Maths in the News

Overview

Our Core Maths Summer Festival is an extensive series of online interactive workshops. Each session will provide resources and activities which you can take straight to the classroom.

During the festival, we will cover a wide range of mathematical topics and contexts which will benefit maths teachers and teachers of other subjects, in particular, Biology, Geography and Psychology. You can download the Core Maths Summer Festival 2022 Programme to see a summary of all nine sessions.

Please note that the main session content will be delivered in the first hour and a half of each session and the remaining time will be dedicated to questions and support.

Who will benefit from attending?

This session will be useful for teachers of:

• Key Stage 3
• GCSE Maths
• Level 3 Core Maths
• Geography

Content

 In a world of fake news, how do we help our students discover the real story behind the headlines?

The Economist Educational Foundation has produced excellent resources which help students use their maths skills in real-world contexts and understand the link between numbers and the big issues that shape their lives. In this session you get to try out these resources and hear The Economist Foundation’s top tips for embedding critical thinking in the classroom.

Cat will also share AMSP’s favourite resources and ideas for supporting students with the critical analysis component of L3 Core Maths. 

Mathematical Focus: Critical Analysis

The Economist Educational Foundation is an independent charity that empowers young people to have high-quality discussions about current affairs.

They provide high quality teaching resources which help learners investigate the numbers to explain current news stories.

Cat van Saarloos joined MEI in 2018. Prior to this she spent 13 years teaching and leading in schools and Further Education. Her work involves delivering courses on L3 Core Maths and maths in A level Psychology and creating engaging classroom resources. Cat is passionate about making maths accessible and enjoyable and helping students see its relevance.  

Materials and Equipment

The sessions will take place via zoom. If you register for the session, you will be sent a zoom link one week before and on the day of the event.

We aim to emulate as much of the ‘face-to-face’ experience as possible and strongly encourage you to put your webcam on for some or all of the session. Please also come prepared to discuss and reflect for short periods in breakout rooms as this will be a feature of some of the sessions.

Due to the interactive nature of these events, they are not recorded. If you are looking for Core Maths PD that you can do in your own time we recommend our ‘On Demand Core Maths top-ups’.

Eligibility

All teachers are eligible to apply for a place at the festival. If the festival becomes over-subscribed, teachers from state-funded schools and colleges are given priority; this may mean that we may be unable to provide places to non-state-sector applicants.

Cost

The sessions are free of charge to all teachers in England.