Along with OCR’s Mathematics Team Manager, Eddie Wilde, I was delighted to attend a recent reception held by the independent UK maths curriculum development body Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI) at the House of Lords.
The event, hosted by Lord Broers, provided the opportunity for policy makers, leaders in mathematics education and business to meet together and discuss the importance of maths, the current reforms and what is needed to bring about increased participation post-16.
MEI’s Chief Executive, Charlie Stripp, described the current landscape and asked for support in three areas:
• encouraging students to choose the most challenging maths qualification for them as we know this affects their life chances
• encouraging schools and pupils to take core maths so working towards bettering the numbers of students taking maths post-16 numbers (which is currently 20% in UK) and bring us in line with our international counterparts (which is over 80% in high preforming jurisdictions)
• supporting the call for re-examination of post-16 funding which, as it stands, may well impact on the take up of maths
You can read Charlie’s full speech on the MEI website.
After this, it was on to Japan where I’m visiting schools and seeing the exciting work they’re doing with maths. I hope to bring you more on this soon.
Lynne McClure
Director, Cambridge Mathematics