MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

The time has come for me to tell you both about myself and about my activities during the year in which I have been your President. I will start, therefore, by telling you a little about how I came to be who I am.

I was born and brought up in Wigan. (When, many years later, I was invited to speak at an 'International Conference' in Kent State University, Ohio and discovered that, of those present, all but two came from North America and the two came from Wigan, the two of us were most amused - but could not explain to our American hosts what was so funny about it! ) I was visibly mathematical, or perhaps arithmetical, from an early age. Some of this must have come from my father, an income tax man who could add columns of figures incredibly quickly and accurately. I was also a mad keen football player - not specially talented I fear - and an equally keen supporter of that famous team, Wigan Athletic. I attended the local Roman Catholic primary school, St. John's, and then went to Thornleigh College, a direct grant grammar school in Bolton, which was run by an order of priests, the Salesians. The fact that they aimed to be friendly, rather than fierce disciplinarians, made my time in the college a reasonably happy one. The contrast between my easy success in school mathematics and the hard work required in many other school subjects makes me wonder to what extent it was simple laziness that led me to begin a mathematics degree.

If so; that was a big mistake. When I went to Hatfield College, Durham to read mathematics I found, to my surprise, that I also had to work to succeed in mathematics. I had the pleasure of being one of a small class of nine honours mathematicians - one of whom is now my wife. As well as studying mathematics, with more and more interest, I became a keen folk-dancer at that time and still enjoy it now. I also did some walking, in the Durham hills, for the first time -another pastime I still enjoy.

After graduating, I sought 'real life' by going to work as a Scientific Officer in the Operational Research Department in the Steel Company of Wales in Port Talbot. I gained valuable experience there, with my main project turning into a successful application of Critical Path Analysis to the repair of open hearth furnaces. Valuable though it was, I found the intellectual side of the job insufficiently challenging - so turned to the second on my list of possible careers. (The third on the list was to be a school teacher, like my mother, aunt, sister and brother!)

I went to work as a research student with Alfred Goldie at the University of Leeds and progressed to a PhD and a lecturing job which then led, via promotions, to a chair in pure mathematics. The research I have undertaken during these years has all dealt with non-commutative rings, especially Noetherian ones. I won't say more about them - but there is an admirable book entitled Non-commutative Noetherian Rings, by John McConnell and me, which will give you 600 pages worth! Of course, I was also kept busy, and happy, lecturing to our students - and indeed to students in the USA, Canada, Australia and Germany whilst holding visiting positions in those countries. (The international aspect of a lecturer's job is one of its very positive features which I have enjoyed immensely).

I have, over many years, taken a serious interest in school mathematics and in the popularisation of mathematics. With my background I am, of course, particularly concerned about the number and training and enthusiasm of incoming undergraduates; but I realise only too well that the whole process of learning mathematics stretches right down to beginning primary school and depends completely on the teachers involved. When masterclasses in mathematics began, inspired by Christopher Zeeman, I was one of the brave souls who tried to tall: to select 12 year olds rather than our usual undergraduates, and I found it a real privilege; they are so bright and bouncy. I slill do this each year. I use hand-bells to introduce various mathematical ideas including peimutations and Hamilton circuits in graphs. As you might guess from this, I have a practical interest in church-bell ringing and instruct beginners in the art at my local Nidderdale church.

Before telling you my activities this year, I need to tell you that, in addition to being your President, I have continued to chair the Joint Mathematical Council. So it is not always clear to me which hat I had on when invited to take part in these activities. I will mention a few. One major activity was being a member of the Government's Numeracy Task Force. This group produced two reports and, after the acceptance of the reports, was given a pleasant lunch, hosted by Estelle Morris in Lancaster House, London, and was then wound up. I now watch with great interest and hope (and a little trepidation) as the Numeracy Strategy moves forward.

As you will be aware, there has been a process, orchestrated by QCA, leading towards a revision of the national curriculum. This too has led to work on my part. The inter-relationship of this revision with the Numeracy Strategy is an extra complication, and it is not yet clear what the revised version will look like - more trepidation and hope! I have also been involved, in a more peripheral way, with various efforts to make sense of the attempt to turn the year 2000 into a mathematical year. We now have had the launch of 'Maths Year 2000' by Mr Blunkett and the Prime Minister. Here is something we will all need to contribute to if it is to be a success.

