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How the Premier League Primary Stars programme is tackling Maths anxiety with launch of Season Stats Dashboard
A new academic term is the perfect time for innovation, creativity and adopting new ways of learning. Premier League Primary Stars is kicking off the season with a brand new resource set to engage thousands of teachers, and their pupils, with a first-of-its-kind and fun maths resource.
Make Maths fun? This is the challenge faced by thousands of teachers in a world where just the thought of the subject can prompt negative emotions from pupils, both physically and mentally1. The phrase ‘maths anxiety’ will not be new to primary school educators who are tasked with engaging their class in a subject where many struggle to engage. It’s an issue that has not been helped by Covid-19, with primary school students’ performance in maths being described as ‘significantly lower’ than before the pandemic.
Navigating a subject that comes with pupil engagement issues can be difficult. Research around maths anxiety, conducted by Premier League Primary Stars, found that making maths relatable by using real-life and contextual examples can help engage pupils more towards the subject.
Premier League Primary Stars has developed a brand new, unique and totally free resource to help teachers engage their pupils on all things maths. Available all year round, Premier League Primary Stars are introducing the latest addition to their popular resources - the Season Stats Dashboard.
Teachers, whistles at the ready - it’s time to kick off and get creative.
Designed by teachers for teachers, the Season Stats Dashboard presents statistics from the current Premier League season in a clear, fun and accessible way to engage and inspire pupils to practise key maths skills. It’s perfect for a starter activity or can be built into a full lesson plan; ideas for these can be found in the readily available teacher guides. The dashboard is updated every Monday morning after the Premier League’s weekend fixtures, so teachers can always use real-time data, keeping lessons refreshed.
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The weekly spotlight feature showcases different clubs and players giving teachers and pupils a variety of real-life examples to use. The Season Stats Dashboard allows learners to use goals scored by the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, the assists made by Jack Grealish and total number of passes made by their favourite team whilst allowing them to get better at maths.
Teachers can use the dashboard, as explained in this video from teacher and TV personality Bobby Seagull, in conjunction with the new maths resource pack. This pack includes activity ideas that use statistics from the dashboard. Pupils will learn to gather data, practice their use of different mathematical skills, do mental and written calculations, problem-solve and analyse data - all whilst using real-life examples.
83% of primary schools in England and Wales are already using Premier League Primary Stars to engage their pupils. Over three-quarters of teachers who have used previous Premier League Primary Stars maths resources agree that the programme has increased their pupils’ enjoyment of maths.
Premier League Primary Stars developed the resources so that teachers could easily build them into their lesson plans. That’s why they decided to work with The Mathemagician, teacher and founder of Maths Week England, Andrew Jeffery, who said: “Working with Premier League Primary Stars to help create the Season Stats Dashboard was an easy decision because it combines three of my biggest passions; sport, maths and teaching. The use of live Premier League data will jump out to lots of learners making it an appealing resource that educators can incorporate into their lessons. Children learn best by connecting something new to something they already know or understand.”
Jeffrey continued to add that “Teachers are so busy ensuring all work is aligned to the National Curriculum so the fact that the Season Stats Dashboard provides lesson ideas that are NC linked will be really beneficial.”
The resources have also been adapted for home learning. Families can look at the dashboard together to practise their maths skills using the parent guides. The football world provides an easy way for parents to introduce maths topics to make learning more meaningful, engaging and purposeful so children can use develop their maths skills in a real-world context.
Premier League Primary Stars is available to teachers at primary schools in England and Wales for free, supporting English, Maths, PE and PSHE. For any schools yet to get involved, head to the website today to sign up and join the Premier League Primary Stars community.