Mathematics Enrichment Programme Events
Some dates for the events for 2026 - 27 have been set and you can find the details and application forms are below.
Dates for other events will be published as soon as they are set and information sent out to schools.
All schools within traveling distance are invited to attend the events, if your school does not receive information about the events and would like to be added to the mailing list please contact Jenny Sharp
Schools can book for any event once the dates have been finalised, all bookings are done online and the links to each application form can be found below.
If you need any further details about any event please contact Jenny Sharp on jsharp@plymouth.ac.uk
Livestreaming of the recording of the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
Mathematical Sciences has once again been invited by the Royal Institution of Great Britain to be a host venue for the livestreaming of the recording of the world famous Christmas Lectures. The recordings take place in December but the topic and speaker are still a closely guarded secret so watch this space for details of the Livestreaming of the 2026 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures
Year 9 Royal Institution Mathematics Masterclasses, Spring 2027
The application for schools to nominate students onto the masterclasses is now open.
2027 will see the 29th series of Year 9 Masterclasses at Plymouth which are part of a nationwide programme in association with the Royal Institution, more details can be find here. It is a series of 6 Saturday mornings, each exploring a topic which is not covered in the school’s curriculum and are designed to stretch the students’ ability.
The dates for the 2027 series are
- Saturday 30th January,
- Saturday 6th February,
- Saturday 13th February,
- Saturday 27th February,
- Saturday 6th March,
- Saturday 13th March.
Each session will start at 10:00 and finish at 12:30 and will be held on the main campus of Plymouth University (PL4 8AA).
Students need to be nominated by their school in order to attend these masterclasses.
If you are a home-educator and think your child would benifit from attending the Masterclasses, please contact me for a discussion
Please click the link below to find a letter that you might find useful to send home with any potential student which will give the parents the details of the year 9 masterclasses as they are on Saturdays and the parents will need to make arrangements to get them to the University.
Initial Information letter for parents click here
The University of Plymouth is able to cover the cost of these masterclasses for all students who wish to attend. The condition is that the students are committed and make every attempt to attend the majority of the 6 sessions. Numbers are initially limited to 6 students per school to allow as many schools to participate as possible.
Applications should be made from schools using the link below. If you have any problems with the application form, please contact Jenny Sharp on jsharp@plymouth.ac.uk
Online application form: Year 9 online application This link will open in a new tab and takes you to an external site run by Microsoft Forms.
The Masterclass series at Plymouth University covers the Plymouth, SE Cornwall, West Devon, South Hams and Torbay region. There are similar Masterclass groups in Truro, Exeter and North Devon which cover the rest of Devon and Cornwall. You should receive information from your local group. If you are not sure which Masterclass group you are covered by please get in touch with Jenny Sharp jsharp@plymouth.ac.uk and I will point you in the right direction.
Year 10 Residential Masterclass
The year 10 residential courses are one of the highlights of the year even though they are the most stressful – being responsible for 15 years olds for three days and two nights! These courses are a follow-up course for students who attended the Saturday Year 9 classes at Plymouth, North Devon, Exeter or Truro the previous year.
The details about the 2027 year 10 course will be sent directly to all of the parents of the students who attended the year 9 classes at Plymouth, North Devon, Exeter and Truro in the spring of 2026. If you have not received the information by November 2026 or need any further details about this course please contact Jenny Sharp on jsharp@plymouth.ac.uk
Year 10 Mathematics Taster Day - "What study A level Mathematics?"
The application for schools to book onto this event is now open.
As part of our outreach and enrichment activities we are running four Year 10 Mathematics Taster Days: Tuesday 16th March, Wednesday 17th March, Tuesday 23rd March and Wednesday 24th March.
The day will consist of a number of hands-on interactive workshops on a variety of mathematical topics. There are a number of workshops covering all aspects of mathematics including applications.
The aim of the day is to provide your Year 10 students with a taste of mathematics at University with the hope that it will encourage them to consider mathematics post 16 or hopefully post 18. The workshops are designed to be accessible to your top sets and will be challenging as well as enjoyable!
