Shaping the future of maths education

Cambridge Mathematics, an ambitious enterprise with a long-term vision of securing world-class mathematics education for all 5–19 year olds, will be unveiled today at the British Library. The event will be live-streamed on the Cambridge Assessment website.

The first aim of Cambridge Maths is the construction of a framework to map the levels and concepts of attainable skills and knowledge for young people from the ages of 5 up to 19 around the globe. Once the Framework has been created, it will form the backbone of an integrated programme that brings together curriculum, assessment, supporting resources and professional development.

A partnership of departments with expertise on different aspects of teaching and learning maths from across the University of Cambridge, including OCR, is behind Cambridge Maths. The vision is not just to support the drive to improve numeracy in the UK but to have an impact on standards internationally.

Lynne McClure, Director of Cambridge Maths, and formerly leader of the NRICH project, commented: “Ultimately our aim is to make a positive difference to mathematics education world-wide, by harnessing the knowledge and experience of colleagues working within and outside the University. We will be looking at the full progression from early years through to the oldest students and making sure that we search out the best research to inform our work with those at the beginning of their mathematical journey, because those foundations are incredibly important.”

As one of the partners of this important collaboration, OCR, and the schools using OCR’s Maths qualifications, will contribute knowledge and experience to this ambitious project to shape the future of Maths.

Mark Dawe, OCR Chief Executive, said: "Getting maths education right is vital for this country and for OCR which develops a wide range of maths qualifications. As well as contributing our knowledge of assessment, I am excited by the fact that OCR will benefit from being at the cutting edge of the development of an international framework for 5-to-19 maths education and of the world-class new learning and teaching resources that will be rolled out to support it.”

Download the Cambridge Mathematics manifesto