MEI Newsletter
Mathematics in Education and Industry
From the Chief Executive
► A couple of very good things
► Developing new maths AS/A levels
► Increasing the number of girls taking A level Maths and FM
S e p t em b er 2 0 1 4
It’s that time of year
again and the
summer seems to
have flashed by faster
than ever. Academic
year 2014/15 is set to
be an especially
challenging one for
mathematics
teaching.
There’s a new
National Curriculum in
place and the first
teaching of new
GCSEs begins next
September, with new
mathematics A levels
expected for first
teaching from
September 2016, and
teaching of the new
level 3 Core Maths
courses starting in the
‘early adopter’
schools from now.
Inside this issue:
From the Chief
Executive (cont.)
2
At MEI we will be
doing all we can to
support schools and
colleges to meet
these challenges.
ASDAN Short Maths
course
3
Maths at Work
Guides - Evaluation
Survey
3
Head of Mathematics
course
3
Curriculum Update
4
MEI FPT
5
Integral Online
Resources
5
Live interactive
Lectures
5
A couple of very good things are:
►I think the 2014 MEI
►The numbers of
conference is a strong
candidate for being
my best-ever, and I’ve
been to 18 of them.
The atmosphere was
fantastic and I really
enjoyed all of the
sessions I was
involved in – delegate
feedback suggests
this view was widely
shared. See Bernard
Murphy’s article on
page 6 to find out
more.
students taking AS/A
levels in Maths and
Further Maths
continues to grow,
despite the overall
number of A level
entries falling this
year, and I’m sure the
Further Maths
Support Programme
has been the main
driving force behind
these continued
increases.
Kevin Lord, the
FMSP’s new
Programme Leader,
gives details of the
increases in his article
on page 7, which also
discusses the FMSP’s
activities and priorities
for the coming
academic year.
MEI Conference 2014 6
LMS CPD Grants
6
FMSP Update
7
Save the date
MEI Conference
University of Bath
25-27 June 2015
Page 2
MEI Newsletter
Developing new maths AS/A levels
The consultations on
the content and
assessment
objectives for the new
maths A levels have
now closed.
We hope the MEI
responses, which can
be viewed on our
website, will have a
positive influence on
the final versions of
these crucial
documents, which will
determine the nature
of the new
qualifications.
We are working with
OCR to develop new
MEI AS/A levels in
Mathematics and
Further Mathematics
for first teaching from
September 2016, and
we will be developing
new textbooks and
online resources to
support them.
We aim to run a
survey of teachers
soon, in conjunction
with OCR. In the
meantime, please feel
free to contact Stella
Dudzic or Keith
Proffitt with any
questions or ideas
about the new
development.
Increasing the number of girls taking A level
Maths and FM
A new focus for the
FMSP is improving
the gender balance of
students taking the
mathematics A levels.
I’m afraid I used to
think it was in some
way natural that
significantly more
boys than girls chose
to study A level Maths
and Further Maths. I
was wrong.
Stella Dudzic
Keith Proffitt
for the Further
Mathematics Support
Programme. She has
specific responsibility
for higher education
liaison and for
encouraging the
participation of girls in
mathematics.
Claire Baldwin
It’s not the case in
many other countries,
and it would improve
opportunities for girls
in this country if more
chose to study maths
post-16.
I’d be interested in
your views on this,
and if you have ideas
for how to increase
the number of girls
choosing AS/A level
Maths and Further
Maths – please let me
or Claire Baldwin
know. Claire is a
Central Coordinator
Charlie Stripp
Chief Executive
Email Charlie
Page 3
S e p tem b e r 2 0 1 4
ASD AN Short Maths course
MEI has been working
with the awarding
organisation ASDAN to
develop a new version
of their Mathematics
Short Course.
This activity based
course can be used to
help engage learners
aged 13-19 as part of
GCSE learning
programmes and is
particularly well-suited
to post-16 students
who have yet to achieve
grade A*-C in GCSE
Mathematics. It
accredits between 10
and 60 hours of maths
study with a nationally
recognised certificate of
achievement.
You can find out more
on the ASDAN
website.
Maths at Work Guides - Evaluation Survey
In March 2014 we
published two guides
to support and
encourage the
integration of maths
learning and work
experience in 16-19
Study Programmes
(including
Traineeships) - one for
providers and one for
employers. This work
was funded by the DfE.
These guides are
available on the Study
Programme page of
the MEI website. The
employers’ guide is
also available
separately on our
Work Experience
page. They are
relevant to anyone who
teaches post-16 maths
in state schools and
colleges, including A
levels.