Specific to the MA, I gave my presidential address at a splendid Liverpool joint conference and I took my handbells to the Cardiff MA branch. I have travelled down from Nidderdale to Leicester for various Saturday meetings of Council, Executive Committee etc. I hope that you all realize the hard voluntary work and the time that your officers, council members and other activists put in on behalf of the MA - and the hard work of the staff at headquarters. In particular, I must mention the work of the Chair of Council, Sue Sanders. Whilst the President acts as a figure head, the Chair has to keep the show on the road.

I am most grateful to you all for having me as your President this year. When I look at the list of former Presidents in the MA Council Room I realize just how honoured I am.

Chris Robson (President)

COUNCIL

Council met as usual four times during the year and, this year, Standing Committee has also met four times. During the year, Council has prioritized strategic planning as well as continuing to co-ordinate and oversee the work of the many committees and initiatives of the Association and to responding to various reports and recommendations. Some details of Council meetings, compiled by Dr. Jim Message, appear in the Newsletter. Professor Chris Robson combined his Presidency with Chair of JMC to great advantage.

The main work begun by Council this year involved articulating the goals of the Association and, to use the current jargon, to develop a mission statement to take us into the next century. We wish to focus on strategies for being pro-active rather than re-active and to begin to put into place appointments to allow the Association to take advantage of professional development and other opportunities that will benefit members. Another priority this year was to enhance communication between members, Headquarters and Council. We are very grateful to Peter Thomas, Sue Jennings and Research Machines for the new web site and thank Bob Francis for undertaking the original initiative. The Website is now operated in the same ways as Journals with Peter Thomas as the Editor. We had hoped to be able to announce at the beginning of 1999 that Headquarters was open five days a week. Unfortunately, due to ill health, this has had to be delayed but we expect it to happen soon. The computer and telephone systems have been upgraded. We have been looking at ways of honouring service to the Association and to mathematics education in general and this is nearing completion. We have set up a short term working group to oversee the Association's involvement in the International Year of Mathematics, The UK Year of Numeracy and the Millennium Celebrations all of which are happening next year. An advisory group on publicity and membership has also been convened to advise HQ staff in this area.

Council has invited Steve Abbott of Claydon High School, Suffolk to be MA President for 2000/2001. Council is losing two members this April; Dr. Tony Gardiner, Immediate Past-President and Dr. Janet Jagger, Chair of Teaching Committee. We thank them for their individual and thought-provoking contributions over the years. Doug French will join Council as the new Chair of Teaching Committee. Susie Jameson completes her term as Chair of Conferences committee but Council will not lose her services as she will become a member without office. Earlier in the year, Trish Haslam had to resign as Chair of the Publicity and Membership Committee due to pressure of work and Council takes this opportunity to thank her for her contributions. Robyn Pickles, a primary school teacher from the Midlands is co-opted to complete the Council for 2000. Council also wishes to acknowledge the contribution and dedicated hard work of Joyce Porteous who has been Editor of the Newsletter for over 8 years.

Council would also like to thank the staff of Headquarters for,their hard work and efforts this year, often under difficult circumstances. The Executive Secretary has given notice of her resignation with effect from May and Council will be recognizing her work formally at its meeting on June l9th. We would like to take this opportunity to thank her for her efforts over the past 9 years and to wish her and her family a happy and successful future.

Finally, Council has launched a fund in memory of Joyce Hatton, a good friend and significant contributor to the Association and the world of mathematics education. Our intention is to provide support for young and new teachers to attend international and national conferences on the learning and teaching of mathematics. Joyce was a regular at such events and, for many of us, one of our first introductions to the friendship and support provided by the Association.

The year 1998-1999 has been a year that has opened up new opportunities for the Association. We look forward to the Millennium.

Sue Sanders (Chair of Council)

BRANCHES COMMITTEE

This has been a year of great change in Branches Committee. Following 27 years service to the committee, John Thurston retired in April, 1998. We owe a great debt to John for his stalwart support of the MA Branches throughout the years. He worked tirelessly to keep Branches up-to-date with the Council business as it affected the activities of Branches. Secretaries were always keen to receive John's Branches Bulletin, the means by which they were kept abreast of latest developments. Following the April meeting of the Branches Committee, held at the beginning of the Annual Conference at Warwick, John was presented with a copy of Fermat's Last Theorem, being an impromptu token of our appreciation for John's work over the years. It is hoped that in the fullness of time, the Association will be able to mark John's marathon stint as Branches Secretary in a fitting way.

