Competition: Maths Writers Wanted

Ever wanted to be a writer? Do you have something good, important or amusing to say about maths or maths education? Here's a chance to prove your flair for the written word in a competition organised by Plus Magazine and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. The competition has been launched to celebrate 50 years of the IMA.

The winning article, and possibly some of the runners-up, will be published in a forthcoming book provisionally named fifty.

You can choose to write on a topic in any one of the following categories:

• The best maths of the last fifty years, including strange or interesting biography;
• Popular maths: sport, arts (prose, poetry and visual media), social science;
• Maths at work: medicine, finance, the environment, government;
• Quirky maths, humour, spoof and magic;
• Philosophy/psychology of maths, maths in education.

The article should appeal to readers of popular science books, and those with any interest in mathematics. It should be aimed at an international audience. But it is vitally important that the article should avoid over-simplification.

Any questions concerning the competition should be emailed to 50book@ima.org.uk .

Any format for the document will be accepted. Please submit your article by email to IMA50@maths.cam.ac.uk by 15 January 2013 with 'competition entry' as the email subject. More details can be found on the Plus website.

MathsBank Advent Calendar

The MathsBank Advent Calendar is well underway.

Check out Peter's Christmas card collection that is getting out of control on Day 4.
Or the strange expanding present beneath the Christmas tree on 5.
There are also some mathematical tips on staying sober at the office Christmas party on Day 3.

Keep opening those doors for more festive fun. And see how many of the problems you can answer correctly before Christmas Eve.

Key Stage 2 Worksheets and Transfer Test Practice Papers

Our sister site Orchard Education Solutions has recently launched a series of Key Stage 2 learning materials.

There are worksheets for a wide selection of maths topics, e.g. decimals and fractions, area and perimeter and working with charts.

Also included are worksheets on English topics, such as apostrophes, poetry and comprehension.

You will find all of these worksheets at http://orchardsolutions.com/downloads/ks2-worksheets . Most of them are 99p to download.

There are also sixteen practice papers for the Northern Ireland Transfer Test, available at http://orchardsolutions.com/downloads/transfer-test . These are available as downloads or as hard copies to be sent out to you. You can also buy bundles of four papers in either format.

You will need to register on the site to access any of these materials.

Maths Inspiration

An excellent series of shows is Maths Inspiration, which challenges and entertains 16-18 year olds with an interest in taking their maths beyond what they learn in the classroom.

The shows are held in large venues with usually three or four inspirational speakers, typically one pure mathematician, one statistician and one engineer. The London show on 28th February features Simon Singh, Hugh Hunt, Colin Wright and Timandra Harkness (MC).

The shows aim to be exciting and to put challenging maths into real-world situations. From attracting 300 pupils and teachers in 2003, the series of events now attracts over 12000 in total.

The content is aimed primarily at sixth formers, but interested GCSE year pupils will also benefit.

There is always a lively Q&A session at the end of each show.

Dates and venues for Spring 2013 are:
London, 28 February
Warrington, 6 March
Newcastle, 8 March
Leeds, 12 March
Bristol, 14 March
Winchester, 20 March
Nottingham, 21 March.

Each show runs from 1pm - 3:45pm, with an extra morning show (9:45am - 12:30pm) in London and Leeds. Read more about the programme and make your reservation on the Maths Inspiration website.

There is also an article about Maths Inspiration in an article from the Education Guardian website and a piece on BBC News.

Post-16 Maths for Non A-Level Takers

In a report commissioned by the Government last year on the state of maths teaching in British schools, one recommendation was for maths education to be made compulsory up to the age of 18 for all pupils.

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary for England, appears to have decided to run with this recommendation. The MEI charity (Maths in Education and Industry) has been given the remit of devising a curriculum suitable for such pupils, who would otherwise not have taken maths beyond GCSE. You can read the MEI press release.

Prof Tim Gowers at Cambridge University has been blogging extensively on this subject and his blog has been accepted by MEI as the starting point for the proposed new curriculum. Some of his ideas for problems seem a little advanced for non-A-Level takers.

Your opinions are very welcome, as always. Let us know what you think about the idea for the new qualification and about the ideas being mooted for inclusion.

Teacher Training Skills Test Toughened Up

The government has announced that the QTS skills tests in Maths, English and IT will be made tougher from next year. Passing these tests is a requirement for all teachers wishing to gain Qualified Teacher Status, which is in turn a requirement for teaching in any UK school.

The new tests have been developed by a panel of head teachers and teaching experts, following complaints that the current tests were too easy.

Every trainee teacher is required to pass the tests, even those wishing to teach unrelated subjects, such as Art and PE.

The government says that making the entry tests more rigorous will raise the quality and standing of the teaching profession. Education Secretary Michael Gove said "These changes will mean that parents can be confident that we have the best teachers coming into our classrooms. Above all, it will help ensure we raise standards in our schools and close the attainment gap between the rich and poor."

More complex mathematical problems and longer written exercises will become part of the tests. There will also be new questions on verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning. The pass mark will been raised.

Another aspect of this change is that fewer resits will be allowed, in line with Michael Gove's other education reforms. If the test has been failed three times, the candidate will not be allowed to take it again for 2 years.

They will be non-calculator tests and will require the trainee teacher to gain a score equivalent to a grade B at GCSE. They will also be taken before starting on the teacher training course, so becoming a pre-requisite to gaining a place on a course.

The teaching unions are unsure about the plans. Julia Neal, president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said: "If you're going to raise standards it's not just about recruiting teachers in the first place, it is actually keeping them and retaining them. I do think that sometimes there's a message going out which is really just undermining the profession. Are we saying that teachers at the moment aren't good enough because they haven't passed these tests? I do worry about the message that's going out about the profession."

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, made the point that this reform does not appear to align itself well with another of Gove’s ideas, allowing academies to hire unqualified teachers.

At MathsBank, we would give this particular reform a tentative thumbs-up. It is important to recruit teachers who have a certain level of academic ability. But teaching is about many things, not just academic excellence. A teacher must be a many-skilled individual, being able to engage and keep young people interested, to control a class and to handle the many stresses and pressures that being a teacher brings. And as Christine Blower pointed out: "The real issue is the training and support that teachers are given once they have entered into teaching training."

Let us know what you think. info@mathsbank.co.uk .

The GCSE is Dead - Long Live the EBacc

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary in England, has a well-known dislike for the GCSE. Yesterday, he announced plans for its abolition.

Michael Gove, Education Secretary in England
announced plans for the English Baccalaureate yesterday.

If the name English Baccalaureate rings a bell, it's because it already exists. The EBacc is currently a system used to measure the performance of schools, using the results of pupils in key subjects. Now the EBacc is to become a formal qualification.

The EBacc will be introduced for core subjects (Maths, English and Science) from 2015, with a staged introduction for other subjects. It will be based on a final exam at the end of two years' study. There will be fewer resits, no modules and no controlled assessments. All marking will be external.

There will be one exam board per EBacc subject. Exam boards will bid for the right to run an EBacc in a particular subject for a five year term.

The Liberal Democrats appear to have had a minor success by persuading the Education Secretary to drop his plans for a two-tier system, which would have been a throwback to the days of O-Levels and CSEs.

The Welsh and Northern Irish devolved governments now have a big decision to make. They may decide to follow the English lead and create new Baccalaureate exams of their own. Alternatively, they could stick with GCSEs. This approach would risk giving pupils a qualification that has been deemed to be lacking in rigour in England. One head teacher in Northern Ireland I have spoken to has already said they would consider using qualifications offered by English exam boards.