By steven
Fri 14 May 2010

Thought I would test out the forum in a practical way. It feels like every other school is doing a creative maths projects and one of my change schools is keen to develop one next year. Does anybody have any examples of interesting things or findings or websites or perhaps possible schools to visit. would be nice to do something more than finding shapes outside and areas of big objects or kinesthetic ways to remeber times tables.

By Clare
Mon 17 May 2010

Just off the top of my head Steven I know that Holy Trinity Rosehill CofE Primary in Middlesbrough has done some great work in maths with a magician as a practitioner. Also the Earls High School in the West Midlands used a stand up comedian practitioner to look at maths.If you want to know more about these let me know and I could put you in touch with the Creative agents there. Also have you tried searching using the word 'maths' on the database? it should show you school planning forms that are intending to address maths. Also your ADO could pull a report from the database on schools in your area that are addressing maths.

$postUserCreator.displayImage.getImage(45).toHtml() By Val
Tue 18 May 2010

Hi Steve ,
Two of my schools have done Maths related projects .Brightlingsea Infants has been working with a musician, obviously counting, understanding number value etc , it has been really successful.
Another one in Scunthorpe has been making animation and books with mathematical characters. The school thought the lower ability group have really found this useful and they are now looking how projects such as this can stretch the more able.I think all children were able to use maths in a practical way and explored the relevance of learning the various methods. I can go into more detail if you want.
Thanks Clare for that useful way of using database.

By steven
Tue 18 May 2010

I used the database and it was quite useful - came up with lots of maths projects. I wonder if there is potential for somebody to pull some of the information together into a more easily accesable format. Maybe something really practical like some creative lesson plans which really encourage pupils to lead their own learning. I've done a really great activity encouraging children to sort themselves into groups using shapes - the pupils had to come up with their own reasons to form sets - the intersting stuff started happening in the detail and length of time allocated to the activity. Perhaps we should set up "Creative Maths forums" or wikis which could inform and develop ideas around a specific topic - for example involving parents or creative approaches to science.

By Robert
Thu 27 May 2010

Hi Steven, You seem to be getting on top of this but i thought I'd tell you about enquiry project at Christ the King in Blackpool which is about to finish. We've brought people in from the community so that the year 5s can identify how they use maths in their work or lives - A builder, A mum, School cook etc. in the afternoon they've worked with paractitioer to sort it all out and record their new learning. Idea is for children to learn that maths is all around us and not just a nasty thing that the teacher gets them to do to punish them. Will send you evaluatuion if you like when I've done it

By Ben
Fri 18 Jun 2010

Hi Steven, I've just finished my first creative partnerships project with Yr9s in Nottingham. I'm a games developer and we looked at the way maths is used (extensively) in making games. The two classes built a simple game on laptops over two days and it seemed to go really well. Students were able to make all their games look different and suggest features.