Number one in the world: Tonbridge students win the Trinity Maths Competition

A Tonbridge School team has come ‘Top in the World’ in a global Maths competition. More than 150 teams from leading schools across the world, including those in China, the US and the UK, took part in the Trinity Maths Competition (Winter 2023), an annual online contest which tests students’ problem-solving abilities under time pressure.

The Tonbridge team, calling itself e = pi = 3, was made up of Isaac King (CH4), Hayden Lam (FH5), Alex Chui (CH2), Catalin Botezat (Sc5), Justin Leung (HS4) and Sam Zang (FH3). The boys finished in first place in the entire world, beating the school’s previous best placing in the Trinity Maths Competition of 8th.

A second team, 39 is prime, also did extremely well, achieving 21st place in the world rankings. The team consisted of Ralph Edmondson (OH3), Justin Leung (JH2), Zach Hudson (SH5), Moncef Slimani (JH4), Hugh O’Donnell (PH5) and Ollie Whittall (SH5).

James Ashton, Tonbridge’s Head of Maths, said: “By any measure, this is a remarkable achievement. The second and third places went to prestigious Maths schools in the US, and so this result, along with some of our excellent performances in other competitions, confirms Tonbridge’s reputation as one of the finest schools for Maths in the country and, quite possibly, in the world.”

Tonbridge’s achievements in recent times include the following:

• Earlier this year the school had its best-ever results in the First Round of the British Mathematics Olympiad, with 12 boys gaining distinctions and seven earning a coveted place in the Second Round. This round features only the top 100 Maths students across the country;
• In 2022 two Tonbridge boys, Isaac King and Alex Chui, were awarded the joint top position in the country in the British Maths Olympiad Second Round;
• Isaac and Alex were awarded silver medals in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in 2022. It was only the second time in more than two decades that a school had more than one member selected for the UK team in this contest;
• Tonbridge was ranked eighth in the Sunday Times’ national table of independent senior schools, based on GCSE and A-level performances last year.