The day will start at 09:30 and finish at 15:00.
The event will be held on the main campus of Plymouth University (PL4 8AA).
There is no cost for the day.
You are invited to bring a group of year 10 students to this event, the group will need to be accompanied by an adult/adults from school who will be responsible for them during the day.
We are initially limiting numbers to 30 per school which will enable you to bring a whole class. However, it is anticipated that this day will be oversubscribed,so we will ask that, should you have to decrease the number you initially applied for, you give as much notice as possible so we can offer the places to other schools.
The students will be allocated to the different workshops, we aim to have workshop sizes between 20 and 25 to enable a hands on interactive experience. Therefore if you bring a group which is larger than 20 we will need to split your students into two or three groups so that they attend different workshops. If there are 2 or more accompanying adults then that will make sorting the students into different groups easier. If only one member of staff is accompanying the group and the group size is greater than 20, I will contact you to discuss how to split the group and allocating an undergraduate student ambassador to the group.
If you would like to bring a group of students to this event please complete the online application form as soon as possible.
Year 10 taster day online application form: Year 10 taster day application form This link will open in a new tab and takes you to an external site run by Microsoft Forms.
I will confirm your application and nearer the time I will send you full details, also asking you to confirm the final numbers and the names of the students and adults so that they can be given badges and details of which workshops they have been allocated to.
Year 12 Taster Day - "What can I do with my A Level Mathematics?", Wednesday 7th July and Tuesday 13th July 2027.
The application for schools to book onto this event is now open.
As part of our outreach and enrichment activities in the Mathematics Department at Plymouth University, we are running two Year 12 University Taster Days on Wednesday 7th July and Tuesday 13th July 2027.
The day will consist of a number of hands-on interactive workshops from the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics. The students will take part in a mathematics workshop, an engineering workshop and a computing workshop. The aim of the day is to provide your Year 12 students with a taste of three of the many courses that are on offer at University to those with an A level in mathematics. In addition, there will be a Course Fair during the lunch time to allow the students to get information on some of the other courses on offer at Plymouth.
There is no cost for the day.
You are invited to bring a group (any size) of year 12 students to this event. Ideally the group will need to be accompanied by at least one adult from school who will be responsible for them during the day.
If you would like to bring a group of students to this event please complete the online application form
Year 12 taster day application form: Year 12 taster day application form for schools This link will open in a new tab and takes you to an external site run by Microsoft Forms.
I will confirm your application and give your some more details. Nearer the time I will send you full details, also asking you to confirm the final numbers and the names of the students and adults so that they can be given badges and details of which workshops they have been allocated to.
I know that releasing teachers to attend these days comes at a cost to the school. Therefore this day is also open to individual students, the application form needs to be completed by a parent/carer and communication about the day will be sent to both the student and to the parent/carer.
Year 12 taster day application form for individual: Year 12 taster day application form for individuals This link will open in a new tab and takes you to an external site run by Microsoft Forms.
If you need any further details about the year 12 taster day please contact Jenny Sharp on jsharp@plymouth.ac.uk
Year 10 and Year 12 Work Experience
We run a Year 10 Work experience week (5th to 9th July 2027) and a Year 12 work experience week (12th to 16th July 2027). As it is quite difficult for us to get Year 10 and Year 12 students involved in the mathematics that the lecturers are doing – you will need a PhD for that, the weeks are run for students who are interested in maths, and it gives them a flavour of working at a University. One of the things about working in a University environment is being able to manage your time and decide what to do when. The students are provided students with a number of things to do during the week, you decide how and when to do them – managing your time effectively is a good employability skill. There are usually a number of students from different schools, so they learn how to work together. Among the tasks that they do includes creating resources for the outreach workshops helping with preparations for the Year 12 Taster Days that are running at the same time, acting as guinea pigs for ideas we have for new outreach workshops, and analysing feedback from the Year 9 South West Day.
Students who would like to be considered for a work experience place should send an email (from their school email address) to Dr Jenny Sharp with some information about themselves and why they would like to gain experience working with us.