Hello! My name is Mr Khanji and I am on a placement at PGHS as a maths trainee teacher. Prior to this, I was at university studying for my degree in maths. What I love most about my job is how rewarding it is to help students achieve what they are capable of and being able to give them the guidance and support to help them realise their ability.

In my spare time I play different sports such as football, tennis and cricket. I also enjoy watching sport, especially Formula 1.

I really enjoy travelling to different countries. I have travelled to many countries such as USA, Canada, Turkey, Egypt, India, and many others.

I am really excited to be teaching at PGHS whilst on placement and look forward to getting to know you in the coming weeks.

Mr Khanji

Year 8 students enjoyed a spot of codebreaking in their Maths lessons during the STEM fortnight. They learned that cracking codes and unravelling the true meaning of secret messages involves lots of maths, from simple addition and subtraction, to data handling and logical thinking. Famous historical codebreakers, such as Alan Turing were looked, along with his role in deciphering the German Enigma code during World War 2, proving to be a particularly interesting discussion point.

Students also tried their hand at breaking a range of different codes including the ‘Dancing Men’, ‘Pig Pen’ and ‘Caesar’ ciphers, as well as a bit of Morse Code. Why not have a go at breaking the code below which uses the aforementioned ‘Dancing Men’ cipher:

Mr Cafferkey

Maths Department

Students in Year 10 were also given the opportunity to take part in a virtual Escape Room in their Maths lessons. They were placed into teams of five and given a different problem in seven different ‘rooms’ in a school that they had to solve in order to escape.

The rooms were scrambled for each team so that everyone completed the puzzles in a different order. As some rooms were harder than others, they didn’t know how they were doing until the very end.

After completing all the rooms, there was one final challenge which was to decode the key cards and answer three questions in order to win. Each of the key cards they had received had different clues on them. The students had to work as a team to be able to solve the problem and ‘escape’.

Mr Cafferkey

Maths Department

Over the STEM Festival, Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 have been delving into how mathematics relates to the UK financial system during some of their Maths lessons.

In Year 7, students learned about the difference between debit and credits cards. Students were very aware that a debit card gives you access to the money you had earned, whilst a credit card is where you borrow money. However, students were not aware of the issues that misusing a credit card could cause.

Students also discussed when we should be using a debit card and when to use a credit card. Some scenarios which were talked about were paying the monthly mortgage bill and paying for a holiday. Students realised that the mortgage bill should not be paid by a credit card as we are paying back borrowed money by borrowing more money which is not financially wise. Paying for a holiday by credit card is more beneficial due to the protection that you get if a holiday company went into administration.

In Year 8, students were given an opportunity to learn about what to look out for on a pay slip. Although it may be quite a while before students may see one of these, the importance of seeing one now and how this links to the maths they are currently learning, was invaluable.

Students were very intrigued to know about the tax code and their national insurance number and when they will receive these. They were not aware of how a few numbers in the tax code could impact the amount of tax each of us pay and the amount we end up taking home.

We then moved onto looking at the deductions, learning about when we pay income tax and the brackets of income tax that we can fall into. We also looked at what national insurance is and how much we have to pay; students couldn’t believe that you start paying for national insurance at £9750 but income tax was £12500.

Overall, students were very keen to see where the money they earn goes and how tax and national insurance is calculated. They can now attempt to make an estimate on the wages they will receive into their banks in the future.

In year 9, students looked at insurance. They were made aware of the different types of insurance that are available. They were not fully aware that it is a legal requirement to have car insurance when driving a car but it was not a legal requirement to have other types of insurance, for example buildings insurance if you owned a home. It was amazing to see the knowledge that the year 9 students had and the awareness of the different types of insurance that was out there.

In Year 10, students were given an opportunity to learn about the different types of financial frauds and scams. The students discussed how fraud arises and what you and your bank can do to protect yourself. Some examples involve sharing few personal details online, checking your bank statements for unusual activity and always questioning any emails or posts that offer opportunities for easy money. 

Mr Cafferkey

Maths Department

The Maths department ran a Sparx Maths XP Boost competition last half term that finished on the 15th December. All students were are able to gain bonus XP on Sparx maths during this time by completing the mini games and XP Boost tasks each week.

Every Maths class competed against each other along with pupils competing for the XP Crown.

The top 3 Maths classes were:

The top 3 students in each year were:

Well done to all those that took part and congratulations to the winners!

Mr Cafferkey

Teacher of Mathematics

Since September, we have answered over 773,741 questions correctly in 7,659 hours across 800 students. This is a tremendous achievement from the students this year on Sparx Maths and we are on track to smash the records that they achieved last year.

Sparx XP boost competition

The Maths department are currently running a Sparx Maths XP Boost competition that will finish on the 15^th December. All students are able to gain bonus XP on Sparx maths during this time by completing the mini games and XP Boost tasks each week.

Each Maths class are competing against each other, along with students competing for the XP Crown.

Currently the top 3 Maths classes are:

The top 3 pupils in each year are:

Keep up the fantastic work!  Everything is still to play for as there are still a few days to go until the competition closes.  Good luck!

Mr Cafferkey

Mathematics Department