NAMA conference 6-8 March 2014
MATHEMATICS EVERYWHERE
Aston University, Birmingham
Aim: To reaffirm the fundamental importance and essential purpose of mathematics education
Outcomes: Attendance at this conference will enable you to be updated on current and upcoming research, policy and practice, build relationships and contribute to your NAMA community
Conference programme
THURSDAY 6 MARCH
16.30 / Registration17.30 / Mathematics everywhere – mathematics nowhere / Professor Andy Noyes
ACME Deputy Chair
Questions around who does what mathematics; why, where and how are important because they inform the development of mathematics education in schools and colleges. This talk will briefly explore some answers to these questions and their implications for curriculum, assessment and qualifications. What emerges is a complex picture. This leads into some consideration of the challenges that ACME faces in its advisory role.
Professor Andrew Noyes is Deputy Head of the School of Education at the University of Nottingham. He taught mathematics in a secondary school in Nottingham for ten years before joining the University's teacher education team in 2001. Since then he has led the PGCE course, the Masters in Learning and Teaching and most recently the Professional Doctorate in Education. Andy has either directed, or been consultant to, a number of major research projects in mathematics education. He is a member of the Centre for Research in Mathematics Education and has published on a range of topics in mathematics education and education more generally.
18.30 / Reception for new members
19.00 / Welcome, with wine reception Chair of NAMA: Alice Onion
19.30 / Dinner
20.30 / After dinner mathematical entertainment / Andy Dark
Andy will combine his knowledge of hand held voting pads and matters mathematical to bring us an after dinner entertainment with a twist.
Andy Dark is a Learning Technologies Consultant with Promethean and brings experience of teaching and of advisory work to the role.
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FRIDAY 7 MARCH
EXHIBITION DAY: a range of publishers with their resources plus a bookstall, run by Aston University, with recommended books relevant to the conference content.
09.00 / Insinuating excellence in professional learning / Philippa CordingleyDrawing from extensive research evidence, this session will help you to plan your support to school so that it aligns with their development plans and ongoing support for professional learning and helps them to evaluate the impacts of what they learn from you. Following a short introduction to the broader evidence, Philippa willhighlight key messages from research about effective approaches to aligning CPD with ongoing school development and evaluating its impact and provide researched examples of effective practices. Participants will then explore these messages, their current challenges and ways of enhancing what they do together, in the light of the evidence, before a plenary feedback session.
Philippa Cordingley is the Chief Executive of CUREE and an internationally acknowledged expert in effective Continuing Professional Development and Learning (CPDL) and use of research. She has led CUREE projects including the creation of the evidence based National Framework for Mentoring and Coaching; The Research Informed Practice (TRIPs) web site and the creation of banks of coaching and micro enquiry tools. She is the founder and professional adviser to the National Teacher Research Panel and chair of the EPPI Centre Impact of CPD Review Group. Philippa has led the CUREE team in a range of research, evaluation and development projects including a range of large scale evaluations such as the Evaluations of Sing Up and of national CPD provision in England for TDA.
10.30 / Refreshments
11.00 / Discussion of pre-reading and delegates’ current interests / Jennie Pennant
11.45 / Great Expectations: Probability through problems / Dr Jenny Gage
Probability doesn't need to be hard or boring! In this session we will explore how a rich classroom task can be used as a vehicle for teaching necessary theory, as well as providing students with a context in which they can develop their conceptual understanding.
Dr Jenny Gage was a secondary mathematics teacher for 15 years before joining the Millennium Mathematics Project in January 2001. She worked for a number of years on Motivate, providing mathematical enrichment via videoconferencing, before joining the NRICH team, first on stemNRICH, and then on a new approach to Probability with Professor David Spiegelhalter.
12.45 / Lunch
13.30 / Workshops A, B, C
Workshop A – Maths trails and their use in the new National Curriculum (Primary and KS3) / Nathan Crook
Nathan will explore the construction of a maths trail using the university grounds as a springboard. He will also look at the place of maths trails in the new National Curriculum: is there still room for them with such a pressure on fluency and algorithmic methods for calculation?
Nathan Crook is a mathematics consultant with Oxfordshire Local Authority. As part of continuing to support school improvement, he continues to develop the work of Leading Mathematics Teachers. Nathan has taught in a wide range of schools: urban and rural, large and small. He is interested in curriculum development and ensuring that children are able to take ownership of their learning.
