SPS Mathematics Blog

The start of the spring term is always a bittersweet moment in the Hans Woyda calendar. The excitement of moving through to the knockout rounds is tempered by the knowledge that I will soon have to pick the final team of 4 from the superb squad of 12 pupils who took part in last term’s group stage matches. As ever, the selection trials were fiercely contested, and any of the 81 different possible teams would have stood us in good stead for the remainder of the competition, but eventually Haoming (4 th ), Rafael (6 th ), Lucas (L8 th ) and Adavya (U8 th ) emerged victorious. I had provided each of the team members with a set of practice questions for the journey which they eagerly worked through, swapping sheets with each other and comparing methods for the hardest questions, and at one point Adavya started loudly listing all of the squares from  16 2 to  29 2 to ensure he had them to hand in case he needed them later. The west London traffic and soporific drizzle had dampene...

The final group stage match of this year’s Hans Woyda Competition took place against The London Oratory School at home. The remaining squad members of Ryan (4 th ), Misha (6 th ), Lucas (L8 th ) and Adavya (U8 th ) helped me arrange my classroom into the battle chevron formation, after which a tube delay on our opponent’s side offered up plenty of time for some warm-up questions. Luckily, we were due for an early start regardless, and as such we were still making good time after The London Oratory had managed to overcome the challenges of the Piccadilly line. With both teams settled into their seats we prepared to start the match that would determine whether or not we make it through to the main knockout competition next term or end up competing for one of the plates instead. We were off to a strong start on the starter questions, and although an order of magnitude slip and a challenging three-way HCF question prevented us from getting full marks, Ryan managed to best his opponent ...

At the end of last Friday 7 th   November, I met the second iteration of the SPS Hans Woyda team in the atrium as we prepared for the unusually short journey to our first away match of the season. Unfortunately this meant that there was barely any time for me to pester Haoming (4 th ), Ehan (6 th ), Andrew (L8 th ) and William (U8 th ) with warmup questions on the trip over, and before I had even managed to get through three sections’ worth we had arrived at Harrodian. After a brief walk through the site to the prepared classroom (during which I admitted, to my embarrassment, that after eight years at St Paul’s I had never stopped to wonder where the name of our neighbouring school comes from!) the team took their seats and the match got underway. Both teams had a strong start, getting three out of the first four questions correct, with a counting slip on our part made up for by a summation slip on theirs. The next four starter questions caused a few more problems on both sides, no...

On Tuesday 30 th  September, we welcomed Emanuel School for the first official match of the 2025-26  Hans   Woyda  competition. The SPS team of Aryan (4 th ), Rafael (6 th ), Zicheng (L8 th ) and Aman (U8 th ) were already warmed up from the friendly against SPGS, and they were further buoyed by the support of Adavya, William and Andrew who came to spectate (along with the inimitable Dr Stoyanov). The team assisted me in arranging the classroom into my famous Battle Chevron formation (patent pending) before taking their seats to await their opponents. Once the Emanuel team had arrived and settled into their places we had a momentary pause while one of the tables was adjusted to avoid a stream of sunlight going directly into their Year 12’s eyes (which I insisted was not a deliberate act of sabotage!), after which I projected the slides, hushed the audience and handed out the first set of questions.   SPS hit the ground running with a perfect set of answers to th...

We kicked off the 2025-26 Hans Woyda season with our fourth annual friendly with SPGS. A quick parity check showed that the girls’ school were responsible for hosting this year, and as such all I had to worry about was ferrying the 12 members of the SPS squad across the river to deposit them safely in Alexandra Shamloll’s capable hands. Once again, she immediately showed me up by having the audacity to further improve the selection of team names. Teams Alpha to Zeta had been replaced by Team Conway, Euclid, Euler, Gödel, Nash and Ramanujan, all of which were chosen by the senior SPGS pupils ready for our arrival. As ever, we competed with mixed teams, with the 4 th and U8 th pupils from one school joining the 6 th and L8 th pupils of the other, and once all of the SPS boys had found their allocated mathematician we were ready to begin. All six teams fared well on the starter questions, but Gödel took an early lead after only making one mistake, while Euler and Euclid fell slightl...

