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Forward to excellence

Ursula Howard explains how the success of the Maths4Life programme will be carried on under new management

The Maths4Life programme at NRDC has, since it was launched in August 2004, produced high quality, wellresearched resources which we know teachers and learners in the Skills for Life sector find stimulating. The DfES-funded programme has launched a number of professional development events and has undertaken small pieces of research. It has had a major impact on mathematics in Skills for Life.

March 2007 marked the end of the first phase of the programme and, in recognition of the quality and value of its work, the DfES has asked the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) to take the work forward until March 2008.

NCETM was set up in 2006 to enhance professional development for all mathematics teachers. Maths4Life has already forged strong links with NCETM, especially with its regional coordinators. NCETM personnel and associates have been involved in the production of the Thinking Through Mathematics pack, as well as presenting at dissemination events.

NRDC remains a key partner in NCETM's further development of the Maths4Life programme, and will focus its efforts in five main areas. It will:

■ explore the best ways to disseminate the Thinking Through Mathematics ring-binder by building on what was learned during its development. NRDC will work with NCETM to encourage collaborative professional development

■ examine best practice in workbased situations, and explore the sorts of CPD that maximise successful teaching and learning of mathematics in this area

■ produce summaries of the latest research for practitioners, and explore 'hot issues' with them

■ run a seminar to explore the implications of the Leitch report (1)

■ help to transfer the Maths4Life website to NCETM. The Maths4Life website will remain live and will be maintained until the end of March 2008 when it will transfer to www.ncetm.org.uk

Oonagh Gormley, formerly the NRDC Programme Manager of Maths4Life, will assist other NRDC colleagues with much of the work commissioned by NCETM. She will also work for the London Mathematics Centre, based at the Institute of Education. NCETM will now formally manage Maths4Life.

For further details see www.ncetm.org.uk

About Maths4Life

Maths4Life was set up in 2004 in response to the Smith Report Making Mathematics Count. In its response to the report, the government said:

'the long term future of mathematics in the UK will depend on aligning action on the three critical issues...: teacher supply; teacher support; and curriculum development...

These are the tasks the project was set. NRDC, based at the Institute of Education, with LLU+ at London South Bank University as main partner, began work in 2004. The programme reached the end of its first phase on 31st March 2007.

Since 2004, Maths4Life has developed strong 'brand recognition' and the programme has helped to bring about a culture shift in approaches to teaching and learning mathematics - in particular, the narrowing of the gap between 'mathematics' and 'adult numeracy', with the two communities beginning to see each other as colleagues and uniting within the same field of expertise and endeavour.

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