Pearson Maths Festival 2021
Between 5–16 July 2021, we held our first ever Pearson Maths Virtual Festival.
We invited passionate Maths teachers, thought leaders, subject experts, and students to celebrate and explore the power of maths through a series of collaborative discussions and speeches.
Find out more about the sessions we held, and watch the recordings, on this page.
Watch the recordings
You can find out more about the sessions we held, and watch the recordings, here.
Sessions suitable for Primary and Secondary teachers are marked "P/S".
Sessions suitable for Secondary Maths teachers only are marked "S".
5 July: Post-COVID learning: what's next? | P/S
With schools returning to normality and new routines being established, what impact has remote and blended learning had on our young people? The award-winning teacher, Nicola Whiston, talked about strategies to overcome 'lost learning' during the pandemic in the first episode of our podcast, The Right Angle. This session invites Nicola back to discuss how she and her colleagues have settled back in to their new normal alongside another Maths Leader, Rhiannon Rainbow. They will discuss their experiences and findings of the impact that lockdown has had on student progress, particularly in maths, and their plans for the next academic year. Nicola Woodford-Smith, one of our Pearson Maths Subject Partners, will ask the questions!
Panellists:
Nicola Whiston
Nicola Whiston is a maths teacher with a love for the classroom. She completed a Maths PGCE at Chester University in 2010, following which she started working for Ormiston Bolingbroke Academy in Runcorn. Nicola became joint Head of Maths at Ormiston Chadwick in Widnes in 2015 and with her team had increasingly successful GCSE outcomes. In 2018 she moved to Ormiston Horizon Academy and Nicola was named TES Maths teacher of the year, followed in 2019 with a Silver Award at the Pearson teaching awards in the 'Secondary Teacher' category. In 2020 she made the top 50 for the Global Teacher Prize. Nicola is now Assistant Principal for teaching and development and continues to make and share resources within the teaching community.
Rhiannon Rainbow
Rhiannon Rainbow is a maths teacher with almost 20 years’ experience teaching secondary maths in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. Rhiannon completed a 4-year BSc Hons QTS Primary Maths EY at UWE before making the move to being a secondary school maths teacher where she has held a variety of roles. In January 2018 she joined the Greenshaw Learning Trust working with the schools across Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire and Bristol combined with her Assistant Headteacher role at Five Acres. In September 2020 Rhiannon started in her role as the School Improvement Lead (maths) across the Greenshaw Learning Trust and began her journey in Cohort 5 of the NCETM Secondary Mastery Specialist Programme.
Nicola Woodford-Smith
Nicola Woodford-Smith has taught secondary school mathematics for 13 years. She has an excellent track record for raising progress, particularly at GCSE, and has also worked as a Lead Practitioner, Head of Department and School Leader for whole school progress. Nicola is passionate about encouraging a love of learning mathematics right through the curriculum, and is now working as a Subject Partner for Mathematics at Pearson.
7 July: How to engage learners sitting GCSE Maths in a post-16 setting | S
It has always been a challenge to motivate, encourage and engage learners in GCSE Maths at Post-16 in FE and Sixth Form Colleges. In this session we take the opportunity to discuss these challenges and explore strategies that can help to overcome them with leading experts in maths teaching. We delve into how we can succeed to create learning environments and deliver maths content in a way that is accessible and engaging for every learner. Seb Brummell, GCSE Maths Product Manager at Pearson, will be your session presenter.
Panellists:
Susan Okereke
Susan is a maths educator and communicator who passionately believes that numeracy is an essential basic skill that everyone should be confident at, like reading and writing. She challenges negative views of maths by creating and delivering maths content in a way that is accessible, memorable and builds confidence. While teaching maths in a London secondary school, she also co-hosts the Maths Appeal Podcast with Bobby Seagull, trains teachers for Maths Hubs across London and often sets the Puzzle for Today for BBC Radio 4.
Shobhna Fletcher
Shobhna has a BSc Hons in Mathematics from the University of London. She previously worked in investment banking, IT and as a project manager for a FTSE 250 Company, before retraining as a maths teacher and gaining a PGCE Cert Ed from Edge Hill University in 2013. She went on to complete a year in a local secondary school, before returning to Further Education as a teacher.