Tom Roper, following two years in the Chair, was due to succeed John Thurston as Secretary, but due to personal circumstances was unable to take up the post. Following consultation with John, we obtained the services of Linda Moon, from Glasgow, as Acting Secretary for the year. I am delighted to say that she has agreed to continue as Secretary for the forthcoming year. Peter Johnson is due to succeed Alex Voice as Treasurer.

Branches up and down the UK have been active in promoting the MA through a wide variety of activities. These include visiting speakers, mathematical quizzes and meetings on curriculum and examination matters. There were some intriguing titles chosen by speakers such as The Square Umbrella, How to Rob a Bank, Let's go mental, Mathematics of Bell-ringing and Chaos and the Single Brain Cell to name but a few.

In January, Council were pleased to officially welcome South-East Scotland as an established branch of the Association. We wish them well in promoting mathematical education north of the border. Looking forward, the Yorkshire Branch are hosting a Primary Mathematics Day on Saturday, 26 June, 1999, entitled National Numeracy Hour.

Bob Francis (Chair of Branches Committee)

Held at the University of Warwick 4 - 6 April, 1998

This year's Annual Conference was held at the University of Warwick from 4th - 6th April. It was a great success! There were over 400 delegates attending md newly a third of these were attending an MA conference for the very first time. There was a very exciting programme with five stands running through the conference, offering a wide range of choices with a minimum of 9 different events to choose from at each of the 9 sessions. The programme was also condensed into a long weekend starting at 2 p.m. on Saturday and finishing at 3.30 p.m. on Monday. Bursaries were available from the TTA which provided subsidised places for recently qualified teachers and for prospective subject leaders. The accommodation was good and the building that was used for the sessions was ideal, being self-contained, compact with good-sized rooms that could be quickly adapted to take my type of event. The organisation were excellent, the atmosphere was great and everyone seemed to be having a good time.

The opening lecture was given by Anthea Millett (Chief Executive of the Teacher Training Agency), the Hilary Shuard Memorial Lecture was given by Richard Dunne ("Pure maths in the primary school") and the closing lecture was given by David Tall ("Real mathematics, real learners and real teachers").

The programme was arranged into five stands with at least one, and usually two events in each strand occurring in each session, and some degree of overlap. The strands were:

• Developing primary mathematics teaching;
• Developing secondary mathematics teaching;
• Mathematics for 16+;
• Technology in mathematics;
• Extracurricular;
• Geraeral interest.

I always hesitate to give the topics covered, since space does not allow for a complete list. The best I can do is give a tiny fraction and hope that this will give a flavour of the breadth of the programme. Here goes ....

• Maths Clubs in Junior schools (Malcolm Sanders)
• Preparing for your primary Ofsted Inspection (Sue Rogers)
• The National Numeracy Project (Anita Straker)
• 10 stimulating activities for year 10 set 10 (Geoff Fowler and Marguerite Comyns)
• Providing for able pupils in comprehensive schools (Diana Sharvill)
• Mathematics for low attainers (Peter Bailey)
• Using real data in the mathematics classroom (Adrian Oldknow)
• Mathematics on the TI 92 (John Berry)
• Hands-on Statistics using Excel5 (spreadsheets) (Sidney Tyrell)
• How to solve Olympiad problems (Gerry Leversha, Michael Davies et al)
• Magical configurations in mathematics (Brian Bolt)
• Coding and combinatorics (Ray Hill)
• A feast of curious and interesting mathematics (David Wells)

... which is perhaps a good place to stop!

Some other highlights of the conference included Mathematician/Magician Michael Wardle who 'played to a packed house' on the first night, the publishers' exhibition, the Annual Dinner and the Presidential Address.

If you haven't yet sampled an MA conference you really must. It is excellent value for money and (probably) school teachers will not need supply cover, the person controlling your INSET budget would surely approve! You are missing a great opportunity to collect some new ideas, make new friends, get right up to date, reawaken your love of mathematics and have a brilliant holiday! To those who have attended, see you in Exeter in 2000 and Lancaster in 2001!

Susie Jameson (Chair of Conferences Committee)

EDITORIAL BOARD: The Association's Periodicals

The seven regular journals published by the Association have now been joined by the Association's Website. This has now become established on a firm footing and it was felt that it should be placed alongside the non-electronic materials. The 'magnificent seven' continue to come out regularly and it is pleasing to report that the dearth of contributions to which I referred in the last Annual Report is becoming less of a problem.

