More GDST schools than ever attend the annual Junior Maths Conference

138 students from 23 GDST schools took part in our Junior Maths Conference 2024 – once again hosted at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford.

Now in its ninth year – and still going strong – 2024 boasted the most ever GDST schools in attendance. Birkenhead High School Academy attended for the first time and Redmaids’ High School – joining the GDST family in 2025 – also attended in what was their first GDST student event.

A day of mathematical magic

The theme this year was ‘mathematical magic’ and the students enjoyed learning about shapes, topology, and blowing toroidal vortexes – otherwise known as smoke rings – around the auditorium. They explored the venue, including sketching the sculptures of Platonic solids, and Oxford High School’s Sixth Form students led a workshop on mobius strips, with girls pairing up with students from different GDST schools.

“They are wandering around wide-eyed saying ‘is this what university is like'” — Redmaids’ High teacher

The accompanying Redmaids’ High teacher said: ”they have really enjoyed it – it was not what they were expecting at all – they’ve done competitions before but nothing like this. They are wandering around wide-eyed saying ‘is this what university is like'”.

GDST Junior Maths Conferences

The first Junior Maths Conference was first launched in 2015 – bringing GDST girls together from across the UK all with a mutual love of mathematics. Each year has focused on different areas of mathematics – from data to coding, and from patterns to magic – but the goal of these Trust-wide events has remained the same: to expand our students’ mathematical horizons, and to work together in solving problems.

Read about past Junior Maths Conferences