One of MEI’s aims is to increase participation in Level 3 Core Maths. These qualifications are equivalent in size to an AS and are designed to be taken alongside a student’s main A level and/or vocational courses. The course develops skills in applying maths to authentic and often unfamiliar situations. When delivering this course, teachers have noticed that students are particularly motivated by contexts which involve learning about climate change, equality, and misleading statistics in the media.

MEI leads and delivers the Advanced Mathematics Support Programme, which has developed many resources for teachers based within these contexts. We were delighted to collaborate with Shout Out UK (SOUK) to create one of our new ‘Where maths meets the world of work’ videos. SOUK aims to make political literacy education available to all citizens both in and out of school. They are also secretariat to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Political Literacy. The key aim of the APPG is to provide evidence for the importance of political literacy education in promoting youth participation in democratic life.

We are delighted to be taking part in a panel event with the APPG on the 13 May. It’s an excellent opportunity to highlight how the teaching and learning of Core Maths contributes to political literacy by helping young people to gain the vital skills they need to question claims they see in the media and assess whether are real or fake. You are warmly invited to sign up to attend this event. Please share details of this event with your colleagues in other departments too, particularly Politics, Sociology, Geography and Citizenship.