Primary 6 pupils at Canal View Primary School have come first in an online maths competition run across all City of Edinburgh Council primary schools. The City of Edinburgh City Council Education Convener Cllr Cammy Day visited the school on Tuesday to congratulate the class and to present them with their winning trophy.
The competition is run by Edinburgh-based social enterprise Sumdog, who have developed a sophisticated online game-based learning system specifically designed to improve skills and attainment in maths and literacy and carefully aligned to the Curriculum for Excellence.
Primary classes taking part in the competition needed to answer up to 1,000 maths questions as accurately as possible while using Sumdog’s online learning platform over a period of one week, both in the classroom and at home.
In total, more than 2,300 pupils from more than 100 classes across the city took part in the competition. Primary 6 pupils at Canal View clinched the Sumdog trophy with a score of 794 points after answering over 27,700 questions throughout the week, winning by a margin of 60 points over second placed P7 at Letham Primary School.
Canal View is one of eight primary schools in the City of Edinburgh Council area currently involved in Education Scotland’s Attainment Challenge, launched in February last year by the First Minister to bring a greater sense of urgency and priority to the attainment gap.
A recent major study of Glasgow Council primary schools found that pupils who spent an average of one hour per week using Sumdog progressed three times faster than those who used the website and apps very little or not at all. Sumdog have subsequently entered into a partnership with Glasgow City Council to provide full access to the online learning platform to all P3, P4 and P7 pupils.
Commenting on the pupils’ win, Canal View P6 Teacher Eilidh Mears said: “The pupils have really enjoyed working together as a class to take part in this competition and have all put in an extra special effort at home to get the class to the top of the leader board. Using Sumdog has been really beneficial in terms of boosting their enthusiasm for maths learning and they’re absolutely delighted to have won over so many other schools across Edinburgh that took part.”
Cllr Cammy Day said: “Big congratulations to P6 at Canal View Primary School on winning the trophy. I think this competition, which has been run in conjunction with Edinburgh-based social enterprise Sumdog, demonstrates the benefits of online learning and the important role it can play in improving attainment in numeracy and literacy – a key priority for The City of Edinburgh Council.”
Principal Teacher at Canal View Primary, Neil Adams, added: “This achievement really highlights the effort everyone in P6 has put into their learning. Sumdog has captured the youngsters’ imagination and has encouraged them to achieve even more in their class activities. P6’s success in the Sumdog competition really complements the achievements we are witnessing throughout Canal View Primary School.”
Sumdog CEO Andrew Hall commented: “We’re delighted that so many schools have taken part in this competition. As a social enterprise, we are passionate about ensuring that Sumdog makes a real and meaningful contribution towards encouraging learning and improving attainment, particularly amongst those pupils from the most deprived backgrounds.”
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