We are delighted to be supporting Maths Week London in its third year this year and are very much looking forward to seeing what pupils and teachers get up to between 28th June and 2nd July 2021. (Last year's celebrations were rather different to those originally planned since many pupils were being taught remotely whilst some were in school as part of Key Workers' bubbles).
The mission of Maths Week London is to ignite a love of maths in children across the capital. Numeracy is a vital skill and we believe it can and should be enjoyable, relatable and accessible.
Working with schools and families, Maths Week London aims to:
- improve children’s confidence in mathematics and encourage a positive attitude
- demonstrate to children the value of maths as a lifelong skill by linking it to the wider world around them
- encourage all children to develop their maths skills and become confident mathematicians
Visit the website to:
- download a range of free resources
- register to attend free events
- take part in one of the Maths Week London contests and competitions
Join in the celebration and register to take part! Link: https://bit.ly/3vs3DBR
LGfL Resources
Maths in the Real World
MITRW does exactly what its title suggests; it puts maths in to real world problems and contexts. The detailed differentiation and detailed lesson plans and resources ensure there is something for all ability levels. Some of the real world topics covered in the resource include: Nutrition, Arena and Events and Round the World.
Maths doesn’t get more real than an HM Coastguard search & rescue mission. Featuring exclusive footage of real‐life rescues at sea, lifeboat and helicopter searches, and rescue coordination at the National Maritime Operations Centre, pupils can see mathematical problem‐solving in action – real life, with real consequences. Topics covered include Bearings, Pythagoras and Trigonometry, Algebra, Vectors and Speed, Distance and Time.
Watch the trailer below to learn more:
BusyThings
Busy Things have set up a Maths Week London tab in their Special Events area to make finding suitable maths activities even easier for you!
They have a range of quizzes and games to develop maths confidence and enjoyment.
They also have a series of "Busy at Home" activities that could be shared with parents and carers during Maths Week London. You can find them here.
In EYFS, "Numbers in Nature", the pupils could be encouraged to visit the "Expressive Arts and Design" tab and represent a number from 1-10 using different representations. They could also use Busy Graph Maker to keep count of the number of bears/teddies they see displayed in people's houses on their daily walks.
In KS1 and KS2, if they complete the tower challenge from last year, they could then look at the heights of different London Landmarks or "Super Tall Structures".
J2e ToolSuite
Just2easy have a range of maths tools that can be used in class and shared with those at home. Why not get your students to use TtBlast Live found in j2blast? They can compete against each other and see which pupil manages to win the most often.
Also, for Year 2 and Year 6 pupils (where once again there were no SATs this year) they could complete SATsBlast KS1 and KS2 - these are based on the mental arithmetic style questions they would have had to answer as part of their maths SATs. (Found in the J2Blast tool as shown below).
In J2Vote, they could conduct a school survey and then present the data in chart in J2Data or use J2Database to look at the examples (e.g the populations of countries around the world and a dinosaur database).
You can also set up collaborative databases, where they collect data from classmates and then interpret and represent this data.
Remember, we also have Maths at Home which parents might find supportive to get ideas from either for Maths Week London or in general. Maths at Home has a video for each national curriculum descriptor for Key Stage 1 and 2; where appropriate, video content is reinforced with a selection of downloadable resources too.
Virtual Teachmeet
Join @MissSlatterySTJ online via Zoom for the #MathsWeekLDN virtual TeachMeet, taking place on 29th June 16:30 - 17:45
Share your ideas & insights to support our mission of improving children's confidence in maths. LGfL will have a member of the team joining the TeachMeet and will be happy to answer questions via the chat function too.
Further details can be found here. Register to attend here.
SMASHMaths
I have recently been given a demo of “Smash Maths”. An online Primary maths programme where students revisit and practise every area of the maths curriculum every week. The programme is created by leading national experts Sarah-Anne Fernandes and Trevor Dixon.
Their philosophy is to systematically revisit all content areas of the curriculum every week, so that learning retention is improved significantly over time. This they believe is particularly pertinent after the national lockdowns to support children in consolidating their maths learning and catch up.
The programme uses a variety of questions that use logic and reasoning and guarantees high quality, varied practice and are aligned with national SATs questions to prepare children for key assessments.
The Spiral Practice has 8 questions covering each content domain to complete weekly; with expected standard year group content phased into each Spiral Practice as pupils progress through the maths curriculum. The Practices align to White Rose curriculum maps, so pupils will only be given questions on what they have already learnt (ie revisiting learning, not new content). Every question has expert video or written feedback.
The Spiral Practice is available for free to teachers to use for every pupil in schools, (however there is an additional service for parents where they can purchase the SMASH maths full programme). If you are interested in accessing the Spiral Practice for your school and want to find out more contact https://www.smashmaths.org/schools. They can get all your pupils set up to complete free Spiral Practice in school (and set up a dedicated school landing page for parents should they wish to purchase the SMASH Maths full programme).
Remember, if you need any support with our learning content you can contact the Inspire Team by emailing us on contentsupport@lgfl.net or contacting the LGfL Switchboard: 020 82 555 555.
If you do use any LGfL content in your school to inspire your students do let us know by posting them on LGfL’s Twitter or Facebook @mathsweekldn #MathsWeekLDN