She has a keen interest in how maths education impacts on social mobility within the Post-16 and Further Education sector. More recently she has led a maths team in a Further Education College and increased the high-grade GCSE maths 16–18 student achievement rate by over 40%. She has since turned her interest to finding out why so many students come to Further Education from school without with the necessary maths skills up to GCSE and Functional Skills level.
Steve Pardoe
Steve Pardoe has worked in FE maths education for over 30 years as a teacher, manager, teacher trainer and consultant. He is now Head of the Centres for Excellence in Maths at ETF, leading a national DfE-funded project aimed at delivering sustained improvements in maths outcomes for 16-19 year olds in GCSE maths re-sits and Functional Skills.
Seb Brummell
Seb is the Product Manager for GCSE Mathematics at Pearson, and also looks after the GCSE Statistics qualification, the Entry Level Certificate in Maths and our Edexcel Awards in Mathematics. He previously had a career as a primary school teacher, teaching in every year group from Early Years to Year 6. Seb joined Pearson in the GCSE Maths Assessment team, gaining experience in overseeing the production, marking and awarding of live exam series. He has been working within the GCSE Maths Product team since 2019, working to produce the materials and support needed to deliver our qualifications successfully.
8 July: Digital maths education – what will the future look like? | P/S
During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools had to swiftly move to online and remote learning to ensure sustainable, high-quality and flexible teaching and learning. At the centre of many of the e-learning strategies is the use of technology and online platforms.
This session will feature a panel of leading experts who are at the forefront of digital maths education: Dr Jamie Frost from Dr Frost Maths, Shira Helft from Desmos and Berwyn Jones from Pearson.
They will discuss the impact COVID-19 has had over the last year, both in maths education as well as on their own platforms. They will explore the current state of remote learning, from both educational and technology infrastructure perspectives; the current technology needs for educators; the latest features of their platforms; how their systems can support assessment for learning and what this means for maths education going forward.
Melios Michael, one of our Pearson Credible Specialists, will ask the questions!
Panellists:
Melios Michael
Melios Michael is one of the Pearson Credible Specialists. He is a Curriculum Leader of Mathematics and SLE at Hamstead Hall Academy, a comprehensive school in Birmingham. His ambition to transform secondary school students into young independent mathematicians, using technology, has led to collaborations with Pearson and Casio through which he assessed the effectiveness of the graphic calculator in dealing with misconceptions and embedding it within the school’s schemes of work.
He has tested and supported the development of online platforms while trying to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics education. He is part of the Senior Leadership Team of his school and during the COVID-19 pandemic he collaborated with the EdTech Demonstrator programme to set up the digital provision plan to support blended and remote learning.
Dr Jamie Frost
Dr Jamie Frost has taught maths for 8 years; he was previously a PhD student at Oxford University working in AI (winning a Teaching Excellence Prize and the Microsoft Research Prize for his undergraduate dissertation), prior to which he coded trading algorithms for an investment bank.
His teaching resources have been downloaded over 7 million times with in excess of 1 million page views on his site a day, and students have answered over 110 million questions online on his online platform, DrFrostMaths. He won a Gold Pearson Teaching Prize, appearing on BBC 2's 'Britain's Classroom Heroes'. He reached the Top 10 for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize, and was awarded the Global Teacher Prize Covid Hero Award in special recognition of "someone who has gone above and beyond to keep young people learning during the COVID-19 pandemic". His passion is to inspire and engage all maths learners across the ability spectrum and regardless of financial background, and both his resources and online platform continue to be completely free to all.
Shira Helft
Shira is part of the Teaching Faculty at Desmos in the United States. She loves puzzles of all kinds. This led to her infatuation with maths and maths learning; she is fascinated by the ways people think through ideas, how this affects their identity and power in society. Shira has been fortunate enough to work as a teacher, coach, curriculum lead, and professional development coordinator at schools in the Bay Area before joining Desmos as a member of the Curriculum Team. She is a Knowles Teacher Initiative Senior Fellow, Maths for America Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Fellow and Hollyhock Fellow. In her spare time, Shira grows her brain with cryptic crosswords, puzzle hunts, and chasing the best dumplings in Brooklyn.
