1. COUNT ON US SECONDARY CHALLENGE TEACHER TRAINING 2018 Chris Olley

2. The Count on Us Secondary Challenge:
WHAT DOES IT INVOLVE?
The Count on Us Secondary Challenge:
Involves over 75 schools from around London.
Includes over 4500 students from years 8 and 9 across these schools, with 375 students participating in heats and 60 of these going through to the final at City Hall in July.
Ensures a focus on three key areas of fluency in mathematics: geometry, number and algebra.

3. RESOURCES Teacher Guide:
Detailed reminders of everything in the training
Details about the purpose of the activities
Details notes on tournament rules
Ideas for activities in school
Resources and links to develop the activities
Student Book:
You will need 60 copies for everyone involved in the project.
Practice activities for all of the rounds

4. HOW SHOULD SCHOOLS PREPARE?
Schools have committed to:
Practise for the Challenge with 60 students participating during in-school practise sessions.
Run an in-school tournament for all of the participating students. 
Activities:
Set up a Count on Us Challenge Club.
Run a curriculum evening for parents.
Hold an assembly.
Share the activities with colleagues.
Communicate with other schools taking part in the Challenge.
PRACTISE

5. KEEPING A BALANCE
Large groups of students engage with the activities in a challenging and fun environment where they can develop their mathematical skills with the activities in the student book.
Five of these students are selected to represent the school in the tournament and these students train hard to be as successful as possible, just as they would for any competitive event.

6. SECONDARY WEB SUPPORT
The submissions will be a completed document, samples of students work, photos and because some of the activities require movement, short video sequences. It would be great if you can get suitable permissions for these to be made available on the web site. However, if not, then there will be a facility to let us know.

7. HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR TEAM
Make the activities available to at least the 60 Year 8 and 9 students.
Be ready to be surprised by who begins to shine in the different aspects of the Challenge.
Look for students who excel at any one of the elements (substitutions are allowed!)
Run a practice tournament in school. With all of the parts: shape puzzles, algebra and 24® Game.
For returning schools the team must be all new!

8. THE NEW NATIONAL CURRICULUM
“… pupils should build … connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems”. (DfE, 2014)

9. SECONDARY CHALLENGE ACTIVITIES
Round
Activity
Focus
Content
ApproxTiming (mins) 1
Geometric puzzling: Solving shape problems. Two activities.
Fluency
Problem solving
Geometry 30 2
Whole numbers, Fractions and decimals and Algebra challenge using the 24®Game (5 rounds).
Number 25 3
Algebra based simulation challenge.
Solving algebraic codes.
Reasoning
Algebra 40

10. ROUND ONE - GEOMETRIC PUZZLING
The Game of Hex.
Teams will play Hex against other teams in mini-tournaments. Points will be awarded for games won. There will be large mat boards on the floor and the team members will act as the playing pieces.
2. Solving geometric puzzles.
We will give teams sets of geometric puzzle to solve using;
Counters, Dice or Matchsticks.
Domino grids
A Soma Cube.
A set of Pentominoes.

11. THE GAME OF HEX Each player has different coloured counters.
Take turns to place a counter on any empty hexagon. The winner is first to make a complete line of counters from one side to the opposite side.
The player who starts must not use the centre hexagon.
They make their line from the bottom left side to the top right side. The other player makes their line from top right to bottom left.

12. THE GAME OF HEX: TOURNAMENT
Play with one additional rule: The first player can use the centre hexagon, BUT the player to move second can choose to steal the first player's move i.e. swap one of their counters for the one placed. The first player then plays their turn again.

13. THE GAME OF HEX: LESSONS FROM LAST YEAR
The tournament board was oriented differently to the practice boards. That will be corrected this year.
The swap rule is really important. It was not used when it should have been.
Every player needs to understand the strategy.
You can walk round the board to see better.

14. SOLVING GEOMETRIC PUZZLES
Counters, Dice or Matchsticks.
Domino grids
A Soma Cube.
Pentominoes.
Teams of 3. (In the tournament continuous substitution is allowed).
Start with 3 random puzzles.
Tick off on score sheet when completed.
Swap completed or given up puzzles at the puzzle shop.
Score points for:
Each completed puzzle.
Sets of three of the same puzzle
Sets of four, being one of each type

15. DEVELOP THE IDEAS The Game of Hex Soma cube
Develop strategies for full sized Hex (also Mancala e.g. Owari).
Learn simpler games. Make complete strategies (e.g. noughts and crosses, then Nim games, then Pig)
Dice, Counters, Matchsticks
Develop tenacity. This is essential for new GCSE exams! There is a vast supply of puzzles using these materials.
Dominoes
How many pieces in a set? Why?
Solve large domino grids.
Soma cube
How many different ways to put the cube back together again?
Reliably rebuild a cube Describe the moves to do this.
Pentominoes
Pentominoes as an example of an n-omino: how many distinct n-ominoes are there?
Investigate all of the possible rectilinear designs that can be made from the pentomino pieces.

16. SOLVING GEOMETRIC PUZZLES: LESSONS FROM LAST YEAR
This has always been the lowest scoring round. We suspect that it is practiced least!
Keep moving the pieces to try different configurations.
Talk to each other and work together.
This year has more flexibility, so try hard, then give up and get a new puzzle.

