It’s a year ago that I started maternity cover for Fiona Kitchen at Warwick University for the AMSP. It wasn’t long after I started that I joked that I could go the whole year without going to Warwick or meeting a colleague, a teacher or a student in person. A year later it hasn’t been much of a joke as that’s exactly how it turned out! Now it’s time to hand back the reins to Fiona as we welcome her back to work.
For Fiona, looking back over what she has achieved must be quite obvious – little Solomon arrived and has thrived alongside big brother Jeremiah.
For me it hasn’t turned out quite how I expected, spending more time than I had thought producing student resources for Integral and material for the AMSP’s On Demand Professional Development (ODPD) courses. There’s a lot of new AMSP material out there and you can find an overview of our professional development offer on the AMSP website.
In the last year, the Maths and Beyond student conference, teacher professional development sessions, teacher network meetings and several Higher Level Problem Solving classes have all gone ahead online. Looking back, I realise I’ve learnt a lot – I hope the participants in the events think the same! For us, we realise there are advantages to online delivery and I expect that there will now be an increased role for this as part of the AMSP provision to schools.
Classroom teachers will no doubt be looking back at their online teaching once they’ve completed their Centre Assessed Grades. Maybe you’re only too aware of students who have experienced significant disruption in their maths education during the pandemic. The AMSP has developed six support packages for education recovery to help teachers to support their students to get their maths education back on track:
- Motivating students at Key Stage 4
- Supporting students’ transition to level 3 study
- Supporting students’ transition to degree study
- Supporting students studying Core Maths
- Supporting students studying AS/A level Mathematics
- Supporting students studying AS/A level Further Mathematics
Looking forward, Fiona is faced with a new normal to pick up relationships with the schools in Coventry, Solihull and North Warwickshire, and planning events in a future that still isn’t clear. As you plan ahead, if you identify a need for student enrichment or teacher professional development, let us know as bespoke events for individual schools can be arranged. I’m staying on as part of the West Midlands regional team to look after schools in Wolverhampton and parts of Birmingham for a little while at least. Maybe, if I stay long enough, I may even get to meet some of you – fingers crossed!