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Workshop B – Cutting edge uses of Geogebra(Primary & Secondary) / Christine Watson,
Pip Huyton
Using Geogebra to support delivery of the new Primary Curriculum and the additional content at Secondary. Suitable for all, from beginners to experts.
Christine and Pip work as Independent Mathematics Education Consultants and both have extensive experience of using IT to effectively support learning.
Workshop C – Using blogging to support mathematical understanding in Primary school / Julie Hiddleston
Julie will share her experience of setting up a maths blog for Years 5 and 6 and a whole school ‘problem solving’ blog for Years 1 -6. The aim is to engage children through new technologies.
Julie Hiddleston is currently a Deputy Head of a large primary school in Oxfordshire and head of the mathematics development team. She is training to be a MaST, with the intention to extend to an MA Mathematics specialism at university.
14.35 / Mathematical ability and other stories / Dr Heather Mendick
Heather will take-apart the idea of mathematics ability, asking how it is that some people come to think of themselves as and be viewed by others as mathematically able. She will also explore the effects this has on learners and teachers and how this can exclude many people from the access to the powers and pleasures of mathematics.
Dr Heather Mendick works as Reader in Education at Brunel University. She is interested in learning in its widest sense including how people relate to maths and science, how social class and gender impact on educational identities and the impact of popular culture on learning. She has published widely in mathematics education including authoring the book Masculinities and Mathematics in 2006 and co-editing the book Mathematical Relationships in Education in 2009. Her current research focuses on the young people’s engagement with celebrity (see
15.35 / Refreshments and exhibition
16.00 / Research seminars
Seminar A –‘I didn’t really want to say anything’: participation in small group discussion during an Initial Teacher Education mathematics course. / Dr Julie Alderton
Julie will share her research which investigates the experiences of her students as they learned to teach mathematics as part of their primary PGCE studies. She focuses on students’ accounts of interaction with their peers and participation in small group activities during university based mathematics sessions. In her analysis she explores how micro-relations of power operate to silence some students and produce gendered responses to participation in learning mathematics.
Dr Julie Alderton works as a lecturer in primary mathematics education. She taught in primary schools in west London before becoming a teacher educator, firstly at the University of Roehampton and now at the University of Cambridge. She is interested in how social inequalities are produced in mathematics education and the development of inclusive pedagogies.
Seminar B –Social Media and CPD / Alison Kiddle
Social media is an ever-growing part of our information age. Sites like Twitter are allowing geographically dispersed users to freely and publicly exchange messages, and so create new opportunities for conversations. As these applications grow in popularity, more people are looking to see how engagement with social media can form part of our professional as well as our personal lives. Alison will look at how organised chats on Twitter might be used to make a positive contribution to the participants' professional development in mathematics.
Alison Kiddle is a Secondary Teacher Associate with NRICH. Alison graduated with a degree in mathematics from Cambridge University and became a teacher to share her view that mathematics can be useful, beautiful and a great deal of fun. After a period in schools in Peterborough and Hertfordshire, converting young people to her views about maths, Alison joined the NRICH team. Her main focus is developing Stage 4 materials.
Seminar C –What does this textbook say about doing mathematics? / Professor Candia Morgan
The ways in which we use language affect the ways in which we construe the world and our places in it. Mathematics texts do not only communicate the “content” of mathematics but also construct a picture of the nature of mathematics itself, of what it means to do mathematics and of the roles of pupils and teachers. Candia will present examples of analysis of textbooks and discuss how looking at them from a linguistic perspective allows new forms of critique and raises issues for the design and choice of texts.
Professor Candia Morgan is Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. She taught secondary mathematics for eleven years in London and spent a short time as an Advisory Teacher in Croydon before moving to teach Mathematics Education in universities. Her primary research interest in use of language in mathematics education arises from her concern while teaching secondary school students with their difficulties in communicating the quality of their mathematical thinking.
17.00 / Discussion on the research plenary and the seminars:
Implications for practice / Jennie Pennant
17.45 / NAMA AGM
19.00 / Dinner
20.00 / After dinner speaker: Mathematics, minds and magic / Professor Peter McOwan
Maths gets everywhere and in this talk I’ll show how it has worked its way into my life from card tricks in my youth to robots in my present. On the way I’ll try and baffle with some magic, make some music and show some of the marvellous mathematical mistakes our visual brains make when we observe the world.
