#MathsConf33

  • Saturday 7th October 2023

  • 8.30am — 4.30pm

  • Knottingley, Leeds, WF11 0EP

"In the 59 years I've been on the planet, MathsConf has been the best day of maths ed I've ever experienced. Thank you so much, one and all! Still on a high... "

@therispguy

What to Expect

We're back with our 33rd Complete Mathematics Conference, aka #MathsConf33

Bringing together hundreds of maths teachers from all phases of education to collaborate and learn from each other.

The perfect way to spend a Saturday with easily digestible mathematics wisdom from educators around the country.

Location

The Education Exchange
Delta Academies Trust
Knottingley, Leeds
WF11 0EP

Timetable

  • 08.30
    Arrival
    Grab your badge and first coffee of the day
  • 09.30
    Assembly

    Welcome and introduction, from Complete Mathematics and Main Sponsor, AQA

  • 10.10
    Period 1
  • 11.00
    Morning break
    Chance to grab some exhibition goodies
  • 11.20
    Period 2
  • 12:10
    Morning Break
    Hunt down our treasure hunt clues
  • 12:30
    Period 3
  • 13:20
    Lunchtime

    Check out and taste test maths inspired cakes or why not join the Tweetup?

  • 14:10
    Period 4
  • 15:00
    Afternoon Break
    Have a stretch and grab a final cup of tea
  • 15:20
    Period 5
  • 16:10
    Graduation
    Join the final remarks, including charity raffle draw — will you be a lucky winner?

Period 1

Stepping into Leadership in Maths

Rob Smith @RJS2212 and Eddie Sarfo-Karikari @EddieSarfo

This session will be led by experienced workshop leaders Rob Smith (@RJS2212) and Eddie Sarfo (@EddieSarfo) in collaboration with the vibrant #MathsCPDChat community In this workshop, Rob and Eddie will delve into the world of mathematics leadership while leveraging the collective wisdom of the #MathsCPDChat community.

As well as facilitating engaging discussions, the session will include activities designed to empower educators to become effective leaders in their mathematics classrooms and beyond.

Learn how to harness the power of collaborative learning environments, glean insights from fellow maths educators, and stay at the forefront of maths education.

This session will not only equip you with practical leadership strategies but also provide a platform to connect with like-minded professionals passionate about mathematics education.

Join the session for an enriching experience that merges the expertise of Rob and Eddie with the collaborative energy of #MathsCPDChat.

This is a session for leadership excellence in mathematics education that will benefit both experienced teachers those that are new to the profession. Don't miss this unique opportunity to be part of a transformative leadership journey!

An Evidence-Informed Approach to the Use of Concrete Resources

Kieran Mackle @Kieran_M_Ed

Teachers and school leaders may have heard about the potential benefits of manipulatives/concrete resources in the mathematics classroom. Some may even have delved into the accompanying research. Most, however, will still have some questions. What do we mean by concrete? What strategies do we have at our disposal? How can I get value for money in an age of austere school budgets?

In this session, Kieran will try to answer each of these questions and more. Providing attendees with principles on which to build an evidence informed approach to the utilisation of manipulatives in the mathematics classroom.

Being a Complete Mathematics Associate

Mark McCourt @EmathsUK

This discussion is for those colleagues interested in joining the Complete Mathematics team as an associate.

We are currently recruiting new associates to help support our work, including content creation, curriculum design, CPD delivery, and events.

During this session, the founder of Complete Mathematics, Mark McCourt, will describe the role of an associate and answer any questions regarding the recruitment.

Full details of the role and recruitment process can be found on our careers page.

Multiplicative Reasoning

Jayne Webster @justlovemaths

A coherent journey from times tables to trig using the unit circle. This session explore the use of double number lines and ratio tables to connect multiplicative reasoning across KS2, 3 and 4.

What's the point? - Place value

Charlotte Hawthorne @mrsHawthorne7

In the first few years of my teaching practice, place value was not a topic I used to look forward to teaching. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that I probably didn't do it justice.

If you have felt like this, or want to take your teaching of place value to the next level, then this workshop is for you.

We will explore some tasks, research, and prompts which will aim to deepen your own understanding of place value and give you ideas to use with students to ensure they have strong foundations in this important topic.

