Each year, the School enters a team of 6 to the Enterprising Mathematics in the Borders competition. This occupies a full morning and consists of three rounds of contests with a prior round being completed in school beforehand. For the first time this year,this earlier round will consist of the production of a Powerpoint Presentation to a set mathematical theme together with associated problems.
In 2005 we were delighted to WIN the contest and enjoyed prizes donated by the sponsors, Scottish Engineering Council as well as a trip to Glasgow last November to take part in the national finals

Peebles High School sweeps the boards in 2006 !

On the 23rd of June, the anniversary of Bannockbum, another battle took place on Scottish soil. The nine secondary schools from the Borders fought it out to find which school was tops when it came to Mathematics and problem solving. The event, which was sponsored by Scottish Engineering who have given willingly of their time and money to permit this event to take place over the last few years, was in two parts.

Part one included an interactive maze, head-to-head quizzes, team events, a mathematical relay race and a plethora of puzzles, posers and problems. A programme which demanded quick thinking and sharp wits had to be sustained for the best part of the school day. It was undertaken by the nine teams of six students from third and fourth year representing their schools with admirable energy and eagerness. The team from Peebles High School was:

Katy Dickinson        4C3
Charles Earnshaw    4C4
John Hodge              4M3
Robbie Crick            3M4
Cameron McBride   3D2
Michael Owens        3C3

The honour of the school was at stake as Peebles had been victorious on the two previous years. However, our team rose to the challenge and, by the end of a testing day, came out triumphant with a considerable lead over Galashiels Academy in second place. Both these teams will now go on to represent the region at the equivalent National Event.

Part two was a Powerpoint presentation on the properties of triangles and their uses in everyday life e.g. in art, in architecture, in industry and in science In particular, the team had to focus on the rigidity of triangles and the fact that triangles tessellate (tile). The presentation required a great deal of research and effort in school prior to the event. The team responsible for the production of the presentation was:

Katy Dickinson                 4C3
Charles Earnshaw             4C4
John Hodge                      4M3
William Ferguson             3M1
Calum Crick                     5M2

The competition was judged by Peter Hughes, who represented the sponsors, Scottish Engineering, Sally Crighton from the Scottish Maths Council, Glenise Borthwick from the General Teaching Council and John Glen (L.S. Starrett & Co Ltd) who represented Industry. In the end, the hard work of our team paid off and Peebles High School was judged to be the vorthy winners of the Powerpoint competition.
All comments from pupils and staff were favourable and the principal aim of showing that Maths can be fun, exciting and relevant was well and truly achieved.

Mrs M McMillan

Peebles High School’s own Enterprising Mathematics Competition

This year saw our fifth PHS Maths Challenge, fought out between two of our Credit sections, as Ms Hamblett’s class went head-to-head with Mrs Coutt’s class on 2 June.

All day the battle raged through the team competition (17 questions to be attempted within 40 minutes by teams of 4 pupils) followed by the excitement of the Speed Contest, where there were six “stations”, each manned by a maths teacher (Mr Brown included), and each with a fiendish puzzle to be solved by the teams of four, three teams from each class.
After a nail-biting finish in the Relay round of the competition, Mrs Coutts’ 3Z1 (now 4Z1) were declared worthy winners.

This year we are again indebted to the Pavilion Cinema in Galashiels for sponsoring us with six free passes for the cinema. Mr Neil Poole, the cinema’s owner, kindly came up to Peebles to present the prizes. In addition, the School’s own Enterprise Fund allocated us enough money to offer further free passes as prizes for the winners in each round of the contest.

We welcome feedback on our website - Email: enquiries.peebleshs@scotborders.gov.uk | Tel: 01721 720 291 | Fax: 01721 722 563