We would like to
evaluate the impact of
the guides and are
also keen to capture
suggestions for how
they might be
improved. We would
be grateful if you could
complete this short
survey, even if you
were not previously
aware of the guides, as
it will help us to decide
how to take this work
forward.
Janice Richards
Programme Leader
(Business
Development and
Communications)
Email Janice
Head of M athematics course
“Practical and useful
activities relevant to
my current role”
“I am really looking
forward to the rest of
the course and
having time to
properly reflect away
from school and
really focus on what I
need to develop in
order to achieve my
goals both personal
and for a future
department!”
These are a couple of
quotes from the
feedback we have
received from
participants on the first
cohorts of Head of
Mathematics. Two
cohorts have will have
completed this course
by October 2014.
Introduced for the first
time last autumn, Head
of Mathematics is a
three-day course for
new and aspiring
heads of mathematics
departments in schools
and colleges.
Feedback indicates
that participants have
particularly valued the
focus on leading the
learning and teaching
of mathematics and
the opportunities to
work with others at a
similar career stage.
Registration is now
open for an October
start. Further details
can be found on the
Head of Mathematics
page of our website,
along with the online
registration form.
Alternatively, please
contact the course
presenters: Debbie
Barker or Simon Clay.
Debbie Barker
Email Debbie
Simon Clay
Email Simon
Teacher Support
Team
Page 4
MEI Newsletter
Critical Maths – a mathematics based
thinking curriculum for post -16
As the new school year
begins some readers
will be getting to grips
with the new Core
Maths qualifications as
part of the early
adopters’ scheme.
MEI has shared its
curriculum
development work on
Critical Maths with
each of the awarding
organisations and a
quick inspection of the
draft specifications
reveals that there are
aspects of Critical
Maths in all of the
proposed
qualifications.
If you are one of the
Core Maths early
adopters, or are simply
curious about Critical
Maths, you may be
interested in the free
teaching resources
which are now
available from
mei.org.uk/criticalmaths. These
resources have been
developed over the last
year and we would like
to thank all of the staff
and students in the
schools and colleges
we worked with to test
our resources and
teaching approaches.
We plan to continue to
develop further new
materials this year.
Teaching Core Maths
will present some
challenges; the
government has
recognised this and set
up the Core Maths
Support Programme to
help. MEI has
produced some
professional
development materials
for Critical Maths.
If you are interested in
support with teaching
Critical Maths, trialling
resources or have any
questions, please
contact me.
Terry Dawson
Curriculum
Developer
Email Terry
MEI’s Quantitative Methods and Core Maths qualifications
MEI’s level 3 Certificate
in Quantitative Methods
and AS in Quantitative
Methods are accredited
for teaching from
September 2014 and
are intended for
students who have at
least grade C in GCSE
Mathematics and who
would benefit from
continuing with some
mathematics but who
do not need or want to
do AS or A level
Mathematics. These
qualifications will be
particularly useful for
students studying
subjects such as
geography, business,
chemistry, biology and
sociology.
Online resources for
the Introduction to
Quantitative Methods
unit are freely available
to centres, thanks to
OCR funding. Each of
the Quantitative
Methods
qualifications attracts
UCAS points.
MEI has worked with
OCR to submit two
Core Maths
qualifications to Ofqual
for accreditation; each
of them incorporates
the content of the
Introduction to
Quantitative Methods
and develops it further
to make a qualification
intended for students
who have succeeded
at GCSE but do not
want to take AS or A
level Mathematics.
►Quantitative
Problem Solving also
introduces further
statistics, including
hypothesis testing.
We are working on
resources for the Core
Maths qualifications;
the resources we have
developed so far will
be made available on
Integral soon.
►Quantitative
Reasoning
incorporates ideas
from our Critical Maths
development work.
Each of these
qualifications is 180
guided learning hours
in size and is for first
teaching from
September 2015, but
some of the Core
Maths ‘early adopters’
will be teaching them
from 2014.
Stella Dudzic
Programme Leader
(Curriculum)
Email Stella
Page 5
S e p tem b e r 2 0 1 4
MEI Further Pure with Technology
MEI’s new A2 Further
Mathematics Unit,
Further Pure with
Technology (FPT), has
now been examined
twice – in June 2013
and June 2014.
FPT is an optional A2
Further Pure unit in
which students have
access to a graphplotter, a spreadsheet,
a computer algebra
system (CAS) and a
programming language
in both teaching &
learning and in
assessment. A full set
of teaching and
learning resources is
available for FPT
through Integral.
