There continues to be support for teachers of Core Maths in the West Midlands as part of the local and national opportunities provided by the AMSP and its partners.
The ‘New to Core Maths Programmes’ and ‘Developing Core Maths Pedagogy’ Work Groups have started in the four Maths Hub across the region, offering different outcomes for teachers in a variety of delivery styles. The programmes aim to support teachers in developing specialist knowledge and building confidence for teaching Core Maths and the Work Groups give teachers opportunities, through collaboration and experimentation, to develop improved teaching approaches that support the open-ended problem-solving skills. There may still be time to join one of these CPD opportunities, please contact your local Maths Hub for more information.
Alternatively, for those teachers who want an opportunity to improve or refresh their subject knowledge of the main topics which are common to all the specifications, the Core Maths Common Topics course is now open for registration. The course consists of 8 online sessions starting in January and uses resources from the Integral online platform.
Despite being nationally organised, our Core Maths Specification Networks are co-delivered by Core Maths experts based in the region. These individual network sessions are designed to provide you with the opportunity to discuss and share your experiences and develop your practice around the teaching of Core Maths with teachers who are following the same specification as you. Two rounds of sessions have already been delivered this academic year and the networks will continue into 2023 – look out for the next round happening next half term.
If you are looking for something a little different, then the online Core Maths Winter Festival is now open for bookings and begins in January. The festival comprises of a series of talks by inspirational speakers, each designed to enthuse, challenge and enlighten you about maths in the world around you. They offer a springboard to the creation of authentic and engaging contextualised maths lessons.
Finally, the annual ‘Core Maths Teacher Network Day’ is set to take place on Tuesday 7 March at The University of Warwick. Although final details are yet to be released, it will aim, as it always does, to support teachers through understanding the examination pre-release materials and how to prepare students to be ready to be assessed on them. Further information about this event will be released soon.
By Tom Carpenter