HOW big is a million? A whole- school investigation was launched to find out the answer to that question.

Pupils at Chickerell Primary Academy took part in a week-long school investigation.

They followed Pipkin the penguin, who asks very big questions to find out just how much a million is with help from the book How Big is a Million by Anna Milbourne.

Activities included Year One counting all week trying to find a million things, from Cheerios to grass-but only made it to 87,000.

Year Five got the chance to try and spend a £1m, learning about the cost of houses, cars and holidays, before soon realising £1m doesn’t go that far.

Research by Year Six tried to work out how many blades of grass there were on the school field.

They found out that there could be up to as many as 31 million.

Other activities included working out how long it would take to save a million pounds through pocket money and estimating what a million looks like.

Finally, the whole school worked together to walk one million footsteps.

Throughout the week, children walked the corridors with their heads down furiously counting to try and reach the total.

The event was concluded with all 400 pupils and staff heading out to walk the school field to finish off the million.

Children were sent home with certificates to show their contribution towards the challenge.

Catherine Anders, maths co-ordinator at the school, was delighted with how maths had been taught at the school that year and with how the event had gone.

She said: “We have worked incredibly hard this year as an academy to raise the profile of maths for both parents and children.

“We ran a very successful calculations morning where 200 parents attended to work alongside their children to learn how we calculate in school.

“This How Big is a Million event has been such a successful final to the school year and I hope children won’t forget it.

“I am sure the buzz of enjoyment around maths has increased this year and we hope to continue building upon this success.”

Chickerell Primary Academy wants to use its maths curriculum to get children to apply maths in real-life contexts and understand the importance of using maths in everyday situations.

Alongside this, the activity was part of promoting enjoyment and enthusiasm for learning through practical activity.