Easter 2023 Engaging with Enigma Post-16 Focus
Top Tip
Ode to Joy
Back in November 2021 our current A-Level Pedagogy Work Group leader, Sandy Stopher, encouraged experienced A-Level teachers from more than five schools to consider what brought joy into their lessons.
Just over a year later, the results of our region-wide survey show our region’s current cohorts of year 11 and year 12 students (who are rejecting A-Level and Core Maths for their post-16 studies!) cited the absence of joy as a key reason for them abandoning mathematics.
Joy matters in mathematics. Enjoyment of mathematics, for all, matters to the NCETM: it is listed first among the priorities of the Essence of Mathematics Teaching for Mastery.
Joy is also, coincidentally, the focus of the only new “technique” Doug Lemov has added for “Teach Like A Champion 3.0” – and it is about more than just “fun”.
To enhance joy in all our classrooms, there will be more to explore in 2024
However, in the meantime, the same region-wide survey, undertaken by one of the Enigma Hub’s Research & Innovation Work Groups (RIWG), has a considerable number of additional insights. The highlights of those insights (many enjoyable! or routes to achieving greater joy!) can be seen in the two videos linked to below. They are long (at circa 25 minutes each); but, joyfully, can be fast-forwarded. The two final slides address the joy-enhancing “next steps” focus of the RIWG; the preceding slides are of more general use to the post-16 and NCETM community.
Results of survey of 2022-23 Year 11 Cohort: https://youtu.be/aFAs-_SesuU
Results of survey of 2022-23 Year 12 Cohort: https://youtu.be/V_l6nQE0FbA
News
The New to Teaching Core Maths Workgroup will be running again next year. Click here if you would like to get involved
Professional Development
Post-16 Teachers’ and Lecturers’ 2023-24 Planning Survey Now Open 2023/24
Working with the AMSP, each year we reach out to all teachers and lecturers of post-16 courses across the Enigma region (your colleagues and network) to ask what support they would like to receive (and what they feel they can give) in the year ahead. Now is the time to tell us!
Please share the survey with your colleagues and network who teach Post-16 courses.
What is involved?
- Page 1: asks you for details about you / your team/department/faculty member / network member
- Page 2: asks you for details about your engagement with teaching Post-16 courses next year, your needs and/or what you can offer staff from other state-funded schools
Your responses will be collated and reviewed and used to plan CPD provision for teachers of Post-16 Courses across the region in the 2023-24 academic year.
The CPD on offers is fully funded by the Maths Hubs Programme and/or the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme so is free to participating schools.
The closing date for the initial survey is Tuesday 23 May 2023.
2022/23 East of England Key Stage 5 Maths Conference – Cambridge – Tuesday 20 June
Register Here
Other Post-16 Opportunities
AMSP Core Maths Specialist
AMSP Core Maths Specialist Lead programme: this will be starting its second year in September 2023 and the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme (AMSP) is seeking to appoint a second cohort of Core Maths Specialist Leads.
Core Maths Specialist Leads help the AMSP to increase participation in Core Maths by working with schools and/or colleges to set up the course in their institutions, and by providing support and advice for teaching the course and for promoting it to students.
If you would like to explore this further, please do visit: https://amsp.org.uk/become-an-amsp-core-maths-specialist-lead/
School Development Lead
School Development Lead: for those who lead professional development across a group of schools and would like to develop their expertise alongside gaining a nationally recognised accreditation.
Further Education Mastery Specialists
Further Education Mastery Specialists: for those who teach GCSE Mathematics resit and/or Functional Skills Qualifications and are committed to teaching for mastery and enabling collaborative development across the maths department/faculty.
Post-16 Work Group Lead
Post-16 Work Group Lead: for outstanding practitioners keen to facilitate other professionals to develop their pedagogy in Core, A-Level Maths or GCSE Resit, get in touch by emailing [email protected].
***All our professional development leads are given training by the NCETM on how to lead the Work Group as well as supported locally by us here at Enigma. Funding is provided and as part of your training, you will be funded to undertake a nationally accredited professional development lead programme.
Express your interest in signing up to our 2023/24 Work Groups/Programmes here
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