Andrew Tayior

GCSE Maths summer 2023: Reflections on results

Andrew Taylor @AQAMaths

Understand the results from Summer ‘23 with AQA’s Head of Curriculum for Maths, Andrew Taylor, as he answers your questions about the latest summer series and looks ahead to the new academic year. He’ll look at overall results data, performance of individual papers, content areas and assessment objectives as well as diving into some individual questions that were well answered, and a few that weren’t. This will be an essential session for all teachers of GCSE Maths, whether you chose to work with AQA or not.

Andrew is AQA’s Head of Curriculum for Maths

Revisiting the Standards Box

Gareth Shadick @gareth_shadick

It is pushing towards 20 years since "Improving learning in mathematics" was first launched by the (then) DfES Standards Unit. Whether you have never heard of these resources, still use them regularly, or would like some nostalgia: come and take a look inside the "Standards Box". During the session there will be opportunities to work with some of the activities and to consider the continued relevance today of the underlying principles behind their design.

Period 2

Caught in the Moment: The Art of Responsive Teaching

Stuart Welsh @maths180

To help our pupils excel in maths, we've got to teach in a way that adapts to their needs. This means knowing what they already understand and what they don't, and adjusting our teaching accordingly. Teaching responsively isn't just about checking progress; it's a cycle that involves planning, collecting data, making decisions, and adapting. This can happen “in the moment” or over a few lessons. In this session, we'll talk about techniques to ascertain what pupils have learned and haven't learned, and most importantly, how to adjust our teaching in response.

Depth in Reception and KS1: What might this look like and why does it matter?

Jo Austen @mathswithin10

What might deep learning look like in Reception and Key Stage 1 maths? Which concepts are particularly important and how do they support children as they progress through the rest of school?

In this session, Jo will share ideas and facilitate some time designing tasks and questions that encourage and support deep thinking within the EYFS and KS1 curriculums.

We hope that this will be an exciting session that gets everyone thinking about how we currently tackle revision and assessment across all year groups

Launching the NEW Pearson Edexcel Level 2 Extended Maths Certificate

Grace Hatswell @pearsonedexcel

This session will showcase the content of the brand new Level 2 Extended Maths Certificate qualification. This course will provide learners with an opportunity to stretch their skills of GCSE Mathematics further, and also challenge them to dive deeper into key content that will facilitate a more confident transition to many A Level courses. Sign up to this session to be among the first to see the support and key resources on offer to successfully deliver the qualification.

On the (Algebra) Tiles

Jonny Hall @StudyMaths

Whether you’re an Algebra tiles novice or an expert (like Atul), this exciting hands-on session will have something for everyone.

The workshop will offer plenty of opportunities to “Behave Mathematically” while exploring a range of engaging and pedagogically rich tasks to demonstrate the power of Algebra Tiles in the classroom.

Julia Smith

Mathematical fundamentals and basics for Post-16 and GCSE Maths

Julia Smith @tessmaths

Setting solid cornerstones and building a firm mathematical base will positively impact all GCSE and resit learners as well as those studying Functional Maths.

Join Julia in her session where she’ll:

  • look into the assumed knowledge that we think learners have, but often don't
  • examine the nine mathematical basics with a range of alternative maths methods
  • explore building skills in the mathematical tools that’ll subsequently improve reasoning and problem-solving skills.

Julia sits on AQA’s expert panel and is a Teacher Trainer and Author with BBC Bitesize, Cambridge University Press and others.

Introducing Primes and Prime Factors

Amanda Austin @draustinmaths & Helen Konstantine @giftedHKO

In this hands-on session, Helen and Amanda will talk about how they have used some of their own tasks for introducing primes and prime factors in the classroom this term. There will be opportunities to get involved, using prime factor tiles to try out some newly created tasks.

Period 3

Conceptual and Procedural Understanding

Pete Mattock @MrMattock

A lot is said about the balance or competition between conceptual and procedural understanding. In this session we will explore some of the research in this area and strategies for implementing the findings.

Backward Faded Maths

Dave Taylor @taylorda01

How can we best support pupils in progress from novice to expert?

We've all seen pupils succeed with procedural questions, yet struggle when given the same question with a little context. In this session we'll look at coached problem solving using backward faded worked examples to bridge that gap.

You'll gain an appreciation for what backward fading is and why it's useful, you'll take away some tips for getting the most from backward faded worked examples, and we'll look at what might be on the horizon for Backward Faded Maths.