There is not yet overabundance in all areas but things are much improved. As well as the past year seeing the establishment of the MA Website, it has also seen the last issue of Mathematics in School to be published by a commercial publishing house. Since the start of 1999, Mathematics in School has been published 'in house'. It is hoped and expected that this will not reduce the quality and will increase the profitability, generating funds for the Association which it has not been receiving in the past.

That the Association has such a wide range of publications, which keep on going in a thoroughly professional manner, is due to the excellent work which is done on our behalf by the editors, all of whom have full time jobs and carry out their editorial functions in their'spare' time.

Thanks team!

I will now move to a brief summary of the journals, giving comments as necessary. For this I will divide them into two sections: those mainly for pupils and those mainly for teachers.

For pupils

Mathematical Pie is in a healthy state. Geoff has managed to find more people to help him which has relieved some of the burden. As usual, we would still like to see more copies being sold.

Symmetry Plus is also in good condition but Martin has let it be known that he is unable to do as much in the future and help is needed. There have been one or two offers but it may well be that something more substantial is required. Despite increasing pressure, there is no reduction of the quality of the product.

For teachers and the membership at large

The hard work that the Equals team put in over recent issues to bring their publishing schedule in line with that of MiS has paid off, with a significant saving of postage charges. The magazine is still under-subscribed and I would urge all those in schools to try to encourage those who work with special needs children to read it (and possibly write for it too).

The Primary Mathematics Magazine has had a struggle but is gradually catching up with the required schedule. The first issue for 1999 is due and when the second one appears before the summer holidays it will be right up-to-date. The editors are to be congratulated in the way in which they have been able to obtain copy for the magazine.

As mentioned above Mathematics in School is now being published in house. This started with the January issue. There have been some teething troubles resulting in the first two issues being late. The causes have been identified and improvements can be expected. The quality of the items is as good as ever. As part of the changes, we have employed an advertising agent, Janet Powell, who is working on a commission basis to generate advertising not only for MiS but also for our other journals.

The Mathematical Gazette continues to thrive. It is flourishing to such an extent that we have had to seek for further help in the editorial processes. Its future seems very secure.

Turning to the Newsletter, this has been edited for a numlxer of years by Joyce Porteous and has developcd very well. The summer term issue will be her last. Her successor is well-known in the Association - Peter Ransom. Peter has been gradually gearing up and will be in charge after the summer. Thanks are due to both.

Finally, the M.A. Website - this has been the result. of an immense amount of hard work by Peter Thomas (and it is not the only major task which he does for the Association). The address is m-a.org.uk and I urge everyone to take an interest in it. It is certainly a way of giving significant amounts of information about the Association to lots of people, both members and others as well.

In conclusion, I should like to reiterate my thanks to all who work on our publications. Perfection is hard to achieve but it is a goal to which we aspire. I should like to hear comments from members on the magazines (apart from suggestions that we should start any more!). Offers of help would be particularly welcome as we need your support.

Bill Richardson (Editor in Chief)

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

During 1998 the members of the Professional Development Committee looked at the possibility of re-establishing the Diploma of the MA. Much work was done by the committee to design a new format of modular courses leading to a Subject Leader qualification. It became evident that the work of developing the Diploma and managing the training would be a time-consuming activity. It needed someone with the time and energy to see it through to implementation. It also became evident that the Government was beginning to see the Subject Associations playing a more central role in the continuing professional development of teachers.

A proposal was put to MA Council that a Professional Development Officer be appointed for two days a week to plan, manage and deliver courses in mathematics professional development and represent the association on these matters. This was finally agreed in March 1999. A job specification is being written and an advert will soon be placed for the appointment of this person.

Meanwhile, representatives of the PDC have attended meetings called by the ASE to consider a joint Subject Association approach to Continuing Professional Development. It was agreed that Associations should not be driven by Agency Politics but should focus on issues that are important to Subject Associations and their potential members. The possibility of a common form of accreditation is under consideration. We hope that the appointment of a professional development officer will help us in these initiatives.

Sue Jennings (Chair of Professional Development Committee)

PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE

During the year we have seen the publications of the second book of problems by Derek Holton titled Problems to Ponder. The first book was called Math problems via Down Under. Christmaths was published late 1998 and is expected to sell well in 1999.

