7000 points, its not over yet however as there is still plenty of time for everyone to catch up over the next 48 hours.

It seems that Grangemouth High School have all been drinking lots of Irn Bru and have lots of energy to earn all of the points in the classes but Hamilton College and Kelvinside Academy could soon catch them up. It could still yet be a photo finish!

Keep up the good work and enjoy the competition!

1 Day into the Challenge....

One day down and 3 to go! The competition is hotting up, with Sharan M from Hamilton College leading the students, but David E and Cameron N from George Heriots are not far behind!

Mr Robertson's class at Grangemouth are still leading the class competition and showing us how dedicated they are! There are also a number of other classes from Grangemouth in the top 10, but Hamilton College, Coylton, George Heriots and Kelvinside Academy are working really hard to beat them to the top so there is still all to play for!

The schools competition is getting very interesting! Remember, that you will need to have as many of your pupils competing in the challenge as possible to get the most challenge points! St Francis' Primary are now leading the schools competition, closely followed by Grangemouth and Lenzie Academy. This is a great result for all schools but the competition is not over yet so keep working to get your school to the top!!