We are also running a
professional
development day on
FPT at the University
of Birmingham on 27th
November.
The professional
development day will
assume no particular
experience of using
CAS, or any
programming
language, but some
experience with graphplotters and
spreadsheets will be
helpful.
To book a place at the
professional
development day, if
you are interested in
teaching the unit or if
you have students who
might want to sit the
June 2015 examination
and want more
information and advice,
please contact me.
Richard Lissaman
Email Richard
Integral Online Resources
As well as having a
new look for Integral
for the new academic
year, the section tests
for Core 3, Core 4,
Statistics 1 and
Statistics 2 in Integral
have been updated to
the new format trialled
in Core 1 and Core 2
last year, where
responses are
submitted alongside
questions rather than
in a separate form.
A feedback survey for
teachers and students
will appear on Integral
after half term. We
aim to produce high
quality resources that
have a positive impact
on the teaching and
learning of
mathematics and
completing the survey
will help us with that.
This academic year we
hope to introduce new
resources such as
videos and interactive
resources designed for
use with tablets (but
which can also be used
with non-tablet
computers). Please
look out for these. If
you are interested in
trialling some of these
resources with students
and providing feedback
then please contact me.
Richard Lissaman
Online Resources
Coordinator
Email Richard
Live interactive lectures f or Further Mathematics
The FMSP continues
to offer live interactive
lectures for AS and A2
Further Mathematics.
These lectures are
designed to
supplement the
teaching and tutorial
support in schools/
colleges where
timetabled sessions
are limited or to
support less
experienced teachers
of Further
Mathematics.
D1, D2, DE and NM.
Many units from other
specifications are also
available.
The number of units
offered in this way
continues to grow and
this year includes
MEI’s FP1, FP2, FP3,
FPT, M1, M2, S1, S2,
For more information
please see the LIL
pages on our website.
Rob Butler
FMSP Central
Coordinator
Email Rob
Page 6
MEI Newsletter
MEI Conference 2014
Sponsored by
First of all, thank you to
all of you who came to
the conference for
taking such active,
enthusiastic
participation.
Thank you also to the
speakers; the feedback
from delegates was
overwhelmingly
positive. Hand-outs
from many of the
sessions can now be
downloaded from the
MEI website; we hope
other speakers will
send theirs in shortly.
Many thanks to all of
you who took the
trouble to fill in the
evaluation form at the
conference. The
following comments
are taken from the 69
forms we received. It is
always reassuring to
receive positive
feedback and we were
delighted to see that
many of you found the
conference stimulating.
“Thank you for an
excellent conference.
I feel as if I have been
on an illuminating
journey of
mathematical
discovery!”
“The MEI Conference
is always
inspirational and
every session I
attended was great!”
“Very impressed with
everything – food,
venue, talks,
organisation,
accommodation.
Fantastic!!”
“I have has a
fantastic 3 days at
the conference so
thank you all very
much. I’ve learned so
much and had fun
too.”
As ever we were keen
to hear how we might
improve the
conference; those of
you who made
suggestions, and
included your email
address will have
received an email from
me describing what we
hope to do next year
as a result.
For example, we are
considering including
some longer sessions
in the programme and
having a session on
how to support A level
students with a GCSE
grade B/C. If you have
any other ideas please
do let us know, and if
you’d like to offer a
session now is the time
to get in touch.
I hope to see you at
next year’s conference
at the University of
Bath from June 25 to
27.
Bernard Murphy
Programme Leader
(Teacher Support)
Email Bernard
LMS CPD Grants
The London
Mathematical Society
has launched a
scheme to provide
CPD grants for
teachers. The aim is to
facilitate mathematical
professional
development to allow
teachers in UK
schools/educational
institutions to:
►Develop their subject
►Use technology when
knowledge
and where appropriate.
►Engage in a deeper
understanding of how
to develop
mathematical thinking
►Appreciate the
interconnectivity of
mathematical topics
►Update themselves
on mathematics
curriculum reform
Several of MEI’s
professional
development courses
and conferences are
likely to be eligible for
this funding.
Full details of the
scheme are available
on the LMS website.
Page 7
S e p tem b e r 2 0 1 4
Further Mathematics Support Programme
This summer’s A level
examinations once
again showed a rise in
the number of students
taking AS and A level
Mathematics and
Further Mathematics.
These two
qualifications are more
popular with young
people than ever
before and this year
Mathematics has
overtaken English as
the most popular A
level subject in the UK,
with 88 816 entries in
2014 compared with
85 336 for English.
