WEBVTT

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Music

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Today's conference is hosted by Cambridge Assessment

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on behalf of the four Cambridge Mathematics partners.

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Ourselves, Cambridge University Press,

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the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education

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and the University of Cambridge Faculty of Mathematics.

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My name is Bene't Steinberg,

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Group Director of Public Affairs at Cambridge Assessment,

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and today's Director of Operations.

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So it's all my fault if it doesn't work.

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Few housekeeping points first We not expecting a fire bell so any alarm will be real The alert signal is a single pulsating tone While the tone remains the same it is safe to remain where you are

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The evacuate signal is a two-tone warble.

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If this sounds, we must leave via the nearest fire exit,

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and they're at each corner of the auditorium and the foyer.

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Do not attempt to use the lift, or try and take your belongings with you.

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during the evacuation, stay calm and walk straight to the nearest exit

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and go to Assembly Point 1, the Poets Circle, that's the Round Theatre,

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in the piazza to await further instructions.

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On to the event itself.

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Firstly, we have a number of distinguished speakers to hear

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and good time for discussion.

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But it is a packed programme and I give fair warning to everybody.

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All the chairs in all the sessions will be rigorous

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and they will cut people off if they think they've made their point already

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and that includes the speakers.

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Secondly, we are filming the day and broadcasting it on the web live.

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So please ignore the cameras but make sure if you're asked to speak

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that you wait for a microphone to arrive in front of you

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And stand up so the cameras can see you.

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Keep the mic close to your lips and start by stating your name and where you work.

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I'm sorry.

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Thirdly, I encourage you to use your smartphone, tablet or laptop in silent or vibrate mode, please, to tweet.

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You can also Twitter comment and submit questions, which will be picked up and fed into the discussion.

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You can tweet us at CambridgeMaths using hashtag CamMaths.

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I will ask all of our speakers to turn their phones completely off while they're up here

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because they're willing to disrupt the sound.

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So, we're joined by experts today, both on the platform and in the room,

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from all the disciplines that make up Cambridge Mathematics.

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Those who know about frameworks and professional development,

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those who know about resources and assessment.

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We also joined by practicing educationalists with their own expertise from different countries by video link So I like you to welcome these delegates overseas Joining us now at around 12 o their time is a group from Cairo Egypt Michael O the chief executive of our international

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exam board, will introduce us to the Egyptian conference delegates and then they'll give

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us a flavour of maths as it is taught there. Michael.

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Good morning, everybody. I'm Michael and I'm here in Cairo. As you can see, I have next to me and

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behind me some of the top mathematics teachers from schools here in Egypt. I'd just like to

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invite Dr. Magdi Tadros of the British School of Egypt to say a few words about the Egyptian

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context.

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Good morning, everyone.

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It's a pleasure to be with you today to talk about mathematics and to present my country

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in this valuable conference.

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So first of all, I would like to talk about the Egyptian culture and studying mathematics.

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In Egypt here, we are so much addicted on studying mathematics.

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So mathematics is very important to us, even if we fail to achieve a goal.

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achieve the A star, B keep trying and trying and trying and they achieve it.

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So it's very, very important.

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B for us here is a failure.

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So I will try to talk about the importance of mathematics.

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However, it is also integrated for every other subject.

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It's a challenging subject that prepares and bases everyone for studying physics, chemistry and biology.

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Even if they face a lot of stuff like logarithm and statistics in chemistry and biology as well, as well as a lot of topics in physics as well.

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For Cambridge, mathematics especially, we can see that it's very challenging.

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We can see that all topics are serving our students' performance in every other subject and

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qualify them to go to universities with very well-based students. They shine like stars in

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universities in Egypt and all over the world when they study the A mathematics in Cambridge University So we have a lot of things to talk about First the O

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The O-level IGCSE is a very challenging subject, especially after they change the exams.

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I believe it's going like pushing them to the value that they like to study for AS and A-level mathematics.

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AS and A-level mathematics is the most A-level studied by the Egyptians here.

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So last year we had 1,079 students studying A-level mathematics in Egypt,

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where we had 1,851 studied the O-level mathematics.

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So you can see the ratio that more than 50% or 60% who studied O-level Cambridge,

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they went for the A-level.

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So, it's a very important ratio.

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They are aware that mathematics is one of the most qualifying

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subject to most of the universities all over the world.

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But on the other hand, sometimes they face some

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difficulties, especially in mathematics, mechanics.

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So they consider the mechanics is a little bit

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challenged because of the timing of the exam.

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So we can reconsider and search for a solution for this

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together, maybe today, as we are all talking about it.

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Thank you for the time you are giving me,

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and thank you for listening to me.

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Thank you.

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Thank you very much and welcome, Egypt.

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Also joining us for the UK's morning session,

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in the same time zone as Cairo,

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is a group from Johannesburg.

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I believe it's Mark Barber,

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Cambridge International Senior Schools Development Manager

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for Sub-Saharan Africa,

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will introduce us to the South African Conference delegates.

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Mark.

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Actually, that's Juan Fisser,

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the Regional Director for Sub-Saharan Africa,

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starting off.

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Mark will join me shortly.

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everyone good morning we calling in from a very sunny johannesburg south africa i going to hand you over to Mark Barber to introduce our panel Mark Thank you and good morning We joined by nine delegates who are

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principals and math specialists from four of South Africa's top performing Cambridge schools.

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El Shaddai Christian School in Cape Town, St John's College, Johannesburg, Alma Mater and British

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International College also from Johannesburg. Between them they have substantial experience

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and knowledge of maths teaching in South Africa and internationally, and were among the first

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schools to successfully introduce the Cambridge curriculum into the South African market,

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growing it to the level of success it enjoys today.

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May I introduce Lynn Budge of El Shaddai Christian School, Cape Town, to briefly introduce the

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key features and challenges of maths education as agreed on by our delegates this morning.

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Yes, good morning, and firstly, thank you to Cambridge, and on behalf of us, for the

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privilege of actually just coming in and having an input here.

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It's actually interesting to listen to Egypt because unlike

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Egypt, mathematics is not a priority.

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In fact, few and fewer of our state students are taking

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mathematics and we're finding that our