Ready for Conference this year will be a small booklet titled A Pocket Map of Algebraic Manipulation by Tony Barnard. We are pleased to publish a book on proof called Are you sure? Learning about Proof. This publication is from Doug French, Charlie Stripp and others on the AS and A Level subcommittee of Teaching Committee and is mainly for post-GCSE teachers and students.

Many past publications continue lo sell well. Spreadsheets 9-13 sold very well and is being reprinted. Dr. Tony Gardiner is working with CUP on a book of NMC problems, with Bill Richardson assisting. Mike Ollerton and some students in Lancaster have started on a disc-based index for Mathematics in School. A second book on proof, for primary and secondary pupils, is being prepared by Sue Waring. Dave Faulkner and the Further, Tertiary and Continuing Education subcommittee of Teaching Committee is preparing a book on GNVQ assignments. Linda Moon and her group are rewriting Starting as a Secondary Mathematics Teacher. Work has started on This Week's Maths Problems by the AS/A Level Subcommittee. A third in the Derek Holton series will be published in due course.

Issues which the committee is considering at present include:

• widening the committee membership;
• aiming at greater sales by more advertising and more reviews;
• trying to prepare a publication for a wider audience (possibly for parents);
• selling publications by other organisations.

I would like to thank many people for their great works. Bill Richardson, many authors from the subcommittees of Teaching Committee, members of Publications Committee and staff at Leicester have all workcd hard on publications during the year.

Comments on publications and the above are welcomed. We also welcome time and energy from any member interested in lhe work of the committee!

Peter Bailey (Chair of Publications Committee)

PUBLICITY AND MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

No report.

TEACHING COMMITTEE

Teaching Committee and its Subcommitees

Teaching Committee (TC) consists of members of the MA who work on behalf of the Association in promoting the teaching and learning of mathematics. This results in shared thinking and in the provision of ideas and resources for mathematics teachers.

In the main, this work is done through subcommittees of TC. The work of many subcommittees is based on ideas suggested by members. A subcommittee is a formally constituted working group, consisting of a chair, secretary and members, with a well identified brief. Work done is voluntary, but reasonable expenses are paid by the MA. It is expected that the results of the work done will be disseminated to MA members by some means, for example, a short report, a conference, a published document, or articles in MA journals. It is also hoped that one (or more) of the working group can attend the Annual Conference and provide a short session sharing the work of the group with conference delegates; alternatively a poster to inform delegates of the work can be sent to the conference organisers.

Subcommittee work as a whole is managed by the Executive Committee of the Teaching Committee (ECTC) whose members are the chair, secretary and treasurer plus up to eight elected members and some ex-officio members. Each subcommittee has one member of ECTC associated with it as liaison member. Current members of ECTC are listed on the back page. Please contact any of them if you would like further information about TC work.

MA membership gives members access to TC work so all work done is likely to reach, and perhaps influence, a large proportion of this membership. It is therefore worthwhile for the work, as well as being worthy and of interest, to be dynamic, captivating and even provocative.

During 1998 we sold the following numbers of books, all written by previous (or, occasionally, ongoing) subcommittees:

Current Work of Teaching Committee

As last year, ECTC has met at Trinity and All Saints College in Leeds on three occasions. Richard Wilson continues to be the Treasurer and Peter Thomas was appointed as the Secretary last June. At present we have six elected committee members. Their names and the names of the ex-officio members are on the back page of this Newsletter.

This year we have been concerned with three main areas in addition to the usual work of keeping a watching brief over the subcommittees; procedures concerning publications, the MA website and ECTC's regulations. The publication Are you Sure? Learning about Proof served to highlight some of the problems with the procedures; we have revised them and discussed the whole matter with the Publications Committee. We are now confident that we can move forward more smoothly with other publications written by the subcommittees. Are you Sure? Learning about Proof should be on the conference bookstall, look out for it!

Another success this year is the re-launch of the MA website. Peter Thomas has been instrumental in setting it up and Sue Jennings obtained for us a free site on Research Machine's EduWeb; Peter is the Editor of the website until the year 2000. Try it out!

It was suggested to us that we should re-write our regulations; this led to a global look at the Association's regulations for Committees. This task is still ongoing at both levels. One issue that we raised is that members find it confusing that we are the Executive Committee of Teaching Committee and yet they are not clear about the Teaching Committee itself. It is less confusing (and less cumbersome for us!) to be the Teaching Committee rather than the Executive Committee of Teaching Committee.

