The theme of this year’s Pi Day was Circles. It was also the first proper Pi Day since Covid and lockdowns and it was exciting to return to a celebration of this one mathematical number on its special day, 14th of March (3.14).
In the Prep school, pupils solved problems using Pi and tethered goats (Year 8), created posters on the visual proof of the area of a circle (Year 7), made a human Pi outside and derived Pi by measuring circumferences and diameters (Year 6), and linked all the different parts of a circle (Year 5). In the Juniors, lasting memories of Pi were created by making a visual representation of Pi, a fantastic cityscape made of circles to show some of Pi’s extraordinary length, and extremely long Pi bracelets using a black bead for the decimal point, as well as learning about circles and creating circle pictures. There was lots of colour and imagination, alongside geometrical learning!
In the Pre-Prep, pupils developed their understanding of 2D shapes, measurement and how circles are created, alongside some fabulous outdoor learning including a search for circles and shapes that look like circles but are not.
Even in language lessons Pi Day did not go uncelebrated: pupils in Year 7 recited the digits of Pi in Spanish. At lunch, we were all treated to apple pies (not forgetting the pastry Pi symbol).
There was also an inter-patrol Digits of Pi competition for pupils from Year 3 - 8. The winning patrol was Otters, with the most participants willing to have a go. However, Annie, a Year 8 Owl, was the pupil who remembered the most digits – a staggering 145!
Lucy Low, Head of Maths
The Maths team are very grateful to all the staff who created amazing lessons around circles from our Pre-Nursery all the way up to Year 8 so that very pupil in the school took part in the theme of the day.
