Margaret Harding, AC for Cornwall, Devon (South, West and North), Plymouth and Torbay
Having spent the morning of mathematical tasks designed to introduce aspects of level 3 maths, the Year 10 students attending our ‘Maths Is Your Future’ event were asked to consider why they should continue to study maths beyond GCSE. For teachers, the answers may seem clear, but the feedback from students indicated that the answer is anything but obvious to them. Toby Rome (AMSP National Team) gave a very informative and enlightening talk, where students were shown how maths links with a diverse range of potential careers, and discovered which level 3 pathways would be the most beneficial to support different career and study paths.
During the morning, students all participated in a Team Challenge, with a team from Bideford College achieving the highest score and coming away with the prizes. Additionally, all students completed two of the varied workshops, which covered topics on using codes within magic, the theory behind the strategies chosen in games, binary numbers, a look at Japanese grid puzzles and the Maths involved with origami.
Following the event, many of the students commented that they were reconsidering their choice of A levels to include Mathematics or Further Mathematics. Many also expressed interest in taking Core Maths, having not considered it previously.
Similar enrichment events will be held next year, along with a few smaller scale and new events focusing on careers choices for Year 9. Details of the events will be posted on our events listing, where you can also find opportunities for teacher professional development.