Berwyn Jones
Berwyn is the Interim Head of Secondary Maths and Science Teaching and Learning at Pearson. He is a Maths graduate with over 10 years’ experience of working on Secondary Maths teaching and learning materials at Pearson. He is passionate about the power of maths and working to ensure everyone can engage with the subject. Most recently, he has been involved in supporting the upcoming launch of Pearson’s new digital service, ActiveHub.
12 July: Maths Leaders – the impact of the pandemic and the future of education | S
In this session we will be talking to Heads of Mathematics about how the pandemic has changed the face of mathematics and assessment in just 12 months, and discuss some important lessons that we can learn for the future of education.
The session will be facilitated by Pearson Maths Subject Partner, Mark Heslop.
Panellists:
Dana Browne
Dana Browne is one of four Secondary Maths Advisers for the Multi-Academy Trust, United Learning. She has been in post for 2 years, supporting 46 Academies and 10 Independent Schools nationwide, in maximising their progress and attainment in Maths.
In addition to teaching maths across all key stages for 8 years, her previous roles have included Assistant Headteacher (Pupil Premium) at Blenheim High School in Epsom, where she played a key role in moving the school from Requires Improvement to Good in April 2019. Prior to this, she was a Head of Maths at one of United Learning’s schools, Lambeth Academy, and before that a Head of Year at Guru Nanak Sikh Academy.
Naomi Bartholomew-Millar
Naomi is currently a Head of Faculty in a North East school, having previously been an Assistant Headteacher and leading a successful sixth form. She has led effective DfE funded school improvement projects in the region, working alongside both senior leaders and classroom teachers. She regularly delivers training in a variety of roles including for the Research Schools Network and as a Credible Specialist for Pearson. Naomi is part of the PiXL strategy team and leads PiXL Maths, supporting the production and delivery of high-quality strategies and resources. Naomi is passionate about inspiring students to achieve their potential whatever their barriers may be.
Kendall Deck
Kendall is the Director of Studies for Maths at Shoreham Academy, an outstanding 11 to 18, non-selective academy on the south coast. This school year has been Kendall’s first year as Director of Studies, and whilst it’s been incredibly challenging due to the pandemic, it’s been an incredible learning experience. Having taught in a number of different schools in the US and UK, and having held other leadership roles such as KS3 coordinator, Kendall was able to use her range of experiences to successfully support her team through this past year.
Kendall leads a department of 14, whose experiences range from NQTs to colleagues with 20+ years in the classroom. She has an M.Ed in Secondary Education, as well as her B.S. in Mathematics Secondary Education, from the University of New Hampshire in the US. Kendall is passionate about making maths more accessible to students of all abilities and backgrounds and is the school lead for numeracy across the curriculum.
Andrew Harrison
Andrew is the Head of the Mathematics Faculty at William Hulme Grammar School, a 3 to 18, non-selective inner-city academy based in Manchester with a vibrant and tolerant multi-cultural community. Andrew has been at WHGS for 12 years and has seen the full transformation from Grammar School to Academy while at the same time the increase in students from 60 to 180 students in each year group. The Maths department has also increased in this time from 6 to 12 members.
This year has been an incredible learning experience and has, at the same time, taught us to incorporate the use of technology more into our lessons. In addition to this, the changes in teaching methodology have challenged lifetime habits for some teachers and promoted a sharing philosophy.
Andrew has experience in all areas of responsibility within the department and works closely with Manchester University supporting PGCE students and delivering several lectures every year to the PGCE cohort.
Alex Paine
Alex graduated from Middlesex University in 1994 and trained as a maths teacher in 2011/2012 at Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln. She took her first maths leadership role in 2013 as a second in department, becoming a head of department in 2015.
Alex moved into an extended senior leadership role the following year. She briefly moved from leading a maths faculty, but quickly found that leading the Maths Faculty is where her passion lies, so she moved back into a faculty lead role. She currently leads a maths faculty, and leads the maths network across the Greenwood Academy Trust.
