North Mids, SHaW and Central Maths Hubs are delighted to be hosting the annual West Midlands Secondary Maths Hub Conference again this year. This event will take place on the 24th June 2020 at The University of Wolverhampton, Walsall Campus.

We have two engaging Keynote Speakers, and a choice of 8 Workshops for you to choose from.

We look forward to seeing you in June!

Keynotes

1.

​Ems Lord

Higher, faster, stronger: Approaches for nurturing future mathematicians

in this Olympic year.

Ems joined the team as NRICH Director in 2015. She is the President of the Mathematics Association (2019-2020), a member of the Joint Mathematical Council and a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teachers. 

Ems has taught mathematics across the key stages, from Early Years to A level Further Mathematics, and has worked in a variety of settings including a hospital school. She recently completed her doctoral thesis, and is a research fellow of Clare Hall College, Cambridge.

NRICH is the largest programme within the Millennium Mathematics Project, providing rich mathematics education resources for ages 3 to 18, and supporting teachers through professional development. In 2016/2017 NRICH's online resources attracted over 5.5 million users. There have been over 30 million site visits to NRICH and they have worked with over 11,000 teachers face-to-face and 4,000 students through their roadshows, webinars and school events.

2.

Pete Griffin

​ Teaching for Mastery- yet another buzz word and band wagon or an idea worth thinking about?

Pete began his career as a secondary teacher of mathematics and taught in secondary schools for 8 years. Pete moved into Local Authority advisory work in 1986 first as an advisory teacher and then as a mathematics adviser and remained in this role for 20 years, working in two large local authorities.

Pete joined the National Centre in 2006, initially as the regional coordinator for the South West. Pete is now an Assistant Director in the Secondary strand team and is involved with others in running the Secondary Mastery Specialist programme.

In this session, Pete will offer an opportunity to think together about what this phrase “teaching for mastery” might mean and explore a framework of ideas and techniques for trying to achieve it.

Workshop Options

1. Representation and structure

Understanding mathematics is more than memorising facts and techniques in order to get the correct answer to lots of questions. To have deep understanding, students need to understand mathematical concepts and structures. The careful use of representations, models and manipulatives can help students do this and in this workshop we will explore how this might be possible.

2. What are graphs telling us and what maybe are they hiding?

This workshop will focus on the interpretation of statistical graphs for use across all key stages. We will look at graphs that have used real-life data that tell a story and engage with how the media and websites have used these. We will also critically analyse these graphs to judge whether bias or unintentional misdirection has played a part. The workshop will also contain the use of technology, sources of materials and cross-curricular content.

3. Mathematical Thinking for GCSE

Reasoning and problem solving is now integral within the new GCSE specification. Developing these skills with pupils takes time and this workshop gives you an insight into the maths hub Mathematical Thinking for GCSE workshop. Come along to find out how you can easily adapt resources to enable pupils to reason mathematically and build up their confidence and resilience to solve problems and discuss mathematics.

4. Mastery, Reflection, Change

A short reflection on how becoming a teaching for mastery specialist has changed my practice, how that change has been implemented in our department and beyond as well as exploring some practical implications and advice from of the theories of reflection and change.

5. Year 5-8 Continuity

A Primary led workshop, based on a cross-phase Work Group to look at the transition in maths from Key Stages 2 to 3, with the overall aim of improving continuity of learning by pupils between Years 5 and 8. Claire will introduce key issues by looking at different pedagogical approaches as the focus for class work to develop a consistent approach to it through discussion, action research and evaluation.

6. Challenging Topics at GCSE: Exploring representations for ratio and proportion

This workshop explores one of the identified challenging topics at GCSE. We will explore key representations and consider the progression of ratio and proportion across KS2 – 4. This is a Work Group offered across the national network of Maths Hubs, and is a great example of professional development available to Secondary colleagues in our region.

7. ASK Maths a project for GCSE resit and Functional Maths students

You will have opportunity to see the excellent collegiate work where Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI) have been working collaboratively with colleges in Stoke-on-Trent that offer a GCSE Maths Resit or Functional Maths Programme in all settings. Our project is part of a government funded ‘Opportunity Area’ initiative. You will get to see some of the resources that have been developed, find out about the collaborative planning through ‘Lesson Study’ across the city which focusses on Mastery, diagnostic teaching and raising confidence levels of students.

8. Using double-sided counters in secondary mathematics

This is a hands-on session looking at many different ways of using the one manipulative to develop or support conceptual understanding, across number, algebra and geometry topics. Christine Watson will lead this workshop. Christine is an Experienced Education Consultant with a proven track record in school improvement both as independent consultant and local authority adviser, specialising in tracking, intervention and in mathematics. She has worked in a variety of settings at middle and secondary including special, short stay and independent schools. Christine has significant experience in CPD development and delivery tailored to the needs of individual school, local authorities, and nationwide.