The supply of suitably
prepared students for
mathematically-rich
degree courses and
careers has never
been better.
Compared with 2013,
A level Further
Mathematics numbers
are up from 13 821 to
14 028, an increase of
1.5%. AS level
Mathematics and
Further Mathematics
entries increased
significantly, up 7.2%
and 8.5% respectively.
The FMSP works to
widen access to and
increase participation
in both A level
Mathematics and
Further Mathematics.
Approximately twothirds of state-funded
schools and colleges
now have students
taking A level Further
Mathematics each year
and FMSP support has
helped make Further
Mathematics a
mainstream subject in
many schools and
colleges.
A key priority for the
FMSP is encouraging
student interest,
particularly that of girls,
in mathematics. The
proportion of students
taking Mathematics
and Further
Mathematics A levels
who are girls has
remained roughly the
same over the past 10
years, at 40% and 30%
respectively. We aim
to raise awareness
among girls of the
advantages of studying
Mathematics and
Further Mathematics
through targeted
enrichment events,
resources and
information. Further
information about the
ways the FMSP can
support schools and
colleges to promote
mathematics is on our
website.
The Institute of
Education, one of
MEI’s partner
organisations in the
FMSP, has carried out
a review of research
literature into the
factors affecting girls’
participation in post-16
mathematics. This
review will inform
future plans for FMSP
support and will be
available from the MEI
website in October.
Schools and colleges
may also be interested
in the participation
data published by the
DfE in June which
shows the percentage
of male and female A
level students entered
for Mathematics and
Physics in every
school/college.
This summer we have
launched a series of
Podcasts via the
FMSP website. Each
podcast features an
interesting application
of mathematics with an
associated problem.
Further episodes will
be added every two
weeks during the year.
The new Mathematics
GCSE emphasises in
its aims and objectives
the importance of
problem solving skills
and these are also
mentioned explicitly in
the proposed aims of
the new Mathematics
A levels. The FMSP is
continuing to support
the development of
problem solving
through our CPD
programme and
enrichment events. We
have produced a set
of posters “My
Favourite Problem
is…”, highlighting
interesting
mathematical problems
for KS4 students,
which were sent to all
schools this
September.
The Senior Team
Mathematics
Challenge will again
take place in
November at over 60
locations nationwide.
Building on previous
events and support for
students studying for
MAT, STEP or AEA
examinations, the
FMSP is working with
schools, colleges and
universities to establish
regular support and
enrichment sessions in
mathematical problem
solving for year 12 and
13 students.
All of these initiatives
aim to show students
that mathematics is
interesting, dynamic,
relevant and
challenging as well as
being important for
further study for a wide
range of subjects.
Please visit our
website for the latest
information about the
FMSP and the events
we organise.
Kevin Lord
Programme leader
(FMSP)
Email Kevin
Mathematics in Education and Industry
Monckton House
Epsom Centre
White Horse Business Park
Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 0XG
Phone: 01225 776776
Fax: 01225 775755
E-mail: office@mei.org.uk
Company registration number: 3265490
Websites:
MEI:
mei.org.uk
FMSP:
furthermaths.org.uk
MEI conference:
conference.mei.org.uk
Integral mathematics resources: integralmaths.org
Facebook:
facebook.com/MEIMaths
Twitter:
twitter.com/MEImaths
twitter.com/MEIConference
About MEI
Mathematics in
Education and Industry
(MEI) is a membership
organisation and a
charity. Since the 1960s,
MEI has worked to
support mathematics
teaching and learning.
Any income generated
through MEI’s work is
used to support
mathematics education.
MEI emphasises
understanding and
enjoyment of
mathematics and also
highlights the
importance of
mathematics in industry
and commerce.
MEI pioneers the
development of
innovative teaching and
learning resources,
including extensive
online materials to
support all major
examination syllabuses.
MEI offers teachers of all
GCSE and A level
specifications a range of
continuing professional
development (CPD)
courses, provides
specialist tuition for
students and works with
industry to enhance
mathematical skills in
the workplace.
There is a network of
MEI branches around
the country, offering
local support for
teachers.
MEI’s popular A level
specification is
administered by OCR,
with MEI taking
responsibility for the
curriculum, and
providing course
textbooks published by
Hodder Education.
support for teachers of
AS/A level Mathematics
and Further
Mathematics in schools
and colleges throughout
England.
MEI manages the
government-funded
Further Mathematics
Support Programme,
providing advice and
© MEI 2014