They had a lot of fun with factorising in Victorian times. Come along to this session try out some 19th Century algebra and hear about the quirky methods and vocabulary of the past. If you teach GCSE students who enjoy a bit of challenging algebra, there will be plenty of lovely questions to take back to the classroom.

Prime Factor Tiles are one of the cheapest and versatile manipulatives around. A couple of pages of A4, printed in colour, and a few moments with a guillotine will make you enough to last a whole term!

They are useful for modelling a whole range of topics, including: Commutativity of multiplication, Simplifying and equivalent fractions, Prime factor decomposition, Highest common factors, Lowest common multiples, Factorising expressions, Laws of indices and Manipulating surds. Underpinning almost all these ideas is the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic.

Many teachers argue about what is the "best method" to do a bit of mathematics (or to teach pupils to do it). I want to take the argument one step further and suggest that the "method" is often not really a thing at all. Rather, "methods" are simply the consequence of reasoning about the mathematics.

The "method" is just a recording of the reasoning. This session will explore that argument and provide examples of how "methods" can be exchanged for maths. 

Did you know that it was about 500 years ago that England, under King Henry VIII, began the transition from Roman numerals to the new-fangled Arabic numerals that we use today? And it didn’t happen overnight! For decades, people found themselves using both systems, much like metric and imperial measurements today.

In this workshop, Rob Eastaway will reveal how Tudor merchants used manipulatives, counters, and Roman numerals to perform nifty arithmetical calculations, and how they slowly learned to adopt the quicker column arithmetic—making plenty of mistakes along the way. The session will be full of fascinating and little-known bits of maths history that will enrich your lessons on Roman numerals, place value, and arithmetic.

Medium term plans are often the documents which have the most time poured into before become dusty and unused. They can be vanity projects for bored school leaders that never get referred to again once the school year really starts. I mean really, what is the point of them?!

This session looks to move away from thinking about medium term plans and move towards medium term planning. We will discuss how it should be an active process, rather than a passive document. We will look at all the things a teacher should consider before teaching a unit and all the things they can do to teach mathematics as an interconnected subject and give their students the best deal.

For relatively new teachers, you will have a chance to try a few activities which you can apply in the classroom the next day. For leaders, or people considering a leadership position, you will be able to explore the systems that you can implement across a department to increase the quality of teaching happening in every classroom.

This session will look at some tasks that might provide the cure. We will engage with them, explore how they makes us feel and discuss the role emotions can, and should, play in the classroom.

Bring paper, pen and maybe some tissues.

This talk will explore some of the reasons why students struggle to access Maths. Beginning by placing you in the shoes of students, feeling out of your depth, frustrated and clueless, this session, which is suitable for educators from KS1 through to adult learning, will guide you through the difficulties that students can face in Maths, before arming you with a number of approaches to instantly take back to your own classroom, department and school.

Led by teacher educator Mr Metacognition, this session is based upon years of research, experience, and engagement with a large number, and range, of schools.

This workshop explores the Maths curriculum through the lens of mathematical thinking, focusing on three key principles:
A – Abstraction: Helping students generalise concepts and recognise patterns.
B – Balance: Striking the right balance between procedural fluency and conceptual understanding.
C – Curiosity: Cultivating a sense of wonder and inquisitiveness about mathematical ideas.
Using practical techniques and interactive tools, we will explore how to embed the ‘ABC’ of maths in the classroom. Expect to engage with a range of mathematical topics and ideas that you can apply immediately. The session includes opportunities to share experiences and a Q&A to foster collaboration.

We all saw the headline, but in this session I want to look at the real impact “fun” has on secondary maths lessons. Do we need to cutting tarsias out every lesson? Is the secret to exam success lie in bingo games? Will kids only learn speed, distance, time relations by rolling tennis balls?? Are we currently boring our kids off mathematics???