Mark Heslop
Mark is the Subject Partner for GCE Mathematics at Pearson. He is responsible for our GCE qualifications in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Statistics and also our L3 Core Mathematics qualification. Mark joined the Pearson team in January 2021 following a 15-year career teaching in the North West after 10 years in Automotive Design and Engineering. He was also a member of the ALCAB Maths panel that updated the A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics qualifications.
13 July: Supporting learners to overcome maths anxiety | P/S
Join us for this important discussion with Dr Dominic Petronzi, Emma Cate Stokes and Rosie Sharp. They will be discussing the causes of maths anxiety and how we can combat it. The panel will share examples of research and strategies that have been used in school to reduce anxiety around Maths for both parents and students. You should leave with a better understanding of the causes of maths anxiety, and how to go about supporting your students to overcome it. In this session Hannah Cheek, Head of Maths Qualifications and Curriculum at Pearson, will be facilitating the discussion.
Panellists:
Emma Cate Stokes
Emma Cate Stokes is part of the T&L and Curriculum team at her school in East Sussex. She is currently the Research Lead, Key Stage One Lead and Early Maths and Reading Lead. She previously taught in South East London where she led EY, KS1, Maths and Art and was an NQT mentor. As part of her role as Maths Lead she worked directly with parents to improve relationships and increase understanding in the maths curriculum via workshops and support. Emma Cate has a huge passion for teaching Maths, Early reading, and traditional teaching methods in EYFS. She has recently qualified as an accredited coach via EMCC. She has written for TES, including an article discussing parental engagement in maths. Emma Cate is currently in the process of writing an educational book about the explicit teaching of vocabulary in Early Years.
Dominic Petronzi
Dominic Petronzi is a lecturer in psychology at the University of Derby Online Learning. He is a member of the University’s Mathematics Anxiety Research Group (MARG) and his PhD focussed on exploring and understanding when mathematics anxiety develops in children and what contributes towards this. This work led to a valid and reliable assessment measure for children’s mathematics anxiety. Since then, he has continued to research this area, publish research, create courses, and deliver training sessions.
Rosie Sharp
As the Director of the Maths Centre for Excellence at Fareham College, Rosie has been involved in a number of action research projects and national trials with a focus on motivation and engagement, and mastery. With a particular emphasis on helping students that suffer with maths anxiety to make progress and achieve, she and Fareham College have taken great interest in developing a coaching model that incorporates helping students develop a growth mindset approach to studying maths. They have been able to replicate the model in six other network partner colleges with fantastic results, ensuring that students can develop their understanding and reduce their anxiety.
Hannah Cheek
Hannah Cheek has taught secondary science for 15 years in both schools and the FE sectors. She has held several leadership posts in schools and alternative educational settings with a particular focus on pastoral support and student engagement. Since joining Pearson in 2019, Hannah has overseen the GCSE Science Qualifications and Assessments, and now heads up the Maths Qualification and Curriculum teams.
14 July: Lifting the lid on assessment – the A level Maths journey | S
The A level Mathematics qualification has gone through quite a journey from inception to implementation. In this session, we lift the lid on that journey to look at how the qualification has evolved. You will hear personal experiences of people developing the qualification, students who sat the exams and teachers who have delivered the qualification. We will look at how Pearson’s A level Maths papers have performed and the steps we have been taking to refine our papers to improve the exam experience for all students.
Panellists:
Preety Carter
Preety is the Product Manager for the GCE Mathematics and L3 Core Mathematics qualifications at Pearson. She started her career teaching and joined Pearson/Edexcel just over 18 years ago. Preety has been involved in the assessment delivery and qualification development of numerous mathematics qualifications over the years. She most recently managed the development of the reformed GCE Mathematics and Further Mathematics qualifications, working closely with various stakeholders and the regulators through the accreditation processes.
Pietro Tozzi
Pietro has had a Mathematics teaching and training career spanning 36 years. He has been a Head of Department and mentored over 55 ITT trainees and NQTs. Pietro has a strong track record for improving students’ exam results in Mathematics, and has been nominated for a National Teaching Award. He is currently supporting the Pearson Maths team as a subject specialist and trainer.
