Three pupils from Diptford Primary School recently participated in a maths masterclass day at Plymouth University.

Joe Jordan, Zach Hawkins and Max Moorman were joined by pupils from six other schools, all of whom had sent their most able mathematicians.

On arrival, the children jumped straight in with an activity sheet followed by a set of six slightly devious questions. The theme of the day was teamwork and understanding the process of how to get to the correct answer - one activity involved students working together across schools to solve a problem.

After lunch the students focussed on strategy-based games and were introduced to a selection of traditional board games from a diverse range of cultures.

The students played games that have been played for hundreds of years by Maoris in New Zealand and also by the native inhabitants of Hawaii.

Joe Jordan, Zach Hawkins and Max Moorman said: "Attending this maths masterclass has been really great and certainly pushed us to use everything we have learnt at school. We enjoyed working as a team and meeting pupils from other schools, the strategy games really made us think and we have taken everything we learnt and brought it back to our school.”

Tim Jordan, parent governor at Diptford Primary School said: "Plymouth University put on a fantastic day for our pupils and the boys certainly rose to the challenge. They were a real credit to Diptford Primary School and this just demonstrates how well they are taught. It was a real privilege to be involved in the day.”