How might YOU become involved?

Teaching Committee needs new ideas and dynamic commitment to further the teaching and learning of mathematics at all levels. In particular, we should like more classroom teachers to become involved as the classroom is still where most of the thinking is directed.

ECTC will continue to keep you up to date with its work and ask for ideas and for volunteers for working groups.

If you are interested in the work of any of the existing subcommittees, please get in touch with its chair, either directly or through one of the members of ECTC. Most groups welcome new members. We are particularly keen to have names of members who would be willing to read draft versions of proposed publications or to help us with market research of proposed developments. Please let me know if you are willing to help.

If you have an idea for work which you would like to be involved with yourself, or would like TC to tackle, again please get in touch and let us know.

Making Contact

Please come to meet us at the Open Meeting of Teaching Committee at the Annual Conference. This meeting is designed for you to express your views and join in the usually lively debates, often upon national issues.

The officers of TC and members of ECTC are always ready to receive suggestions and consider ideas. Please get in touch to offer ideas or request information.

And finally ...
This is my last year as Chair of ECTC and I want to place on record my thanks to my treasurer Richard Wilson and secretary Peter Thomas, both of whom have done an excellent job. In addition, Peter has worked very hard over and above the call of duty to get the website up and running, and also to sift through the Regulations of the Association so thoroughly; I am particularly grateful to him for this. Bill Richardson (Editor-in-Chief) has nearly always attended our meetings and has made a significant contribution to the running of the committee. Thanks must also go to the whole committee; it has been a pleasure working with them and a privilege knowing them all.

Doug French takes over from me and I wish him and the Teaching Committee success in the future.

The Executive Committee (ECTC) February 1999

Jan Jagger (Chair of Teaching Committee)

Reports from Subcommittees

Maths in Further, Tertiary and Continuing Education Subcommittee

The subcommittee, which is chaired by Valerie Seabright of North Warwickshire College, met three times in 1998 and would like to hear from other members involved in the post-16 sector. The committee has been keen for the MA to have an up to date website and now that this is up and running we have produced our own homepage within it. It provides details of our work and the names of committee members and their email addresses.

Members of the group organised two sessions at the 1998 Conference. The session on Key Skills was lively and reassured many people that no-one else had a clear idea on where Key Skills were going! The FE Forum enabled people to share views and experiences on bridging the gap between GCSE and A level, diagnostic tests, maths in access courses, Application of Number etc.

The group were encouraged by the good attendances at both sessions and at the 1999 Joint Conference members are running a Key Skills Workshop, a session on Maths for Adults and an FE Forum which can provide the opportunity to discuss other issues.

The group are also considering producing a booklet of assignments on Application of Number and contributing an FE Corner to Mathematics in School

Dave Faulkner (Secretary)

A and AS Level Mathematics Subcommittee

The subcommittee has met three times during 1998 and has completed the work on Are You Sure? Learning about Proof which should be ready for publication in time for the 1999 conference.

Work has started on a leaflet for schools designed to encourage more schools and students to consider Further Maths as an A level subject and on a book of problems (with solutions) for sixth form students, in a form which could be displayed as 'this week's problem'.

There has been much discussion about the potential of the Association's web site as a means of disseminating ideas, and some material about the work has been produced which now appears on the subcommittee's pages on the web site.

The subcommittee discussed and forwarded some contributions towards the Association's response to the QCA AS/A level consultation.

Charlie Stripp will be taking over from Doug French as Chair of the subcommittee in 1999. Work will continue during the year on the problems book and the leaflet on Further Maths, and further contributions to the web site will be considered. A whole range of issues will be kept under review and in particular matters arising from decisions from QCA about the future of AS and A level mathematics will be followed up.

Doug French (Chair)

Monitoring GCSE Papers for Bias Subcommittee

This subcommittee has not met during the year. The chair, who has for sometime carried on the work of the subcommittee single-handed feels unable to continue. If no volunteers can be found to continue the work of this subcommittee it will be dissolved in June 1999.

Peter Bailey (Chair)

Teaching and Learning Styles Subcommittee

This subcommittee has met three or four times a year over the last few years to look at various projects that are underway in the teaching of Mathematics and to consider how these relate to different teaching styles and how they might or might not match up with learning styles. Much discussion has taken place and, in the light of it, articles have been submitted to the periodicals. The subcommittee was dissolved in February 1999, several members having resigned because of pressures of work, it was considered no longer to be viable.

