Edinburgh pupil at Dalry Primary School wins BYITC Supermaths' national maths challenge

An Edinburgh school pupil from Dalry Primary has been announced as one of the 12 winners of the The British Youth International College’s National Maths Olympiad competition.

Out of the thousands of students who took part from across the world, Alden Ashly has won the level 3 prize in the Abacus Maths competition. The 10 year-old’s parents are thrilled their son has been recognised for his mental arithmetic skills.

They said: “Alden was so happy to win as there was so many others in the competition. He loves arithmetic and the Olympiad was a great way to test himself against children from across the world.”

Alden was one of four Scottish-based winners with three in Glasgow and the remaining winners coming from England and Northern Ireland. First launched in February 2022, the most recent National Maths Olympiad in October coincided with National Maths Week Scotland and marked the third staging of the innovative competition organised exclusively for BYITC Supermaths students across the world.

The first-of-its-kind challenge is based on the school’s pioneering Abacus Maths instruction. There were 50 questions in total and results were based on accuracy and time. Students used concepts like finger, Abacus, and mental theory. The top performers across each of 10 levels of The British Youth International College (BYITC) Supermaths training were awarded certificates and prizes for their impressive arithmetic skills.

BYITC’s Founder Dr Rashmi Mantri, said: “The National Abacus Maths Challenge continues to be a success and the students love to compete in it each year. It was created to identify, assess and celebrate students who show extraordinary Abacus Maths skills.

“Everyone, and especially children, learns best when their imagination, as well as their logical thinking skills are fully engaged on a problem or challenge. Add to that a fun element of competition and you begin to see youngsters making great progress in their performances.

“A principal aim of BYITC is to uncover the huge asset of untutored talent and ability which we know exists in every community and to channel it towards extraordinary performance in numeracy. As such, the BYITC Abacus Maths Challenge is a real game-changer.”