Whole-School Creative Maths Days
As CreativesYes of course! we are a Creative Education company working in schools, colleges and universities across the UK and beyond! All of our programmes are rooted in the National Curriculum the Curriculum for Excellence, The Curriculum for Wales and the Northern Ireland Curriculum and use the performing arts and storytelling to engage, motivate and challenge the children and young people we work with.
Tapping into pupils' own creativity, our unashamedly fun workshops provide a great springboard for raising the profile of maths, science, literacy and history across the whole school.
None of our programmes have been plucked from thin air - they're the result of more than fourteen years of working directly in classrooms - with more than a million children, right across the UK (and beyond!).
The whole-school creative maths day sounds like a great way of getting schools excited about maths. What is involved?
We created our whole-school Creative Maths days to offer primary schools a way to raise the profile of Maths - and provide the whole school community with a shared experience and a buzz of learning.
During a whole-school assembly each programme introduces a different character who then spends the entire day engaging every class in a narrative that sees all pupils working towards a single, shared end. And each one comes complete with a healthy dose of humour!
In The Race into Space, they meet Major Tom of the British Isles Space Agency, using maths to select the UK's next astronaut. The Riddle of the Sphinx sees them working with Egyptologist Dr Colorado Smith, handling concepts of 'measurement' to solve a millennia-old puzzle. Taking part in The Benefactor involves meeting entrepreneur Benny Factor and using the maths of money to help a disadvantaged village. While working with embattled restaurateur Trevi Times in Times Tables Trattoria brings with it a taste of multiplication skills! The contextualised nature of the mathematical challenges we set pupils encourages them to be bold with their learning - and the links we make with literacy and science allow them to make connections across different curriculum areas.
Over half a million children and young people have taken part in one of our Creative Maths workshops to date!
It is always important to the teachers that use our site to ensure that workshops develop a good understanding and a strong links to the Curriculum. How do you achieve this?
Putting maths in context to create hooks for childrens' learning. Sounds like the holy grail, doesn't it? This is where our whole-school Maths days can help schools get there - by placing their pupils in immersive, character-led worlds, where the maths has a purpose!
All of our Primary maths workshops have been carefully designed to both put into context and actively promote the keystones of the national curricula of all parts of the UK: fluency, reasoning and problem solving.
Rooted in drama and storytelling, our maths activity days offer opportunities to practise skills with numbers, shapes and concepts in exciting, imaginative and interactive ways. All are firmly linked to the Maths curriculum and are differentiated for age - while some also offer the possibility of differentiating for ability within a single class. And all, of course, offer teachers the chance to experience some exciting new methodologies that can immediately and easily be adapted to other contexts.
I am also aware that you offer a fantastic way of getting families and carers involved as well. Could you explain a little more about the add on workshops at the end of the day?
We all know how much family support benefits children's learning. So, we have developed Family Maths workshops, which can be added on at the end of the school day. These are really popular as they offer a fun and friendly environment in which parents/carers work alongside their children on activities that both explore the value of maths and unpick fluency, reasoning and problem-solving. And, by tackling our Household Maths Trail, they discover just how easy it is to use any part of the home as a stimulus for quick and impromptu maths challenges!
We also offer an-add on Creative Maths Twilight for staff. This 1.5-hour twilight CPD workshop gives teachers a chance to unpick what they've witnessed during the day and both try out and actively reflect on some new methodologies for delivering Maths activities. And, by booking this at the end of a day of our workshops with pupils, schools get it all for a fraction of the usual price!
Many companies diversified their offerings in response to Covid to ensure that schools could still access their workshops. What was As Creative's response to Covid-19?
When schools first closed during the pandemic we were able to offer most of our workshops either live streamed into the classroom or into children's homes. Through our digital platform, As Creatives Connect, we were also able to offer schools the opportunity to buy one of our whole-school Maths packages, which allow them to deliver the day themselves. We now continue to offer live-streamed workshops for schools and have a whole host of programmes available to purchase on our Connect website.
As Creatives also offer a great range of downloadable packages that sound like a great way to create some exciting lessons in an affordable way. Could you tell us a little more about As Creatives Connect?
Over the last twelve years, our whole-school character-led workshops have proved incredibly popular and have received brilliant feedback from schools we have worked with. In response, we wanted to find a way to make the experience even more accessible and affordable, allowing even more children to enjoy taking part. Which is where our downloadable Extraordinary World of Maths packages come in - by making it easy for every member of staff to be part of and deliver whole-school, themed activities, allowing every child in every class to be part of a special, shared experience. There are, of course, lots of great websites that offer teaching and learning resources but what sets Extraordinary Worlds apart is the immersive element offered by the fictional worlds in which our activities are based. Not only does this result in higher levels of engagement, it allows participating schools to really create a buzz around - and raise the profile of - maths. There are currently four Extraordinary World of Maths packages to choose from: The Race into Space, The Riddle of the Sphinx, The Benefactor and Family Maths with our new programme Time Tables Trattoria being added in the Autumn term!
Available to purchase and download over at www.ascreativesconnect.com/extraordinary-world-days/
Many of the companies can offer visits all over the UK, however I gather you can travel further a field. What is the full scope of where you work?
The short answer is anywhere in the world! We work extensively across the UK and Ireland but have also taken our programmes to a whole host of British International Schools, including the Pathways International school in Malaysia, the Prague British School, Denmark's International School of Billund, the British Embassy School Ankara and the British School Warsaw - to name but just a few. And after a bit of a hiatus due to the pandemic, we're off to both Spain and Oman in the autumn!
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