Chapter Two – NSPCC Maths Week: The Times Tables T‑Shirt Challenge
Maths Week arrived at Riversides School with more excitement than anyone had expected. Posters had appeared overnight on every door, each one stamped with the bright green NSPCC logo and bold letters announcing:
“Multiply the Fun! NSPCC Maths Week Is Here!”
Mr Fenner, the deputy head and the school’s unofficial King of Enthusiasm, marched into Monday’s assembly wearing a neon-green cape covered in giant multiplication symbols. The children gasped. Some laughed. A few applauded. No one was surprised — Mr Fenner never did anything halfway.
“Good morning, Riversides!” he boomed, swooshing the cape dramatically. “This week, we’re celebrating the magic of times tables”
He paused for effect.
“We’re launching the very first Riversides Times Tables T‑Shirt Design Competition!”
The hall erupted into excited chatter.
“You will design a T‑shirt,” Mr Fenner continued, “that celebrates multiplication in the most creative, colourful, and extraordinary way possible. Numbers, patterns, characters, jokes – anything you can imagine!
That got everyone’s attention.
Back in the classrooms, the ideas exploded like confetti. Discussions around colours, paints, and do we add glitter?
The corridors became a hive of creativity. Tables were covered in fabric pens, stencils, sketchbooks, and the occasional emergency glitter spill. Teachers wandered around offering encouragement — and trying not to get marker ink on their jumpers. Mr Fenner visited each classroom, cape still flowing behind him, praising every idea with genuine excitement.
“This,” he said to a group designing multiplication superheroes, “is what mathematicians do. You’re creating the future of number fashion!”
By Friday afternoon, the school had been transformed into a gallery. Rows of T‑shirts hung proudly on display: some funny, some clever, some detailed enough to belong in an art exhibition.
The cheers were deafening.
But the true triumph of the week wasn’t just the winners. It was the moment when the children realised that times tables weren’t just something to memorise — they were something to celebrate, explore, and share.
By the end of NSPCC Maths Week, Riversides hadn’t just multiplied numbers…
They had multiplied confidence, creativity, and school pride.
The excitement didn’t stop with the T-shirt competition, throughout the week amongst the paint, glue and glitter students joined in with multiplication games, teachers changed up the rules for bingo! Students used their times table recall to find the correct number on their bingo card, Maths times table bleep challenge, 3 levels who wins! Maths week was a great way for all to see how our skills transfer into other subjects. It was wonderful to see pupils expressing their creativity while also developing their oracy skills, confidently discussing just how amazing maths can be. The week was full of enthusiasm, teamwork and a real celebration of learning through numbers.
