Note: Due to the announced industrial action affecting schools, we have made some changes to the Maths Week events programme to ensure that as many schools as possible can still take part.
Any events on Monday 25 and Friday 29 September are unchanged, as are any evening events taking place on non school premises and events in regions not affected by the industrial action.
Day time events on Tuesday 26 September to Thursday 28 September have either been rescheduled to the following week or later in October/ November, or where events could not be rescheduled they will be recorded and will be made available to all schools afterwards. We are still waiting on confirmation for some of our events on Wednesday 27 September.
The deadline for the 'Get to the Point' Data Visualisation Competition has been extended to Friday 6 October, and the deadline for the 'Maths Inside' photography competition has been extended to Monday 16 October, to give schools taking part more time to enter. The Daily Challenges will remain online after Maths Week and can be watched at any time thereafter.
Any schools not able to participate fully in Maths Week in the week beginning 25 September are invited to celebrate and share their Maths Week activities in the following week.
For Maths Week Scotland (25 September - 1 October 2023), we have a mix of online and in-person events and workshops for schools to book, as well as a variety of challenges and competitions running at various points in and around the week itself.
Challenges & Competitions
Please note: A few of our competitions kick off before 25 September!
1 September – 16 October: Maths Inside photography competition, open to anyone in Scotland (PLEASE NOTE THE NEW EXTENDED DEADLINE)
1 September – 6 October: Get to the Point Data Visualisation competition for primary and secondary schools (PLEASE NOTE THE NEW EXTENDED DEADLINE)
18 September to 23 October: Maths Wi Nae Borders mini-competition for any class to complete together (aimed at secondary schools but younger entrants welcome)
19 September to 21 September: Scotland Rocks times tables competition for schools
22 September to 28 September: Sumdog online maths contest for schools
25 September to 1 October: Maths Week Scotland Daily Challenge, with the Scottish Mathematical Council and BBC Bitesize (THESE WILL REMAIN ONLINE AFTER MATHS WEEK)
26 to 29 September: Mathematics World Cup - play between the 26th and 29th of September to be featured on the Maths Week Scotland Leaderboard
You can find all of our events listed in our online events calendar, but to help you with your planning we have pulled together an overview of daily highlights. We will be updating this, as new events come in, so please keep checking. Please note that many of our free events still require pre-booking, so please don't delay if you are interested in any of these.
Monday 25 September
Online
10am - 11am: Code breaking - Your country needs you | for age 10 - 14
All day: Maths Through Ceilidh online workshop | for P5 – P7 (register by Fri 22 Sept)
In-person
9:30am - 5pm: Crack the Code at the Great Tapestry of Scotland | for P1 - P7
Tuesday 26 September
Online
9:45am - 10:15am: DYW Live - World of Work: STEM Ambassador | for S1 - S3 (this talk will be recorded)
10:45am - 11:15pm: DYW Live - World of Work: Stream Marine Careers | for S1 - S3 (this talk will be recorded)
11:45am - 12:15pm: DYW Live - World of Work: First Bus | for S1 - S3 (this talk will be recorded)
13:45pm - 14:14pm: DYW Live - World of Work: Energy Sector Consultant | for S1 - S3 (this talk will be recorded)
All day: Maths Through Ceilidh online workshop | for P5 – P7 (register by Fri 22 Sept)
In-person
9:30am - 5pm: Crack the Code at the Great Tapestry of Scotland | for P1 - P7
Wednesday 27 September
Online
All day: Maths Through Ceilidh online workshop | for P5 – P7 (register by Fri 22 Sept)
In-person
9:30am - 5pm: Crack the Code at the Great Tapestry of Scotland | for P1 - P7
5pm – 6pm: Jobs of the Unknown – the Future of Statistics and Data Science Careers, at Appleton Tower (Edinburgh) | for Secondary School S5 & S6 pupils and University Undergraduates
5:15pm- 7:45pm: Celebrate Mathematics with the University of Edinburgh | for teachers
Thursday 28 September
Online
All day: Maths Through Ceilidh online workshop | for P5 – P7 (register by Fri 22 Sept)
In-person
9:30am - 5pm: Crack the Code at the Great Tapestry of Scotland | for P1 - P7
Friday 29 September
Online
All day: Maths Through Ceilidh online workshop | for P5 – P7 (register by Fri 22 Sept)
In-person
9:30am - 5pm: Crack the Code at the Great Tapestry of Scotland | for P1 - P7
Saturday 30 September
In-person
9:45am – 12pm: Maths in Action workshop for educators and parents at Merkinch Community Centre, Inverness
Rescheduled Events
Tuesday 3 October
Online
9:30am – 10:15am: Multiple Heartbeats Workshop | for age 4 - 11 (rescheduled from 26 Sept)
10am - 10:30am: Litter Detectives | for P2 - P6
Wednesday 4 October
Online
10am - 11am: Hats and turtles - Playing with the mathematics of tiles | for age 10 - 14 (rescheduled from 27 Sept)
Tuesday 24 October
Online
11am - 12pm: Talking Maths with Forensic Science | for S1 - S4 (rescheduled from 28 Sept)
Thursday 16 November
9:15am – 10am: Virgin Money Primary School Workshop | for age 9 - 11
11am – 12pm: Virgin Money Secondary School Workshop | for age 13 - 16
1:30pm – 2:30pm: Virgin Money Secondary Maths Inspired Careers Panel | for age 14 - 18
We also have a varied programme of family events, which may be of interest to nursery groups, school classes, home learners, or that you may want to share with parents e.g. via a school newsletter for families to do together in their own time.
You will find a host of resources to access or download in our Learning Resources section, which has had a revamp and is now fully searchable by Level AND Topic! Some of the new resources for 2023 include:
Activity Packs with ideas for who to celebrate Maths Week Scotland at school (all levels)
Free Twinkl resources on World of Work as well as this year's Maths In Motion theme (all levels)
Maths in Motion with National Galleries Scotland (all levels)
JoJo Gnome and the Shape Map activity (early level)
Numbertots Active Maths Video Adventure (early level)
Dance Like a Robot resource from NumBots (early to second level)
Numberfit Active Times Table Challenge (first and second level)
New Numberella: Kidnapped by the Metlz interactive adventure (first to third level)
All these are available in the Learning Resources section of our website, plus many more resources from previous years.
What's On All Year Round?
The following online and in-person events, workshops and activities are being offered throughout the year, as well as during Maths Week Scotland itself, and can be booked at various times to suit your school group.
It's Spring in Edinburgh means, which means the return of the Edinburgh Science Festival (30 March - 14 April)! This years theme is Shaping the Future, and we've browsed through the programme to pick out some of our maths highlights for you.
To mark World Meteorological Day (23 March), we are delighted to share a guest post from Professor Sylvia Knight, Head of Education at the Royal Meteorological Society, to introduce their new Climate Change Concept tool and show how teachers can use it to support maths in the curriculum.
