This friendly, online, inter-school competition gives teams of Year 6 children the opportunity to apply their mathematics knowledge and teamwork skills to solve problems and answer challenging questions, putting their reasoning skills to the test.
Teams from any school, within Hertfordshire, across the UK and overseas, are warmly welcomed to take part in this competition as all heats and the final will be held remotely. Teams will be able to join the competition from their own classrooms or school.
The hour-long heats will comprise of a set of 4 equally-weighted rounds. These rounds will include:
- questions with multiple parts
- problems in context
- visual estimation
Each team member will receive a certificate for taking part.
The top 20 scoring teams from across the heats will be invited to take part in the Grand Final. Every finalist will receive a certificate and the winners will receive the trophy, engraved with their school name, to display proudly in school until the next year’s Year 6 Mathematics Challenge takes place.
As in the Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 maths challenges, each round relies on much more than mere mathematical calculation. Teams will be challenged with problem-solving, reasoning, estimation, visualisation and arithmetic from across the mathematics curriculum.
2024 Year 6 Maths Challenge – Get involved…
Schools can choose between four identical, live online heats in the summer term. Schools may enter as many teams as they wish (and across any number of heats), at a cost of £35 per team.
To enter your Year 6 class teams into this year’s HFL Education Year 6 maths challenge, please book onto one of the following heats via the HFL Education Hub.
HEAT 1 - Thursday 13th June 2024, 1.30pm - 2.30pm
HEAT 2 - Thursday 13th June 2024, 3.30pm - 4.30pm
HEAT 3 - Tuesday 2nd July 2024, 1.30pm - 2.30pm
HEAT 4 - Tuesday 2nd July 2024, 3.30pm - 4.30pm
FINAL (by invite only): Wednesday 10th July 2024 from 1:30 - 3:30pm
Download the HFL Education Year 6 Maths Challenge Event Guidance and Practice Questions for an explanation of structure of the event and a flavour of the types of questions and problems the Year 6 teams will work together to solve.
There are hints and tips about how to solve different types of problem and about how to work well as a team.
Download free practice materials below:
In the live heats and final, teams have two minutes to complete each question.
Feedback from previous finalists
This will be the first event for Year 6.
Here are some tips from our 2023 Year 3 finalists:
Our top tip for teamwork is to divide and conquer!
Year 3 team from St Albans High School for Girls
Our favourite question was the domino estimation question because it was fun and tested our brains to calculate and estimage simultaneously.
Year 3 team from Meryfield Primary School, Borehamwood
It was so much fun. We all love maths and want to be mathematicians when we are older.
Year 3 team from St Michael's JMI, Bishop's Stortford.
Find out more about the HFL Education maths challenge events.
HFL Education Year 3 maths challenge
HFL Education Year 4 maths challenge
HFL Education Year 5 maths challenge
Sign up to our Primary Maths Newsletter for updates about the Year 4 Mathematics Challenge and from the wider world of primary maths.
For further information about the Year 6 maths challenge or for support with problem-solving and challenge in your school, contact the HFL Education Primary Maths Team at primarymaths@hfleducation.org.
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