Rachel Beddoes, AMSP Girls’ Participation Coordinator
As teachers and maths lovers, we have all benefited from studying maths beyond GCSE. We want our students to know about those benefits and where maths can potentially take them.
Through our enrichment events, the AMSP aims to inspire students to do just that. In the last 12 months we have held over 130 enrichment events for Key Stage 3 and 4 students, reaching over 12,000 students from 690 schools, and 55% of the students were female. At these events, students hear from speakers about exciting maths they’ve never encountered before, including sampling some level 3 maths problems, and meet university students and role models from industry who are using maths daily. All this can open their eyes to exciting careers that use maths.
In the South West, we have some of the lowest uptake of maths at A level by girls, but we are working on it! Inspiring students with young, relatable role models and facilitating their meeting with other like-minded students are proven ways to encourage girls to study level 3 maths. We always encourage teachers to bring gender-balanced groups of students to our events, and we also go into schools to work with specific groups of students.
Along with teachers, parents are the biggest influencers on a student’s subject choices post 16. If you want your students and their parents to be inspired during the school holidays, then the AMSP are supporting a Girls into Technology event in Gloucestershire on Friday 31 May. You can also look at our events page to find more opportunities to inspire your students (and yourself!).
If you are interested in finding out about more strategies to raise girls’ participation in level 3 maths, take a look at our FMSP research or contact me by emailing [email protected].