We hope any rest you managed to get over the Easter break isn’t too distant a memory, and that you’re beginning to settle into some form of routine in these dramatically-changed circumstances.

Learning in lockdown

We have added two new areas to our website, designed to support teachers and parents/carers of primary and secondary school children throughout the period of school closures. All the resources are free to access and do not require a login.

• Support for teachers

This area includes our new primary lesson videos, intended to provide primary school pupils with interactive lessons while they are at home. Most lessons are 15 to 20 minutes long, each ending with suggested follow-up tasks. The current plan is for three new batches of five lessons each to be added every week.

Our regular Tuesday evening Twitter chat #mathscpdchat has recently involved teachers discussing how to manage remote teaching. You can read the summaries of previous discussions and find out how to join the next one on this page.

• Support for parents/carers

Our parent support page has a short introductory video, before offering support in three separate areas: learning activities and games; video tips; and Facebook Groups, all sub-divided into primary and secondary.

The two Facebook Groups, Primary maths – teachers supporting parents and Secondary maths – teachers supporting parents, are for any parents/carers and teachers across the country to join. Their purpose is for parents to pose questions about the maths their children are learning, and for teachers to provide easy to understand, straightforward answers.

• Other organisations

Our colleagues at the Advanced Maths Support Programme (AMSP) also have a wealth of new material designed to help teachers and students of A level Maths, Further Maths and Core Maths, and there’s a substantial new national resource of daily lessons in all subjects for all age groups, on the BBC Bitesize platform, endorsed by several well-known names in their fields.

Qualifications and Curriculum

The school closures, and the linked cancellation of summer exams, has had significant implications for teachers with exam classes, and their departments. Our Qualifications and Curriculum page has full details—updated regularly—of these changes and what they mean for teachers. Separate sections cover guidance from the exam boards, Ofqual, DfE and others. You can also follow our Qualifications and Curriculum account (@NCETMQandC) on Twitter.

In brief

• Many of the maths subject association conferences which would normally have taken place take place over the Easter break had to be cancelled:
  • ATM, 6-9 April 2020 – deferred until 2021. More information is on the ATM website
  • MA (held with NANAMIC), 14-16 April 2020 – cancelled. More information is on the MA website
  • MEI, 2-4 July 2020 – replaced by a smaller virtual conference. More information is on MEI’s conference website
  • NANAMIC (held with the MA), 14-16 April 2020 – cancelled. More information is on the NANAMIC website.
• The Royal Geographical Society has teamed up with the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme (AMSP) to launch a new Geography and Core Maths initiative. This will focus on building support for the circa 80% of young geographers who currently do not study maths beyond the age of 16, and raising awareness of how Core Maths can support geography students during their A levels and beyond.

Please do contact us if you have any comments on this newsletter.

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