Smugglers ahoy for maths

Organised by the East Sussex County Council’s (ESCC) standards and learning effectiveness team, the Mathematics Fortnight is part of its ongoing commitment to improve maths standards for primary school pupils. To help raise the profile of this often misunderstood subject, schools across the county will be holding special maths days to show pupils how engaging and exciting maths can be.

To make the subject more fun, smuggling and code breaking are just two of the topics young people will learn about during the event to be held between March 14 – 25.

Activities will focus on the theme of historical smuggling in East Sussex and children will practise their maths skills through tasks including problem solving, map making and code breaking.

A number of other primary schools in the Hastings and Rother area will also be taking part.

Each school will invite up to 150 pupils from neighbouring schools to take part in the maths days. Visiting pupils will then take activities back to share with their teachers and classmates.

Cllr David Elkin, lead member for standards and learning effectiveness, said the aim is to make maths a more enjoyable part of the school curriculum. “Maths is often a subject that children experience negative attitudes towards and sometimes they don’t get to enjoy it as much as they could.

“Through Mathematics Fortnight, we want to get children engaged with the subject on a county-wide level and help them to enjoy maths through the exciting activities we have planned.”

Last year ESCC introduced a range of new projects to help improve maths provision for seven to 11-year-olds. As a result, 2010 Key Stage 2 test results for mathematics increased two per cent on 2009 figures, bringing the total pass rate to 78 per cent.