Bernard Bagnall (Chair)

Teaching and Learning Undergraduate Mathematics (TaLUM) Subcommittee

The subcommittee works through a set of subgroups:
    Assessment of Understanding,
    Content of Undergraduate Mathematics,
    Newsletter Editors,
    Secondary/Tertiary Interface,
    Staff Development.
The whole subcommittee meets once a year.

Content (led by Keith Austin) and Assessment (led by Gill Hatch) continue to meet regularly (each approximately three times a year). The Content group hope to publish a summary of the findings on various forms of support for teaching in the London Mathematical Society Newsletter; an article by the group (principally written by Peter Kahn) appeared in Teaching Mathematics and its Applications (an Institute Mathematics and its Applications journal) in Autumn 1998. The Assessment group are looking at the assessment of student solutions (this is not yet completed) and at reflections by students about their attitudes to the maths in their programmes.

The London Mathematical Society Education Committee awarded TaLUM £500 pounds towards its work in 1998. The Association of Teachers of Mathematics contributed £500 towards travelling expenses.

Johnston Anderson (Chair)

Scottish Interests Subcommittee

1998 was taken up, in large measure, by the production of the "Scottish Issue" of Mathematics in School. The Subcommittee identified likely contributors, persuaded them to get writing, and worked closely with them to add polish. John Bradshaw and the production team swung into action in the autumn, and the issue - the first issue of MiS to be produced in-house - was dispatched in January.

Recently, the Subcommittee has turned its attention to a problem flagged up in the editorial of the January issue - the interface between secondary and tertiary Mathematics courses. More troublesome in Scotland than elsewhere, it has arisen because of the tradition of matriculating at seventeen.

Finally, members of the Subcommittee have enjoyed notable professional acclaim in 1998. No sooner had we learnt that Adam McBride had been offered a chair in Mathematics than Bill Richardson was awarded the MBE for services to Mathematics education. Bob Barfoot became an HMI later in the year, relinquishing the secretarial duties which he had carried out so effectively on behalf of Scottish Interests.

Chris Pritchard (Chair)

Material for Mathematical High Fliers Subcommittee

This subcommittee has been compiling a handbook for use by teachers in primary schools. It is hoped that the handbook will published soon. The work of this subcommittee has been supported by Suffolk County Council.

Janet Rees (Chair)

Mathematics Curriculum in Schools Subcommittee

This subcommittee has completed its work which is being disseminated through articles in Mathematics in School. Its next task will be to draft the MA's response to the forthcoming national curriculum proposals.

Robert Barbour (Chair)

Careers

This subcommittee was not active in 1998. It was dissolved in February 1999.

World Wide Web Watch Subcommittee

The World Wide Web Subcommittee was dissolved in the spring of 1998 as it was felt that the Association's website was not within Teaching Committee's terms of reference. In the autumn of 1998 it was decided to re-establish the subcommittee as the World Wide Web Watch Subcommittee to monitor developments on the World Wide Web which were relevant to the work of Teaching Committee. In January 1999, Council placed the MA Website under the control of the Editorial Board; and so in February 1999, the World Wide Web Watch subcommittee was dissolved upon the direction of Council.

The subcommittee, which had four members, conducted its business by email.

Peter Thomas (Chair)

Classroom Management

This subcommittee, which never became active, was dissolved in October 1998.

Starting as a Secondary Mathematics Teacher

Following previous reports the updating of this publication is continuing. Progress has bee a little slow, but should speed up, we hope, when we receive drafts back from the typesetter at the end of February 1999.

Any further requests for specific information that NQT's/probationers would like to see included would still be welcome, and should be communicated to Linda or Philip Moon at The High School of Glasgow, 637 Crow Road, Glasgow G13 1PL; Tel. 0141 954 9628; Fax 0141 959 0191.

Linda Moon (Chair)

Maths Books for the School Library

Work is progressing on assembling a new list but further contributions would be welcomed. Please send your recommendations, with a brief description of each book or reasons for recommending it, to David Forster, Tonbridge School, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1JP.

David Forster (Chair)

PROBLEM BUREAU

I continue to receive a steady stream of requests for solutions to problems, covering a wide variety of mathematical activity, both pure and applied. As we look forward to the new millennium, I trust that we shall continue to provide a valuable service to members.

Roger F Wheeler (Director of the Problem Bureau)