Conference

The SMC conference is a major event in the school year, attracting many teachers with between 20 and 30 workshops on offer. It also serves as a social gathering at which teachers can meet and network with colleagues from other parts of the country.

2025 Conference

 

We were delighted to welcome Rob Eastaway (https://robeastaway.com/ ) as the keynote speaker of this year's SMC conference, which was held at the University of Stirling on Saturday 17th May. Rob’s easy manner set the tone for the day with his presentation entitled “The Problem with Problem Solving” with his anecdotes which everyone could relate to and created much laughter in the auditorium.  Rob is no stranger to speaking in front of people as he has given hundreds of maths talks across the world to audiences of all ages, and puzzles and games are at the centre of many of his maths talks and workshops.  He is the author of several bestselling popular maths books, including Why Do Buses Come in Threes? and Maths on the Back on an Envelope and is a regular guest on the BBC Radio 4 programme More or Less.

His latest book, Much Ado About Numbers is on sale now.

We announced the recipient of the SMC Achievement Award 2025 winner, Derek Blackburn.  He is pictured below with Chris Smith MBE.

There were also stalls from your favourite publishers, and a host of exciting workshops from the mathematical community. The list of workshops can be seen at SMC Stirling Maths Conference 2025 and slides from several presentations can be accessed below.

The day was closed with a panel session considering the question "What next for Scottish Education?".  The session was chaired by SMC chairman Andrew Wilson. Panel members were Andy Brown - Scotland's Mathematics Specialist Advisor, Holly Drummond EMSM Junior School, Dr Kirsten Fenton ESMS Junior School, Angel Hinkley - Drumchapel High School and Bryn Jones - Newbattle High School

2024 Conference

We were delighted to welcome James Grime (jamesgrime.com) as the plenary speaker of this year's SMC conference, James Grimewhich was held at the University of Stirling on Saturday 18th May. James was an incredibly popular speaker this year, as evidenced by the number of people who queued at the end of his talk for photos and autographs!

One delegate, Andrew Norby, told us: “He is one of my mathematical heroes so getting to meet him was an honour (even though I did a poor job as his glamorous volunteer assistant for the Hamming Card trick, but he played it cool like the total pro that he is).”

We announced the recipient of the SMC Achievement Award 2024 winner, Chris Pritchard! He is pictured below with Bill Richardson MBE and Adam McBride OBE.
This year, the SMC commissioned a book by previous Chair Chris Pritchard. It is anticipated that this book, On The Plus Side, will provide information and ideas for mathematics educators (and young mathematicians) across the spectrum of the Scottish school system.

There were also stalls from your favourite publishers, and a host of exciting workshops from the mathematical community. The list of workshops can be seen at https://bit.ly/SMC2024workshops and slides from several presentations can be accessed below.

2023 Conference

Almost 200 educators from the length of breadth of Scotland and Scottish Education (and, in some cases, much further afield) were present at the Scottish Mathematical Council conference at the University of Stirling on 20th May.

First order of business for the day was the announcement that Allan Duncan was the recipient of the 2023 SMC Achievement Award (see photo opposite of Allan Duncan (holding his award) and SMC Chair Alan Walker).

The keynote presentation was delivered by Ayliean MacDonald (see below). Ayliean is a former Scottish secondary mathematics teacher who has recently taken up a post as a Community Mathematician in Leeds. Her presentation, "How Maths Teachers Saved My Life", served as a thank you to all mathematics teachers, and a session full to the brim of ideas, activities, and deep personal reflection on the wonders (and pitfalls) of teaching mathematics.

A photo of Ayliean MacDonald.The mathematics community offered 33 workshops in a jam-packed event, and it was excellent to see such a varied offering, fit for primary teachers, secondary teachers, ITE educators and university and college lecturers.

Thanks go to all our presenters, and to the many exhibitors who came to show off the current offerings in terms of technology, pedagogy, and textbooks available to educators today.

Achievement Award

The SMC Achievement Award is presented each year at the SMC Conference. Nominations are welcome at any time.

Nominees should have been involved in mathematics education in Scotland for a significant amount of time and have made a major contribution to the learning and teaching of the subject at primary, secondary or tertiary level either through working directly with pupils or students or by holding a position of influence within a school, college, university, institute of teacher education, local authority, Education Scotland or the Inspectorate.

Previous winners

Derek Blackburn (2025)

Derek taught Maths in various Glasgow schools from the mid 1970s, finally retiring from Shawlands Academy in 2009. In his retirement. Derek set up “dlbmaths” on YouTube back in 2012 which (by September 2023) had over 10.6 MILLION views. https://www.youtube.com/@DLBmaths Derek has provided videos for year after year after year of every question in the…

Chris Pritchard (2024)

Chris has been changing the face of mathematics in Scotland (and beyond) since 1983. Originally from Wales, Chris came to Scotland via a six-year stint in London to accept the post of Principal Teacher of Mathematics at Daliburgh School on the Isle of South Uist. Challenging enough was the adaptation from an inner-city school to…

Allan Duncan (2023)

Upon completing his mathematics degree at Edinburgh University, and his teaching qualification the year after, Allan taught for a short period at Dollar Academy. He then moved to a high school near Lake Victoria in Kenya but three years later he returned to Scotland and quickly moved up the departmental ladder to become PT at…

Sheona Goodall (2022)

The Scottish Mathematical Council Achievement Award was conceived in 2016. It is presented to someone who has been involved in mathematics education in Scotland for a significant length of time, and who has made a major contribution to the learning and teaching of mathematics in that time. The 2022 recipient is Sheona Goodall. Sheona taught…

Previous conference presentations

2025 Conference Presentations

2024 Conference Presentations

2023 Conference Presentations