The Hans Woyda trials took place and as ever it was a hotly contested competition. The squad was whittled down to 12 from a strong field of over 50 Paulines. Mr Cullen-Hewitt marked the papers which resulted in the following 2025-26 Hans Woyda squad:   4 th Form (Year 9) -  Haoming, Ryan & Aryan 6 th Form (Year 11) -  Rafael, Ehan & Misha L8 th  Form (Year 12) -  Andrew, Zicheng & Junhao U8 th  Form (Year 13) -  Adavya, Aman & William Congratulations and we look forward to a very successful year ahead! For those of you that didn’t quite make it this year, look out for the match reports on the blog and around school. Also have a go at the questions that get published if you want to improve your chances for next year. We encourage students to attend the problem-solving sessions for your year groups if you aren’t already, especially with the SMC on the horizon for the older years and look out for the House Maths competition later t...

 Yesterday, six months after kicking off the 2024-25 Hans Woyda season with our annual friendly against SPGS, we were at long last on our way to the final. There was a palpable tension around the school site and an unmistakable atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, making it abundantly clear that the entire school had their minds on that afternoon’s Mathematics fixture. As I set off for the match with Yidong (4 th ), Shyamak (6 th ), Adavya (L8 th ), and Eason (U8 th ), accompanied by Dr Stoyanov for moral support and intimidation, pupils and staff had even gathered by the towpath to wish them well; unfortunately, they all seemed to be facing the wrong direction, but it was touching nevertheless. We made our way to the City of London School (which offered its services as neutral territory for the final), discussing tactics on the tube and working through a set of warm-up questions. We met the King’s College School Wimbledon side in the lobby as we arrived, and based on previou...

I had been watching the girls’ school’s results so far with growing unease; while the nature of the competition makes it difficult to compare scores between matches, I couldn’t help but notice that they had beaten our totals in the last two rounds, and I had not forgotten the speed and accuracy on display from their squad in the mixed friendly we hosted back in September. However, there was no doubt in my mind that if anyone could give them a run for their money, it was Yidong (4 th ), Shyamak (6 th ), Adavya (L8 th ) and Eason (U8 th ). One thing was certain; it would be a thrilling match.   Both teams started strong on the starter questions, but an early mistake from SPGS gave us a 2 point lead after the first four. I started to imagine that lead snowballing into an insurmountable gap, but in a sign of things to come, a slip on our side in the remaining questions brought the two teams back level. Up next was the geometry section, all of which concerned overlapping isosceles trian...

With the first knockout match against Latymer barely a week old we were extremely quick off the mark organising our quarter final round against Queen Elizabeth’s School (QE). Normally I’d prefer a bit more breathing room between matches to build anticipation, but with a packed schedule of Linguistics Olympiads, Chemistry competitions, Chess tournaments and an entire week at the Romanian Master of Mathematics to navigate our options were severely limited. Luckily both sides so we managed to slot in the fixture well ahead of the half term deadline. We had an earlier start this time with a 3pm kick-off, and once I’d collected the QE team from reception and they’d taken their seats opposite Yidong (4 th ), Shyamak (6 th ), Adavya (L8 th ) and Eason (U8 th ) the second knockout round got underway. It was an auspicious start for the SPS side with a clean sweep on the first four starter questions, and a miscalculation on an arithmetic series from the QE Year 13 gave us an early lead. Some con...

Once again I kicked off the spring term faced with the daunting task of whittling the squad of 12 Hans Woyda competitors down to a final team of 4 to take on the knockout rounds in pursuit of the coveted Hans Woyda trophy. The selection tests were hotly contested, even requiring a tie-breaker question in the case of the U8 th s, but eventually Yidong (4 th ), Shyamak (6 th ), Adavya (L8 th ) and Eason (U8 th ) emerged as the best of the best. Their first match for this stage of the competition took place last Friday, with a home fixture against Latymer Upper School.  As the Latymer side took their seats I was buoyed by the sight of the best audience we have ever had for a Hans Woyda match courtesy of Dr Stoyanov and Mr Morris’ after-school problem solving group. Any fears of disruption from the back were unfounded and they were remarkably respectful throughout; indeed, the only sounds they made during the questions were scribbling noises as they attempted to find the answers them...

