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Education Minister Peter Garrett competes in Mathletics and Spellodrome challenges!
Friday, 26 April 2013 | 
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Australian Education Minister, Peter Garrett, is a long-time supporter of the World Education Games.
After he attended the Sydney WEG 2013 Awards ceremony a few weeks ago, he was eager to compete against the Mathletics champion from Brighton-Le-Sands Public School, Tabby Juncal (11 years old and pictured below).
The pair competed in Mathletics (what World Maths Day is based around) and Spellodrome (what World Literacy Day is based around). Take a look at who the winner was….!
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Australian Mathlete challenges Queensland Education Minister to a MATHS DUEL!
A 14 year old All Hallows’ School student has gone up against Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek in a live maths challenge to promote digital education and raise funds for charity.
Minister Langbroek congratulated Queensland World Education Games Ambassador Georgia Hurst on her performance during the three, one-minute maths challenges on duelling computers in the Minister’s Office.
“Well done to Georgia who tied with me in the second round,” Minister Langbroek said. “I admit that I practiced before the challenge to avoid getting beaten by a teenager. I thank Georgia for joining me in the challenge and congratulate her for being such an excellent Queensland ambassador for the World Education Games.”
“In this technological age, a quality maths education is so important as it develops students problem solving skills and prepares them for successful careers in science, engineering and information technology. It is always wonderful to see students like Georgia embracing opportunities like this to learn and expand their mathematical minds.”
The Minister used his iPad and Georgia brought her laptop to the challenge. The results were:
- Level 2 – Minister 35 def. Georgia 29
- Level 3 – Minister tied Georgia 34 all
- Level 4 – Minister 28 def. Georgia 25
The pair discussed politics and joked with each other during the friendly game. Georgia, who also represents the State in water polo, wants to be a politician or a political advisor when she grows up.
She said she enjoyed the challenge as it helped her in her role to promote the World Education Games, an annual competition which ran this month and continues to raise money for UNICEF School in a Box Program.
The winners of this year’s Games are currently being verified and invited to an awards ceremony at the Sydney Opera House on March 26.
“The Games are not-for-profit and have become a significant fundraising event,” Georgia said. “In 2012 participating schools donated over US$100,000 to UNICEF. This meant 400 School-in-a-Box kits helped 32,000 children. Our target for 2013 is to raise enough money to buy 1000 School-in-a-Box kits, so we can help more than 80,000 children.”
Click here for more information around the UNICEF “School in a Box” Project.
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A letter of support from Boris Johnson, Mayor of London:
We were all delighted to receive a letter from The Mayor of London, addressed to Jayne Warburton (CEO of 3P Learning Europe and Middle East). Have a read of his message of congratulations to all the students around the world, for their great work and efforts in the Games:
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Canada’s leaders get behind the Games
Canadian ambassadors Josh and Braden wrote to their local member of Parliament and the Prime Minister, telling them all about the World Education Games – and received letters of support back from BOTH of them, great going guys!
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Scotland’s First Minister supports the World Education Games
Letters of support from world leaders all across the globe continue to flood into the bulging postbag here at World Education Games towers.
Today we received a letter from Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, expressing his support for the event and wishing students of the UK the best of luck in the event. Where will Scottish students finish on this year’s Hall of Fame? Here’s to a great competition “north of the border!”
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A letter of support from Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper:
Congratulations and thank you to fantastic Canadian World Education Games Ambassador Alexa,
who made contact with the Prime Minister’s Office- resulting in this letter of support:
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Prime Minister Gillard of Australia shows her support
Letters of endorsement and support continue to pour into World Education Games HQ from all over the world. Today Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, sent a special message to all the students of her country and the wider world.
This year’s event is proving to be one of the largest ever, and is catching the eye of key figures around the world. In her message, Ms Gillard says “the importance of education cannot be over-emphasised, and this event offers a wonderful opportunity to improve your literacy and numeracy skills and further your scientific knowledge.”
We thank Ms Gillard for her kind letter of support – and we look forward to welcoming even more students and schools from right across Australia – home of this year’s host city Sydney – as well as students from the 207 other countries and territories already registered!
Read the full letter below…
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UK Numeracy Charity supports World Education Games 2013!
UK based charity National Numeracy has pledged its support to World Education Games 2013.
National Numeracy is an independent charity that focuses on children and adults with low levels of numeracy. It aims to challenge prevailing attitudes, influence public policy and research, identify and promote effective approaches to improving numeracy. Where possible, it will work in partnership with others to achieve these aims.
Speaking on its support of World Education Games, Wendy Jones, Trustee said…
“National Numeracy is very happy to support the World Education Games and specifically World Maths Day. Our emphasis is on encouraging everyone to improve their everyday maths. We believe that everyone can do so with support and encouragement (and indeed people can get very good at it with practice and dedication). Our main concerns are with raising the achievements of low-end performers in particular and with changing society’s often negative attitudes to maths.”
Maths is important to everyone in their daily lives, and World Maths Day helps to raise the profile of the subject and show that it can be enjoyable too. National Numeracy believes that everyone can – with effort and support – improve their numeracy. The “I can’t do maths’ attitude is simply not acceptable.
We can clearly see the value of World Maths Day in raising the profile of maths, in showing that it is an exciting subject and in helping to counter negative attitudes.
National Numeracy wishes World Maths Day and the broader World Education Games every success.”