Let's Investigate

Nilam Patel @nilampatel86

In this hands on session, delegates will enjoy classic investigation(s), exploring the learning experiences, through the lens of pupils. Some practical tips will also be shared for supporting teachers across a department, to confidently deliver opportunities like this, for *all* pupils to behave mathematically

The Sum of My Experiences

Sam Phillips @InAdditionEd

This will be a short journey through some key moments in my teaching career. With examples, non-examples, activities and stories from my teaching and lessons I have been fortunate enough to observe, I will share my practical takeaways for developing connected understanding in the secondary classroom.

David McEwan

Ratio and Proportion, from the ground up

David McEwan

Ratio and Proportion makes up 25% of AQA’s Maths GCSE. An understanding of the topic and its interconnectedness is fundamental to teaching, learning and assessment.

Join David in this session where he’ll:

  • Discuss how Ratio and Proportion builds as a topic, from first principles through to GCSE
  • Identify key concepts students need to know
  • Look to the Key Stage guidance and how this links to progression

There will be plenty of opportunities for discussion and challenge in what will be a thought-provoking session.

David is AQA’s Maths Curriculum Manager

Marking in large quantities

Laura Boultby @lmbmaths

Marking a class set of papers and doing a QLA on these can provide a good insight into how your class is doing but, what if you were to mark the whole cohort?

This session explores why I have had to do this, how I have used the information I gained as a teacher and tutor and other observations I have made.

There will be the opportunity to work on questions students have found challenging and I will provide some (hopefully useful!) suggestions to take away with you.

Period 4

Ready, Steady... Maths

Jack Hancock

How can we use preparing and making sweet treats to teach Maths? This entire session is built around developing risk managed cookery lessons which help students to learn about: fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio, proportion, units, multiplication and division. It will be highly interactive!

Origami and Mathematics

Sue Pope & Tung Ken Lam

Folding paper is an accessible entry to many aspects of mathematics. In this practical workshop, we'll explore fractions, angles, symmetry and proof.

Leading from the Middle

Stuart Welsh @maths180

Teaching can be tough at times and ‘leading from the middle’ in a school comes with considerable challenges. Drawing on his own experience, and his work supporting other middle leaders, Stuart will take a close look at the crucial role of the maths lead or head of department. In particular, Stuart will challenge us to consider which elements of the role are most important and why. Stuart will discuss which of our actions really make a difference and why we might be spending too much time and energy on the wrong things.

Year 7 Baseline Assessment Analysis

Colin Hegarty @hegartymaths and Fay Sheppard @FDSheppard

Come and find out more about the exciting developments that we are exploring in curriculum, revision and assessment.

We will take a deep dive into the results and follow-up work from our Year 7 baseline assessment from September 2023, sat by tens of thousands of students across the country.

Using our national benchmark report form our collated QLA data, we will look into the KS2 topics and questions that students could confidently answer, and get a deeper understanding of what topics students are less confident with and how this impacts teaching in the early phase of Year 7 and beyond.

We will also explore our exciting bespoke follow-up work for both students and teachers, which helps to close gaps in knowledge in an efficient and visible way following a high stakes assessment.

We hope that this will be an exciting session that gets everyone thinking about how we currently tackle revision and assessment across all year groups

Fact Families and their Place in the Secondary Classroom

Emma Brooksbank @MissEBrooksbank

In a secondary setting, how much do we acknowledge the basic fundamental concepts that pupils explore in primary school? Could we support pupils mathematical efficiency and understanding, by utilising the numeracy connections they make in their early education? This session will focus on fact families and whether we pay enough attention to these relationships when teaching what is perceived as more complex mathematical processes, from KS3 all the way up to KS5.

Not Your Average Lesson

Bryn Jones @brynspiration

Statistics is the most important topic we teach students, but how do we push students to develop a deep statistical understanding of what they are doing, and why they are doing it?

Join Bryn in this deep dive into averages.

We will discuss:

  • The big concepts in averages: which average should be used, why we need averages in the first place, and when an average is an estimate and when it is not.
  • How averages link to histograms, and discuss how these topics develop from KS3 up to Core Maths.
  • What makes a good statistical task. Spoiler- it's different to a mathematical task.

There'll be plenty of thought-provoking tasks that you can take away and use with your classes.