17. ROUND 2: ALGEBRA, FRACTIONS, DECIMALS AND WHOLE NUMBER CHALLENGE
The 24® Game is a Card Game
Combine four numbers using , , × or ÷ to make an answer of 24.
Hints
Try to find key number bonds: 6 x 4, 8 x 3, …
Try pairing the numbers up to make the parts you need
Try finding numbers to make 1 (to multiply no make no difference)
Keep it all in your head!

18. ROUND 2: ALGEBRA, FRACTIONS, DECIMALS AND WHOLE NUMBER CHALLENGE

19. ROUND 2: ALGEBRA, FRACTIONS, DECIMALS AND WHOLE NUMBER CHALLENGE
Here are two different pairs you can use to make 24.
12 x 2
32 – 8

20. ROUND 2: ALGEBRA, FRACTIONS, DECIMALS AND WHOLE NUMBER CHALLENGE
Find two pairs that you can use to make 24.
12 x x 2 = ÷ 4 = 2
32 – x 4 = = 8

21. ROUND 2: ALGEBRA, FRACTIONS, DECIMALS AND WHOLE NUMBER CHALLENGE

22. ROUND 2: ALGEBRA, FRACTIONS, DECIMALS AND WHOLE NUMBER CHALLENGE

23. A 24® GAME CHALLENGE Five rounds of 5 minutes each. Numbers 3 2 1
Heats
Semis
Final
Numbers 3 2 1
Frac & Dec
Algebra

24. PRACTICE ACTIVITIES
Find 24: The Board Game
Torture Squares

25. DEVELOP THE IDEAS Investigate the 24®Game’s Design
Use the 24®Game as a Resource
Find different answers using all four numbers and +, -, × and ÷
Find the largest answer, the smallest answer possible, find an answer between 0 and 1, between 1.5 and 1.75, etc.
Find one or more answers that are square numbers, prime numbers, cubes etc.
Find the same number (NOT 24) with two cards using all four operations.
Investigate the 24®Game’s Design
Students can investigate to see if they can find an impossible number set and while doing this decide how to categorise the sets into one, two and three point sets.
Single digit numbers.
Three single digit numbers with one fraction.
Four fractions.
Are there impossible sets using indices?
Different sets of algebraic expressions.

26. ROUND 2: THE 24® GAME: LESSONS FROM LAST YEAR
We suspect that this round gets the most practice from some schools. These schools gain a great advantage from this round. It is the round where practice most clearly translates into high performance. Some individuals are staggeringly good at this!
Practise, practise, practise.
Be confident to place your hand on the pile if you have found an answer.
Getting one answer is important to score points, so be confident to give up if players are stuck (only two need to agree to this)

27. ROUND 3: ALGEBRA AND CODING CHALLENGE: YOUR LONDON

28. THERE ARE THREE ELEMENTS TO SOLVING THE PROBLEM...
Teams will need to access information about the 6 famous London institutions.
Teams will need to decode Caesar/Shift cipher codes.
Students will need to use algebra of any type included in the National Curriculum. These will generate one or two solutions which give letters in code to be deciphered.

29. ACTIVITIES Research (and maybe visit) the six institutions.
Practice the shift (Caesar) Cipher.
Revise list of included algebra.
Algebra practice:
Web links (inc. Tarsia)
Card sets in the guide

30. VISIT ALL THE EXHIBITORS
Round 3: The Institutions of London Show
VISIT ALL THE EXHIBITORS
TODAY ONLY!

31. ROUND 3: ALGEBRA AND CODING CHALLENGE: YOUR LONDON: LESSONS FROM LAST YEAR
You must be able to solve equations (generally OK) and decode Caesar ciphers (some schools had not practiced this). There will be instructions but it will not be clear that they are instructions. For example, listen (and make notes) on what I say introducing the task.
Practise solving ALL equation types.
Practise coding and decoding with Caesar shift ciphers.
Share out the work.
Solve any equations (and check).
Write down any answers that you find on the answer sheet.

32. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO NEXT?
Assign a lead person to:
Introduce the activities in school.
Practise with all your students.
Run your in-school tournament.
Select a team of five and send details with parental consent forms to Sheetal.
Coordinate two staff members to attend the Challenge with students.
Arrange transport and staff supervision for the Challenge.

33. Regional Heats: 23rd to 27th April Semi-Finals: 12th June
KEY DATES FOR 2018
Team names:  16th March
Regional Heats:  23rd to 27th April
Semi-Finals:  12th June
Tournament Final:  10th July

34. An Action Plan
“Set out an Action Plan for getting started and practising activities in school”.
… Just pause for a few moments and make a few notes to decide your first steps in getting this project started in your school.

35. …AND FINALLY
The most important thing is that the largest number of students get the chance to have fun engaging with the maths and get better in their maths by doing so.
…then a small group reach an elite level and represent your school and they have fun taking part.
Questions?

36. REGIONAL HEATS
We’re looking for schools to host the Regional Heats in April 2018!
You will need to have:
A large hall space
Enough tables/chairs to host school teams
Storage space for catering/resources
Projector screen
We will:
Provide all resources/materials
Cover cost of catering
Sort all logistics
Facilitate the heat
Pay a £250 grant to your school to cover other costs