Mark Heslop
Mark is the Subject Partner for GCE Mathematics at Pearson. He is responsible for our GCE qualifications in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Statistics and also our L3 Core Mathematics qualification. Mark joined the Pearson team in January 2021 following a 15-year career teaching in the North West after 10 years in Automotive Design and Engineering. He was also a member of the ALCAB Maths panel that updated the A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics qualifications.
Franklin Hysneli
Franklin is an intern in the Product Marketing Communications team, part of the UK Schools Marketing team at Pearson. In 2019, after sitting his A levels, Franklin was involved with a student group bringing together the concerns of almost 1,000 students from across the UK and internationally. After collating qualifications assessment feedback into different themes, the student group presented these to Pearson in a number of meetings. Franklin joined Pearson in September 2020 and part of his 12-month role as an intern is to use his experiences to help ensure that the qualification and assessment processes become more transparent to students, parents and carers and that we actively seek the student voice throughout the development of qualifications, assessments and supporting resources.
15 July: 360° Maths support | S
Come and explore our bank of unbeatable resources we have to support you in delivering our Mathematics qualifications. In times where loss of learning is a real concern, this session will equip you with the resources you need at GCSE through to A level Maths to help support students to consolidate knowledge and help them achieve their potential.
"I think you probably provide the best resources of any exam board and I think that is key for us really. It’s great to have." – Head of Maths.
Panellists:
Nicola Woodford-Smith
Nicola Woodford-Smith has taught secondary school mathematics for 13 years. She has an excellent track record for raising progress, particularly at GCSE, and has also worked as a Lead Practitioner, Head of Department and School Leader for whole school progress. Nicola is passionate about encouraging a love of learning mathematics right through the curriculum, and is now working as a Subject Partner for Mathematics at Pearson.
Mark Heslop
Mark is the Subject Partner for GCE Mathematics at Pearson. He is responsible for our GCE qualifications in Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Statistics and also our L3 Core Mathematics qualification. Mark joined the Pearson team in January 2021 following a 15-year career teaching in the North West after 10 years in Automotive Design and Engineering. He was also a member of the ALCAB Maths panel that updated the A Level Mathematics and Further Mathematics qualifications.
Saira Ahmed
Saira is the Senior Qualification Manager for GCSE Mathematics and is also responsible for GCSE Statistics, our Edexcel Awards and the Entry Level Certificate at Pearson. Previously, she has worked as a Maths teacher in the UK and internationally, and has been employed at Pearson for just under 5 years. Saira has been involved in the maths qualifications reform and now looks after the strategy for Level 1 and Level 2 Maths qualifications.
16 July: Maths in the media with Bobby Seagull | P/S
Bobby Seagull has not let something like a global pandemic get in the way of his mission to change societal perceptions of mathematics.
In this final session, Maths Subject Partner, Nicola Woodford-Smith, and Bobby discuss how popular media appearances such as Strictly Come Dancing and The Answer Trap are having a positive impact on the stigma around loving maths, and how popular culture plays its part in inspiring young people.
Panellists:
Bobby Seagull
Bobby is a school maths teacher and Cambridge University Doctorate student. Before moving into education, he was an investment banking trader at Lehman Brothers & Nomura, and qualified as a Chartered Accountant from PwC.
Bobby is an ambassador for the charity National Numeracy, a presenter for an Open University course on personal finance for young adults, and a columnist for the Financial Times.
He is author of The Life-Changing Magic of Numbers (which reached #50 Amazon UK best sellers over Christmas 2018) and co-presenter of the podcast Maths Appeal. With his University Challenge friend, he co-wrote The Monkman & Seagull Quiz and co-presented a BBC TV series Monkman & Seagull’s Genius Guide to Britain. Bobby is currently on television in C4’s Answer Trap quiz programme. Outside of maths, he is a long-suffering West Ham fan!
Nicola Woodford-Smith
Nicola Woodford-Smith has taught secondary school mathematics for 13 years. She has an excellent track record for raising progress, particularly at GCSE, and has also worked as a Lead Practitioner, Head of Department and School Leader for whole school progress. Nicola is passionate about encouraging a love of learning mathematics right through the curriculum, and is now working as a Subject Partner for Mathematics at Pearson.