Britain’s most famous maths whizz and committed educationalist, Carol Vorderman, has praised children across England and Wales for their exceptional progress in maths at The Maths Factor graduation ceremony held at Pearson’s headquarters in London (10th March 2018).
The children, who graduated from The Maths Factor programme by completing 45,000 correct answers to sums, all fell in the top 3% of children in the programme. Maths Factor is an online maths tutoring site that was created by Carol Vorderman eight years ago to build maths confidence in children aged between six and 11, and today forms part of the maths portfolio for leading learning company, Pearson.
Now in its fourth year, the graduation ceremony rewarded 25 children in total. 11 of these became Graduates, nine became Progress Champions and five were awarded the Gold Cup for completing a tutorial and sums every day for a year as part of the Maths Factor 30 Day Challenge.
Carol Vorderman, who arrived at the ceremony in a The Math’s Factor taxi, said:
“Congratulations to all the children honoured at The Maths Factor graduation ceremony – they have all shown what can be achieved with numbers, arithmetic, mathematics and a whole lot of dedication and drive! Numeracy is a fundamental life skill that helps children thrive, learn and improve life chances.
“At The Maths Factor we specialise in taking maths strugglers and turning them very quickly into happy maths winners. It gives us such a thrill to know that we have helped to change a child’s life in this way. The Maths Factor is the culmination of years of work to ensure that children and their parents can learn maths in the simplest way possible. Children have fun, learn at their pace and develop a lifelong love of numbers. I am delighted that the programme, with support from the team at Pearson, is growing and unlocking more and more children’s confidence in maths!”
Spencer Williams, Head of Direct to Learner at Pearson, said:
“We would like to congratulate each and every child that has been honoured at The Maths Factor graduation ceremony for the exceptional progress they have made, and also their families for their fantastic support! In today’s world, we believe that no job is more important than helping people to learn – and numeracy skills are crucial for success. We are proud to be working closely with Carol to grow The Maths Factor to benefit more children and parents – it forms an important part of our already established maths portfolio.”
The Maths Factor site for primary-aged children features short tutorials from Carol and includes interactive games, revision clubs, times tables catch-up, an algebra club and the 30 Day Challenge. A version for primary schools is also available through Pearson’s widely acclaimed platform, Active Learn Primary, for teachers to access thousands of brilliant videos, plus interactive homework from Carol Vorderman.
To date, children using the programme have advanced by up to 25 months in their maths. In a survey conducted in March 2017, 93% of parents saw an improvement in their child’s maths confidence and 85% of parents saw an improvement in their child’s maths ability within six months.
All 25 children recognised at the ceremony either completed or took part in The Maths Factor programme between 1st September 2016 and 31st November 2017.
