We’re delighted to support the UK Creative Maths Challenge 2021. This competition is the creation of Joely To, founder of Pioneer, a non-profit enterprise aiming to build a community of girls aged 11-18 with a shared interest in maths.

Joely founded the organisation when she was in Year 12 herself:

“I decided to set up Pioneer, a support network aiming to nurture girls’ passion for maths beyond the school curriculum – thus building their confidence to pursue the subject at university and beyond.”

Pioneer’s purpose resonates strongly with the work of MEI and we are delighted to be involved with the challenge.

The competition is open to all 14-18 year old students and will be judged on both the quality of mathematical reasoning shown and the creativity of the solution. Videos, posters, presentations, podcasts – all formats are welcome!

Please encourage your students to get involved, independently or perhaps using the questions from the competition in class to whet their appetite. They have until early August to submit their entries.

You can hear first-hand from Joely, and other students, how taking an advanced maths qualification was a vital step in their journey to university and pursuing their chosen career path in this collection of short videos from the AMSP. There are also many interesting blog posts from young women on the Pioneer website, with topics such as the benefits of studying maths after GCSE, how to revise, what life at university is like, and how to choose the right one for you.