Forty 15 year olds from deprived areas in Greater London have completed their first year on a unique maths course which aims to encourage their passion for the subject.

The budding mathematicians are finishing the last of three one-week residentials at the University today as part of the $1.2m Fast Forward Maths programme, supported by Goldman Sachs.

The programme aims to boost their knowledge of a subject widely seen as in crisis and encouraging them to aspire to higher education. Next month a new cohort of 14 year old students will start the residential course and this year’s group will go on to have e-mentoring from Cambridge undergraduates in the autumn.

Priority on the programme is given to students who are from ethnic minorities, have parents in non-professional occupations who have not attended university, attend a school with a low average GCSE or A Level score, with a low proportion of students going on to higher education and with a high proportion of free school meals. They are taught by Cambridge academics.

At the end of the course all students reported that they felt more positive about mathematics. At the start, many were not sure about taking A-Level maths, but most now feel more confident and say that they are set on furthering their maths skills.

For the third residential their tutors have increased the difficulty of the problems. The first residential was an introduction to different areas of mathematics, the second focused on problem solving and the third aimed to develop a more sophisticated approach to maths and sharpen their thinking around the issue of proof.

Dr Steve Hewson, one of the tutors on the course, said he was impressed by the way the students had developed over the year. “They have greater clarity of thinking and the level of their questions has been quite impressive. The subtlety of some of their questions would not be out of place on a first year maths undergraduate course.”

He added that it was clear that they were enjoying the course even though it involved fairly “hard core thinking”.

The students said the programme had opened their eyes both to higher education and maths. Many said it had encouraged them to consider going on to study at university as well as building their interest in maths. As part of the residential, they lived in student accommodation at Churchill College.

Ria Chambers, from Sydenham Girls’ School in Lewisham, said: “It was very practical and it gave me a taste of university life. I am now thinking of studying maths as an option. At school, although everyone in my group is good at maths, most are not interested in it.”

She added that she had thought people at Cambridge would be “stuck up”, but realised now that they were “pretty normal”.

Neelam Bulsara from Edmonton County School in Enfield said the tutors treated them like university students rather than schoolchildren. “I felt more interested and focused as a result,” she said.

Many of the students have forged good friendships over the year through doing the course and taking part in the range of social activities that form part of the programme.

They keep in touch by email and meet up when they can. Some had gone back to their schools and shown their maths classes the problems they had worked on, or written about the programme in their school newsletters.

Fast Forward Maths is being run by the University over three years and includes the residential courses and three Teacher Inspiration Days each year aimed at addressing some of the challenges maths teachers face in keeping students engaged and interested in their subject.

The Fast Forward Maths programme is the first time Cambridge has run a subject-specific residential programme over such a lengthy period. It is run by two award-winning divisions of the University of Cambridge: the NRICH Project, which is part of the Millennium Mathematics Project, and the Group to Encourage Ethnic Minority Applications (GEEMA), which is part of the Widening Participation Team in the Cambridge Admissions Office.

The NRICH website is part of the Millennium Mathematics Project and has been providing free on-line maths education resources for over a decade. The aim of the MMP is to develop mathematical skills and understanding through providing top-quality enrichment activities for maths students and their teachers, both nationally and internationally.

 

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