Junior Memory Championship

Working with schools to promote memory skills for kids. 
Sponsored by the Learning Skills Foundation®



Teaching Year 5 & 6 Children
vital memory skills


JMC Final 2021

Toby is the new Junior Memory Champion!


Toby Hood, a pupil at Alleyn’s Junior School in London, is the 2021 Junior Memory Champion!

Due to coronavirus restrictions, this year’s final was a virtual event for the second year running. But once again the finalists rose to the occasion, producing performances that proved just how well they had trained their memory skills.

Twenty children won places in this year’s final, held on June 29th. These were the top performers in a series of memory tests taken by children across the UK. Since September, the children had been following a specially-written training programme, preparing to take part in The Junior Memory Championship – organised by The Learning Skills Foundation.

The 20 finalists were put through their paces this week by the championship’s Founder, the author and former World Memory Champion Jonathan Hancock. From their schools across the country, they took part in a series of online challenges, testing their ability to learn numbers, words, facts, and faces.

The whole competition was extremely close. But in the end, Toby’s strong all-round performance secured him victory. On the way to winning, he managed to memorise 29 random words, 30 numbers and 19 names – with just 5 minutes’ study time available for each challenge. Toby also impressed the organisers by scoring 100% in a tricky factual recall challenge.

Second place this year went to Naeem Hussain from Oasis Academy Hobmoor. Naeem also scored 100% in the factual round, and memorised 27 random words.

Third place went to Sophia Smith from Walthamstow Hall Junior School. She matched the champion by learning 29 random words, and recalled a very impressive 33 random numbers.

The JMC’s Founder, Jonathan Hancock, said: “We miss meeting the finalists in person. But holding the final online allows us to keep challenging the best young learners in the country. And it’s great to see how well they do under a bit of pressure. Once again they’ve proved that they’re the best of the best.

“Their teachers have clearly prepared them very well, and it’s exciting to see what children can do when they know how to learn things quickly and accurately. And from what we hear from their schools, they’ve had a lot of fun training their brains and becoming expert memorisers.”

Since its launch in 2008, the Junior Memory Championship has introduced memory techniques to tens of thousands of children across the UK.

Caroline Shott, CEO of The Learning Skills Foundation, said: “This has been a difficult time for education, and an online final adds an extra layer of challenge for the children. So it’s particularly impressive to see how well they’ve done. Their memory training has clearly helped them to focus and concentrate, as well as to learn complex sets of information. These are skills that will help them in all the learning they do from here, but they’re also valuable life skills.

“Toby should be very proud of his achievement – as should all these children. I hope they now continue to develop their memory and learning skills, and keep reaping the rewards!”

Registration is now open for the JMC 2022 at www.juniormemorychampionship.com

To organise interviews, obtain photographs, or for more details about the Junior Memory Championship and The Learning Skills Foundation, please contact Caroline Shott:

carolineshott@learningskillsfoundation.com
Tel: +44 207 736 1772

©2022 The Learning Skills Foundation®