Professor Peter McOwan is a Professor of Computer Science in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary. He was appointed to the role of Vice Principal for Public Engagement and Student Enterprise in January 2012. Peter holds degrees from Edinburgh, Kings College London, UCL and Aberdeen. His interdisciplinary research interests are in visual perception, cognitive science and biologically inspired hardware and software. He has authored more than 120 papers in these areas. He was coordinator of the successful Living with Robots and Interactive Companions (LIREC) project, one of the EU’s largest robotics projects, developing long-term synthetic companions, and is currently coordinator of an EU Science in Society grant Teaching Enquiry with Mysteries Incorporated (TEMI), using magic, myths and mysteries to promote enquiry-based education in Europe. He is co-creator of the cs4fn project, taking a quirky look at computing research, and awarded the IET Mountbatten Medal for his work in public engagement.
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SATURDAY 8 MARCH
Can’t make the full conference? Join us for the Saturday morning, network over lunch.
The Saturday is open to members and non-members at the rate of £80 including all refreshments.
09.00 / Current issues and NAMA policy / Chair of NAMA: Alice OnionAn opportunity to discuss current issues in the context of our work and the role of NAMA in representing the views of the membership.
09.30 / CPD workshop / Matt Lewis and NAMA members
This interactive session brings members together to reflect on a range of prompts on the effectiveness and delivery of CPD. Strategies and ideas will be presented for ongoing consideration during coffee and post-conference review!
10.30 / Coffee and final checkout
11.30 / Ofsted: priorities and perspectives / Jane Jones
Jane will share with us the latest thinking from Ofsted regarding good practice in mathematics. She will update us on recent inspection findings on the current standards in mathematics education across the country and link these to longer term developments in classroom practice from the Ofsted perspective. She will explore best practice and areas still ripe for improvement, and link this discussion to ways of working with teachers and senior leaders to build capacity.
Jane Jones is a lead HMI for Ofsted, with responsibility for mathematics and also a long- standing NAMA member. Her talks to conference are always informative and centred on every child deserving a good mathematics education.
Feedback from 2013: fabulous as ever ... very relevant ... excellent ... very useful inside track ... thought-provoking as ever ... key advice ... detailed discussions
Jane’s input will be followed by an opportunity for questions and discussion.
13.00 / Closing remarks / Chair of NAMA: Alice Onion
13.10 / Conference ends
13.15 / Lunch
Members
Register for full or part conference using the form below or via the Conference page of the website
Payment can be made in full, in instalments or request an invoice from .
Not a NAMA member?
Saturday is open to all; non-members may register for Saturday as a stand-alone day at the cost of £80, and may prefer to join the day at 09:30.
Other days are open to members only or by invitation. To be eligible to register, join us at
The annual membership fee is £45 per year (by standing order), £55 by other payment methods.
This gives full membership and access to regular newsletters, free cpd events, opportunities to network with like-minded individuals and a website forum for your business.
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NAMA conference 6-8 March 2014
MATHEMATICS EVERYWHERE
Conference registration form
(Registration will shortly be available at
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Full conference / Includes all refreshments, meals and accommodation / £310 / Thursday / 5pm onwards / Includes dinner, accommodation, breakfast / £85 /
Friday day / 9am – 5:45pm / Includes refreshments and lunch / £110 /
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Saturday / 9am – 2pm / Includes refreshments and lunch (open to non-members) / £80 /
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Our administrator will contact you by email by to confirm payment details.
All bookings for the conference and accommodation must be made via NAMA. Rooms are allocated on a first come first served basis so please ensure that you complete this form to reserve your place.
Terms & Conditions of Acceptance:
- The full Annual NAMA Conference is open to fully paid-up NAMA members only or by specific invitation.
- The Executive Committee of the National Association of Mathematics Advisers reserves the right to withhold acceptance of registration and will refund any monies paid to the Association in respect of the Conference.
- Numbers are restricted and priority allocation will be given to full conference applications.
- The delegate to pay the appropriate charge on receipt of invoice by cheque, BACs, Paypal or cash.
- The day delegate can opt to stay for dinner on Friday evening, but will pay the venue direct for this additional charge.
- Any cancellations or amendments must be received and acknowledged in writing.
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Post this form to: NAMA
c/o C Watson
106 Park Lane
Kidderminster DY11 6TB
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