Primary Education staff and students host Maths sessions for local children

Maths Week England took place from Monday 11^th to Sunday 17^th November – a national celebration of the subject of maths.

Alongside helping to make maths more accessible, one of the aims of the week is to encourage higher education settings to invite surrounding schools to take part in fun and educational maths-based activities.

Our Primary Education staff and students were excited to get involved and hosted two sessions across the week at the Ermine Library.

On Tuesday 12^th November, Senior Lecturer Ashley Compton and four students from year 2 of our Primary Education course led a workshop called ‘How many jellybeans?’.

Starting with the story by Andrea Menotti, entitled ‘How many jellybeans?’, the session explored place value and increasingly big numbers. Around 60 children from years 3 and 4 at Our Lady of Lincoln Catholic Primary School took part in practical activities and games related to the topic.

Mrs Julia Hyman, a Year 4 Teacher at Our Lady of Lincoln, said: “It was a fantastic experience, and the children loved their workshop.”

In the later part of the week, three students from year 3 of our Primary Education course, alongside Ashley and a second Senior Lecturer David Wallace, led another workshop called ‘Kippers Toybox’.

The room was set up with a collection of mathematical stories, maths games, dice, number lines and puzzles, as well as some mathematical art including printing, colouring and shape stamps.

Ashley Compton, Senior Lecturer at BGU, shared more about the session: “We read Kipper's Toybox and then played with some of the toys in the toybox I had prepared; Counting and ordering Russian nesting dolls and stacking cups were popular activities.

“A collection of adults and children took part. It's always good to have opportunities like these for staff and students to work together with children.”

Sarah Moseley, Head of Social Purpose at BGU, said: “This is an excellent example of how our work at the Ermine Library & Community Hub bridges the gap between BGU as an academic institution and the community.

“We work hard to provide engaging activities, build, and strengthen relationships with schools whilst providing work experience opportunities for our students to support them on their career readiness journey.”

Find out more about our Routes into Teaching courses, including Primary Education with QTS, here.

To discover future events at the Ermine Library, please visit their Facebook page.