Day 1

• The first day so far has been excellent and totally different to what I had expected it to be! We have had our photos taken andcreated name badges. After getting to know the staff, we started our first exercise, building robots. Not only was this really fun, but also involved maths skills. Luckily my team won the grand prix and its something i wont forget. We then moved onto creating our own Saints team and found out the intercortal ranges for the heights and weights of the total squad, the backs and the forwards. I’ve had so much fun, and its only the first day! Thank you to all the staff and I’m sure the rest of the trip will be as equally good. =)

 - Sam Arksey!

• On the first day we had a really good time building Lego robots and then we programmed them to complete tasks. Sam and I did the hardest challenge and even the staff thought that we did well! We then won the grand prix even though our robot kept falling apart and we had to fix it last minute. We then had to make our own saints team and we then learned a bit about data handling. Thanks to the staff for making this such a fun day.

-Alex Berkshire

• Brilliant first day! Played about with Robo-lab, making awesome buggies.  Donna and I had loads of fun trying to get ours to go straight and eventually our perseverance payed off and we completed the tasks. Had lunch then back into the PC suite where we tried our hand at some really hard puzzles. I didn’t complete one! Gutted, much. Anyway it’s been a great day and I’m sure the rest of the trip will be just as fab. Thanks to all the staff for making it so fun.

-Rachel Ford

• FANTASTIC! Had a great time o the fist day, having a laugh posing in front of Bernie! Then we got set a task to build a Lego vehicle that could complete a multitude of tasks such as turn 360 and park in different situations. It was quite fiddly but an amazing feeling of achievement when you got the programming right! After 2 hours of this, time went so quickly, we had a Grand Prix! Came first in the practice runs but lost it in the final, 2nd. Matt and I were Gutted! Then it was lunch where we all could sit down and have a laugh, really relaxed. then it was time to have a go at some awesome, mind boggling puzzles… Thank-you to Pete and all the staff for a great time. Hope the rest is just as good.

-Grant Stevens =] 

Sir Christopher Hatton School, Wellingborough: KS4 Gifted & Talented Mathematics Course.

This course has been devised to encourage able pupils taking Higher GCSE to appreciate the wider use of mathematics in a sporting environment and in addition, include elements of AS Statistics and Mechanics.

Day One began with Robolab with pupils designing and programming their own ‘buggy’. The pupils began by getting their buggy to turn 360 degrees before attempted gradually more difficult tasks; this was finished off with a highly competitive ‘Grand Prix’.

The afternoon session saw an introduction to Statistics using the mean heights,weights and standard deviation of the players to see which players don’t fit a Normal distribution. This produced some interesting results!

A great day was had by all. Can’t wait for day two!