Wednesday, 26 March 2023
Newcastle Permanent Primary School Mathematics Competition returns for its 43rd year, with a farewell to long-standing director
If you can hear the distinct sounds of students reciting their timetables, it’s because the Newcastle Permanent Primary School Mathematics Competition is returning for its 43rd year! Taking place today, this year has more than 20,000 students from over 330 schools across NSW registered to take part.
Australia’s largest and longest running competition of its kind, the 2023 edition will follow the previously successful hybrid format, which saw some schools participating on paper, while others chose to compete online.
Paul Juergens, Chief Distribution Officer of Newcastle Permanent, said, “I love that we are able to give students a challenge that helps them show what they can do, or explore talents that they may not have known they had!
“We see maths skills used in our lives every day, from cooking to playing sports. It’s exciting that we are able to help students discover the fun in maths, so they enjoy using it.
“This competition isn’t just great for the students either – teachers tell us they often take the results and use that to tweak their teaching programs.”
Challenging young minds since 1981, the competition features 35 questions aimed at Years 5 and 6 students from schools across regional NSW.
Moving the competition online brings new opportunities to reach new schools and new students, however the same rules from the very first competition held more than four decades ago still apply: no calculators and no rulers!
This year marks the retirement of the competition’s long-standing director, Mr Mervyn Curran, who has been at the helm for 10 years.
Mervyn creates a fresh paper every year, despite having more than 40 years of past competitions to lean on!
“It is so great to see the amazing youngsters out there who really love math and excel in it,” said Mervyn.
“I have always loved receiving feedback from teachers and parents stating how much their kids love the competition.
“Some of the Hunter region schools have been a part of the competition since 1981, and it is great to see their loyalty to the competition never waivers. Hearing how delighted students are to receive their Merit or Distinction certificates, especially in smaller regional schools, is something that I will miss about being a part of the competition.”
Paul extended his thanks to Mervyn for his years of service to the competition.
“Mr Curran has been instrumental in the success of our competition during his time in charge,” Paul said.
“He should be immensely proud of his custodianship of what is an important competition for the schools, students and teachers of our regions.
“Mr Curran has our gratitude and we wish him all the best in retirement.”
Prizes
Newcastle Permanent proudly presents a range of awards and prizes to the best-performing students and schools across the state.
These include:
- A Newcastle Permanent Perpetual Shield awarded to the school whose student has the highest score in the competition for Year 5
- A Newcastle Permanent Perpetual Shield awarded to the school whose student has the highest score in the competition for Year 6
- Newcastle Permanent complimentary prize accounts for the Year 5 and Year 6 divisions for overall first, second and third place. Regional Awards for the top performing students in each region will also be presented (regions will be determined by Newcastle Permanent).
All other students will receive a certificate which will be awarded as follows:
- A High Distinction Certificate for the top 1.5% of students in both Year 5 and Year 6
- A Distinction Certificate for the remaining top 15% of students in both Year 5 and Year 6
- A Merit Certificate for the next 30% of students in both Year 5 and Year 6
- All remaining students will receive a Participation Certificate.
Maths competition numbers
- 331 schools taking part in total: 277 online and more than 54 paper-based
- 20,787 students have registered to sit the exam: 17,248 online and 3,539 paper-based
- More than 600,000 students have registered to participate since the Competition’s inception in 1981.