Parallel Academy (Primary)

Information for teachers

Primary school teachers can now nominate Year 6 students for our Parallel Primary Academy programme.

Nominations are now open for a free, exciting online programme for bright and enthusiastic Year 6 maths pupils at state schools in the UK.

The Parallel Academy has been developed by bestselling science author Simon Singh MBE and Countdown champion Junaid Mubeen, with the goal to increase the number and diversity of excellent young mathematicians. Last year, we supported 600 ambitious primary school pupils across the UK, and this year to hope to increase this over 1,000 students. We are now encouraging teachers to nominate pupils for this year’s primary programme.

In addition to our weekly free online maths puzzle sheets, pupils who join the programme will be invited to attend weekly online webinars (our Parallel Circles) that run from January to July. Our webinars are challenging, enjoyable and interactive, with pupils asking questions and providing answers via the chat tab.

Our primary webinars are a great way to stretch capable pupils in their final year of primary school, but we will also invite pupils to continue with us in Year 7 with another free year of support. In fact, those pupils who demonstrate a particularly strong enthusiasm for maths in Year 7 will be invited to a 5-year programme of online tutorials in secondary school, to guide them towards a STEM degree at a top university. This is a potentially life-changing opportunity.

We feel this project has huge benefits for pupils, with no disadvantages for schools:

• Neither parents nor schools pay anything to be involved in this programme.
• Tutorials and webinars are completed at home, outside of the school day.
• There is no extra workload for teachers (apart from nominating pupils).
• We have implemented strong safe-guarding measures, as outlined in our safeguarding policy

Next steps

We are asking schools to nominate your brightest and keenest Year 6 maths pupils - there is no limit to nominations, and every nominated student will be invited to attend our webinars.

There is no cost to the programme, but to be eligible pupils must be currently attending a state school in the UK.

Once you have identified your nominees, log in to our website - if you have not done so already, you will need to create a free account. Once logged in, go to the Academy tab, where you can find a template letter which you can send to parents. This letter includes information on the programme, and a sign up link unique to your teacher account.

If you would like more information before making your nominations or reaching out to parents, feel free to get in touch.