Parallel Academy (Primary)

Information for teachers

Primary school teachers can now nominate Year 6 students for our Spring 2025 Parallel 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 tutored over 100 primary and 300 secondary school students across the UK; this year we have offered places to more than 2,500 secondary students to join one of our programmes, and we are now accepting nominations for this year’s primary programme.

In addition to our weekly free online maths puzzle sheets, primary school pupils who join the programme will be invited to four online webinars during Spring 2025. Those who demonstrate a particularly strong talent and enthusiasm for maths during those webinars will be invited to two small group online tutorials, and may also be invited to:

• Four tutorials next Summer, to give them a springboard into secondary school.
• A longer programme of tutorials in secondary school, to guide them towards a STEM degree at university.

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.

The first webinar will take place on February 16th, 2025 - so, ideally, nominated students should be signed up before then.

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