At UTC Portsmouth, Pi Week 2026 brought together creativity, problem solving and a shared appreciation for mathematics.

Leading up to the week, students and prospective students were invited to take part in two competitions designed to explore Pi in innovative and engaging ways. These activities formed part of a wider programme of challenges and events celebrating the importance of mathematics and its real-world applications.

Pi-CASSO Art Competition

The Pi-CASSO Art Competition challenged students to create a piece of artwork inspired by Pi or mathematics.

Entries showcased a wide range of approaches, from traditional drawing and painting to digital designs and mixed media pieces. Each submission demonstrated how mathematical ideas can be expressed creatively, with students interpreting Pi in unique and imaginative ways.

We are delighted to announce Charis, from The Portsmouth Academy, as our first prize winner for her incredible picture of William Jones, the creator of Pi. We were also impressed by our runner up, UTC Portsmouth’s own Sophie, Yr 12, who created crochet maths figures, accompanied by educational posters.

You can find these images from our winners and runner ups in the gallery below:

Artwork of William Jones, creator of pi.

Crochet maths figures with accompanying poster.

Sketch of a Pi themed sports day with bunny rabbits.

Comic book style sketch of a pi maths figure.

Apple drawing where instead of being coloured, they are filled with numbers.

Flowers arranged in the shape of the pi symbol.

Artwork featuring birds, a sunset, and the digits of pi.

Pi as stylised by the Banksy image of the girl with the red balloon, filled with digits of pi.

Child's drawing of a bunny with numbers.

Art poster representing Pi, but in the style of a cafe menu.

Pi Game Coding Competition

Alongside the art competition, students also took part in the Pi Game Coding Competition.

Participants were tasked with designing and building their own Pi-themed games using programming languages such as Scratch and Python. As well as developing their technical skills, students were asked to reflect on their work, explaining how their programme functioned, how it incorporated Pi, and the challenges they encountered during development.

We are delighted to announce Ben from ALNS as our main prize winner - his coding game showed incredible skill and creative coding. The gallery below shows our main winner and runners up.