Period 5

Top Ten Tips for Teaching

Mark McCourt @EmathsUK

As a profession, we know a huge amount about how to teach effectively.  There are actions teachers can take that significantly increase the chances of pupils learning and succeeding.

In this workshop, we'll explore the ten most important pieces of knowledge anyone teaching mathematics should be equipped with.

Thinking Deeply about Mathematics Education

Kieran Mackle @Kieran_M_Ed

Thinking Deeply about Mathematics Education is a cross-sector panel assembled to address the questions preoccupying teachers at the chalkface.

A unique opportunity to explore the rich connections between the different phases of mathematics education, our sole aim is to explore how we can work together to support all pupils in becoming mathematically proficient and, ultimately, leave school with a deep understanding of the true beauty of mathematics.

Putting the Multiplicative back into Multiplication

Jason Gottfried @mathsbycolour

No one needs to argue about the importance of multiplication in maths education. It is linked to nearly every aspect of curriculum maths and so is as foundational as it is possible to be.


Is it possible that in our attempt to ensure students have a good recall of their times tables that they are missing out on the real multiplicative ideas that they need to truly be able to connect these facts to the kinds of maths/real world problems they will face.


In this session we will look at some ways that we can bring the multiplicative back into primary and secondary education by giving students an experience of some of the underlying concepts such as prime numbers, multiplicative identity and the fundamental theorem of arithmetic even before they are ready to deal with the language that these concepts need.


The session will be interactive and participants will try out activities designed to give students a perspective of numbers better suited to understanding multiplicative concepts.

There will be plenty of time for discussion and there will also be some questions from topics that appear on both GCSE and A Level Maths to try out!

Ratio Tables: Moving to Generalisation

Kathryn Clark @Arithmaticks

By now, many people have heard of my obsession with the ratio table to bring proportional relationships to life and give students a consistent model for the many guises it appears in. Numerically, I feel they have won lots of people over! But I am still consistently asked how these tables really help with inverse proportion and generalisation for algebraic problems. So, in this session, I hope to de-mystify that.

What should we teach first and why?

Tom Riley @riley_ed

Sides or angles when teaching trigonometry? Generating sequences or finding the nth term? Dividing in a ratio or using one quantity to find the other?

The session will look at whether an optimal order exists for certain topics, and look at the pros and cons of the different orders and approaches.

Transition to A Level Maths 2024 - What Have We Learnt from 2023?

Matt Man @mr_man_maths

Now that we are well into the Autumn Term for the Class of 2023, the focus is on preparing our Class of 2024 students to do A Level Maths.

Reflecting on results from the Pearson Edexcel Summer 2023 GCSE papers for the general cohort, and for my A Level Maths groups, the aim is to look in detail for areas where Year 11 Higher GCSE teachers can focus on and to see what we can all do to make the transition to A Level Maths happen more smoothly.

There will be plenty of time for discussion and there will also be some questions from topics that appear on both GCSE and A Level Maths to try out!

Extras

Maths Cake Competition

Our cake competition is always a highlight of the day. Dozens of delegates battle it out to be crowned the winner of the maths-themed cake bake-off.

Be sure to check out your colleagues' handywork on Twitter at #MC33Cake. And, of course, remember to tweet a picture of your own cake before you finish it all! We know how delicious they are!

Treasure Hunt

Throughout the day you will have a collection of mathematical questions that you need to find and solve, with each question labelled with a greek letter. Solve the questions, and using our cipher, convert the greek letters to give you a mathematical word. If you get the correct word, you will be entered into a prize draw and be in with a the chance of winning an Amazon Fire Tablet.

Charity Raffle

As with all of our conferences, we want to take advantage of this incredible opportunity to contribute to worthy cause! We will be running a raffle where you can win a selection of mathematical prizes, with all proceeds going to the Macmillan Cancer Support.

Friday Night Meet-up

It's a MathsConf tradition for delegates arriving on Friday to meet up at a local bar to catchup with the community, network and talk all things mathematics.

We'll be sending out further information to all ticket holders nearer the time.

Event Sponsors

Event Organiser

Main Sponsor

Key Sponsor

Gold Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Silver Sponsor

Start-Up Sponsor

Start-Up Sponsor

Start-Up Sponsor

Start-Up Sponsor

Start-Up Sponsor