MEI are really excited to begin expanding our free support for teachers of maths in Further Education (FE) over the next few months. We’ll be introducing some fantastic new courses and extending our existing opportunities so that all of our support is easy to access and meets the needs of you and your students.   

This new programme of professional development, funded by the Department for Education, is suitable for teachers of students aged 16 – 19 years who are working towards achieving grade 4 or higher by resitting GCSE Mathematics, or studying Functional Skills Maths, in England. It will be delivered by a dedicated team of maths specialists who have experience in teaching and managing maths in Further Education settings. The programme is expected to run until March 2025. 

The programme will offer the following fully-funded professional development opportunities for teachers within FE settings in England who enrol students under the government’s Condition of Funding Policy.

FE Maths CPD Menu 

The FE Maths CPD Menu has been designed to meet the needs of all Post-16 GCSE/FSQ providers. The menu allows you to choose from a variety of elements so you can build your own CPD events, suiting your establishment’s priorities and your teachers’ development needs. 

The FE Maths CPD Menu is available now and all the elements from the menu can be delivered face to face or online. 

Professional Development courses 

Alongside a new course designed to support those teaching Functional Skills, our existing courses have been extended into multiple formats so that, whatever your needs, there’s an easy to access option that suits you. Each course will be available in the following formats: 

• Live online – regular sessions in an online classroom with a course leader 
• Blended – a mixture of face-to-face and live online interactions
• On-demand – complete the course in your own time and at your own pace 

The following courses are now open for live online enrolment and will open for blended and on-demand enrolment in May: 

• Teaching GCSE Mathematics resit – Improve your GCSE Mathematics foundation tier subject knowledge and learn more about the principles of effective pedagogy in GCSE Mathematics resit teaching. 
• Leaders of Maths in Further Education – Ideal for any new or aspiring Maths Lead who wishes to reflect upon this demanding role and learn strategies to improve their performance. 
• Teaching Functional Skills Mathematics – Improve your Functional Skills Maths subject knowledge and learn more about the principles of effective pedagogy in Functional Skills Maths teaching. 

On-demand subject knowledge – coming soon!

The FE Maths team have been developing an on-demand suite of Post-16 GCSE/FSQ specific subject knowledge enhancement materials which cover the following topics: 

• Ratio and Proportion
• Number
• Algebra
• Geometry
• Statistics and Probability

If you’d like to be the first to know when new elements of the programme are available, please sign up to stay informed or follow us on Twitter. 

You can also join our session at the MEI Inspired series of free twilight webinars. “Reaching Further” will run from 16:30 to 17:15 on 22 March 2023 and will explore the variety and richness of our FE CPD offer.