Having both won our other matches, Highgate were the only other school still in the running for topping our group and going through to the main knockout competition. A loss wouldn’t be the end of the story, as we would certainly come second and carry on to one of the plate competitions (which we won two years ago), but with the talent at our disposal it would be a shame to miss out on the opportunity to go for the Hans Woyda cup again this year. Highgate had posted some good scores on the first two rounds, but I had faith in the St Paul’s team of Issam (4 th ), Shyamak (6 th ), Aman (L8 th ) and Eason (U8 th ).   We made good time and were welcomed by Stephen Kirkham, the Highgate coach who happens to be an OP and one of Andy Mayfield’s old tutees! Naturally I had already interrogated Andy to discover whether or not Stephen had any weaknesses that could be exploited to give us the edge, but sadly it turns out that he was a first rate student and a remarkably talented mathemati...

On Tuesday 12th November, I set off across the river with the next iteration of the Hans Woyda team for our Round 2 match against Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School. A dry forecast gave way to some light drizzle, but Siddharth (4th), Richard (6th), Adavya (L8th) and James (U8th) were insistent that they wanted the 40 minute walk up to Holland Park. Naturally this time could not be wasted, so I peppered them with a barrage of past paper questions on our journey. Fresh off the back of the first round of the House Maths competition the team were already warmed up for some competitive mathematics, but after the stimulating journey they were firing on all cylinders, and while I didn’t want to get ahead of myself I felt in my bones that we were in for an impressive performance. It was fairly even between the two sides, but Adavya’s familiarity with dodecahedra gave us a slight lead going into the geometry section. Unfortunately it was another dodecahedron that bested both Adavya and James this...

We had a strong team, buoyed by the leadership of the captain of school no less, but I couldn’t help feel my confidence waver when a small slip in one of the first four questions gave NHEHS the lead at the beginning of the match. However, a mistake on their part in the next four questions allowed us to claw back some marks, leaving both teams neck and neck at the end of the starter section. This pattern repeated itself exactly in the geometry section; some inscribed squares got the better of us in the first two questions which gave NHEHS a temporary lead, but some painted cubes got the better of NHEHS in the next two which brought us back to level pegging. At this stage I was concerned that we were in for another extremely close match, and I could already feel my heart rate starting to rise in anticipation of a nail-biting finish. Fortunately, my blood pressure was eased slightly by the mental arithmetic and probability section, where a stolen mark from the square root of a mixed fract...

Following the Hans Woyda friendly at SPS, students of the Maths society interviewed Aman of the Hans Woyda Team:   

Tuesday (17th September) saw the official launching of the 2024-25 Hans Woyda season with our third annual friendly with SPGS. The SPGS team arrived to join the 12 SPS pupils who had made it through the selection process, and after a quick bout of randomised team drafts the pupils settled into their chairs for the first match of the year. The teams were named Alpha, Delta, Gamma and Zeta. The starter questions proved challenging for all of the teams, with only Alpha and Delta managing to get more than half of them right. Geometry was a very different story with success very nearly across the board, although this round turned out to be Gamma's Achilles heel and put them at a disadvantage for the rest of the competition. For the next section the hall was split into two sides, with teams taking it in turns to hand in their answers first and their opposite numbers only getting a shot at the marks if those answers were wrong. Fortunately there was some strong mental arithmetic on disp...

The Hans Woyda Maths competition is a London based interschool challenge. A big difference to other competitions is that it is a vertical year group team containing a Fourth, Sixth, Lower and Upper Eighth student (Years 9, 11, 12 & 13). The Hans Woyda’s main focus is speed, with seven sections of fast-paced questions. For instance, in the first section students only have 30 seconds to give their answers, and in the last section the first student to answer correctly gets all the points! The trials took place over multiple mornings and lunch breaks and students had to complete a time pressured test in order to claim a place in the St Paul’s squad. The top 3 students of each year group will each compete in one of the group matches of the Hans Woyda competition and will challenge other schools for the illustrious trophy. Here is a selection of some of the questions: