Each workshop will be 1430-1600, with a follow up task, in school or college.

When booking, please note the dates and times in your diary, and submit your cover request in school.

This Work Group compliments the AMSP’s wider professional development offer by providing a collaborative environment for experienced Core Maths teachers to explore their classroom practice. It is designed to explore and deepen teacher pedagogic content knowledge, empowering teachers to enhance their classroom practice, and to influence Core Maths teaching and learning across their school/college. These Work Groups, uniquely, offer participants the opportunity for continuing Core Maths professional development through collaboration over time.

This project, developed and provided in partnership with the AMSP, will contribute to the wider national effort to support teachers and leaders to increase the growth in uptake and delivery of Core Maths in schools and colleges, and to establish Core Maths as a standard option for post-16 Level 3 students who are not taking A level Maths.

Participants will attend a sequence of sessions led by expert Work Group Leads and supported by central resources and training. They will:

• work with the Work Group Lead and other participants to explore Core Maths pedagogical themes
• design classroom activities collaboratively to put pedagogic theories and strategies into practice
• trial these activities own their classrooms, focusing on evaluating impact and student responses
• share, compare and reflect on their classroom experiences with other members of the Work Group.

Participants are encouraged to share activities with departmental colleagues and to be advocates for Core Maths in their school/college.

Quotes from previous participants

• “This programme really helped my confidence in teaching Core Maths. Prior to this I felt unsure about whether I was covering the topics and delivering the course as it should be. It was brilliant to have the chance to talk to others and to discuss the topic areas and the way other teachers were covering the material.”
• “It was great to discuss approaches and share resources. Thank you.”
• “It was really well-run by the Work Group Lead.”
• “A fantastic programme. The most useful professional development I have ever attended.”

Who will be leading the group?

Christine Watson

Who is it for?

The project is for experienced teachers of Core Maths, in at least their second year of teaching Core Maths. These may be teachers in post-16 settings whose main subject is maths or whose main subject is not maths. Participants will be expected, where appropriate, to work with colleagues in their own department.

Participants’ institutions must commit to:

• releasing them to attend all Work Group sessions
• allowing them to develop their practice in their classroom and share this with departmental colleagues.

Participants must commit to:

• First year: attending all Work Group sessions and engaging with and completing activities between Work Group sessions
• Following year: continuing to explore ideas and sharing experiences with others, and helping to shape their schools’/colleges’ approach to teaching Core Maths.

What are the intended outcomes?

Students will:

• have raised awareness of the use of maths and statistics in everyday life
• have increased their confidence in their mathematical understanding and developed further mathematical understanding and skills in the application of maths to authentic problems
• be better placed to continue their learning in Core Maths and to progress to HE.

Participants will work with their school/subject leaders to:

• disseminate information or lead professional development on Core Maths pedagogy with their departments
• support their school/college in developing clear ways of communicating and promoting its Core Maths offer.

Participants will, through the theme of the Work Group:

• share approaches to the planning and delivery of the Core Maths curriculum
• apply related pedagogical approaches in their Core Maths teaching
• teach mathematical concepts and processes effectively through contextualised problem-solving
• identify and make effective use of existing Core Maths resources.

Participants will:

• along with colleagues in their department, understand the philosophy of Core Maths, with its approach to teaching and learning maths through contextualised problem-solving in authentic situations
• develop their understanding by exploring a range of common Core Maths approaches and topics (e.g. Fermi problems, critical analysis of numbers in the media) and their use of pre-release materials.

What is the cost?

Free - funded equally by Maths Hubs and AMSP