Top marks: Newcastle kids among 11 youngsters to win in Global Maths Challenge

Jevindu Senyuth Dissanayake, aged 6, who attends Darras Hall Primary School in Ponteland, was the Level 5 winner. Kaushik Nagargoje, aged 8, who attends Brunton First School in the north of the city, was the Level 6 winner.

Of the thousands of students from all over the world who took part in the week-long free-to-enter challenge, where there are eleven categories ranging from four to fourteen, the following were successful:

Winners were:

• Saksham Kataria, aged 7, Birmingham - level 2 winner
• Sajid Hasan, aged 8, Leicestershire – level 3 winner
• Timophy Samuel, aged 7, London – level 4 winner
• Jevindu Senyuth Dissanayake, aged 6, Newcastle - level 5 winner
• Kaushik Nagargoje, aged 8, Newcastle – level 6 winner
• Aanvi Patil, aged 10, Florida, USA – level 7 winner
• Alden Ashly, aged 11, Edinburgh – level 8 winner
• Krishna Nair, aged 8, Glasgow – level 9 winner
• Catherine James, aged 11, Norwich – level 10 winner
• Arjun Nalpe, aged 12, Delaware, USA – level 11 winner
• Rishon Thampi, aged 11, Basildon, Essex – level 12 winner

Jevindu’s parents, Chapa Makawita and Indika Dissanayake, said: “Thanks to BYITC, my son now finds x faster than Google Maps. We have a little maths wizard at home, and I can’t even hide cookies without him calculating the total missing count!”

Kaushik’s parents, Sarika and Nana Nagargoje, said: “We are thrilled with our child's progress in math through British Youth International College. Winning the Maths Olympiad has boosted his confidence, and he now approaches math problems like solving puzzles—logical, strategic, and fun!”

Of the other winners, seven are from England, two are from Scotland and two from United States of America.

This year’s International Maths Olympiad coincided with National Maths Week Scotland and marked the sixth year of the innovative competition organised exclusively for BYITC Supermaths students across the world.

The first-of-its-kind challenge is based on BYITC’s pioneering Abacus Maths programme, with 50 questions in total and results based on accuracy and timely completion. Students used concepts like finger, Abacus, and Mental theory. The top performers across each of ten levels of BYITC Supermaths training were awarded certificates and prizes for their impressive arithmetic skills.

BYITC’s Founder, Dr Rashmi Mantri, said: “Since we launched the Challenge, we have been overwhelmed by the sheer enthusiasm students have demonstrated by participating wholeheartedly and doing the very best they can.

“Young people are naturally competitive and derive lots of fun from playing and experimenting with numbers. As we know from research, such high-level game playing significantly boosts logical thinking skills, an excellent preparation from a future which is going to be dominated by AI.

“The aim of the Challenge is a constant: It is to identify, assess and celebrate the talent of youngsters who demonstrate exceptional mathematical skills. This is also the very purpose of BYITC where we take especial pride in uncovering and unleashing the latent skills of youngsters to make huge strides in their numerical abilities.

“The success of our Olympiads and the sheer scale of entries from across the globe are very satisfying and give us confidence that there is a huge hunger out there for learning more about, and getting lots of fun from playing with, numbers.”

Glasgow-based BYITC is now the UK’s largest provider of Abacus Maths classes and creator of the world’s first digital Abacus maths learning App.

Dr Rashmi Mantri added: “By taking part in the National Maths Challenge, we hope our Supermaths students will further develop their interest in maths and their enthusiasm for number crunching. The challenge not only improves their arithmetic skills, speed and accuracy, but also boosts their confidence.”