Nineteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

In 2023, Kings College London Maths School achieved an average grade of A*, the highest academic result in the country, topping the school academic rankings for two consecutive years. Kings College London Maths School is part of a growing number of mathematics schools in England designed to help to best-performing and most enthusiastic young students in maths to go on to have mathematically intensive careers. But why do they work and how do students cope with the transition to university? As the Government plans to open more maths schools, it is important to know what makes these schools successful and if their model could benefit other schools in England. This poster will be about the beginnings of my PhD project. The project aims are to understand if the co-curriculum, pedagogy and research projects in the schools provide (if any) benefit and how. This is achieved through speaking with maths school students; and following them through their last year of school and their first year of university. Using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, students’ experiences of maths schools are analysed to understand how they interact with the school and how maths schools differ from students’ previous education establishment and their time at university. The project will lay the foundation for future work on this topic and present further discussion and whether this model could be applicable in other schools in England.