The Primary Maths Podcast
The Primary Maths Podcast
Podcast Description
The Primary Maths Podcast is where classroom conversations meet big ideas.
Each week during term time, join me, Jon Cripwell, and co-host Becky Brown as we chat with inspiring guests from across the world of education - teachers, leaders, researchers and more - about what really works in primary maths.
Whether we’re tackling maths anxiety, diving into lesson design, or exploring the joys and challenges of leading maths across a trust, we keep things practical, thought-provoking, and rooted in the reality of school life.
Expect:
- Weekly interviews with expert voices shaping maths education
- “The Maths of Life” – those everyday moments where maths sneaks in (like holiday currency conversion or splitting the bill!)
- Our top takeaways for teachers and maths leads
- One resource spotlight per episode (because free CPD should come with useful stuff)
- New episodes every Tuesday during term time. Occasional summer specials may sneak in when we just can’t help ourselves.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores essential themes in primary maths education, including maths anxiety, lesson design, and leadership within maths. Episodes feature practical insights such as addressing maths anxiety with experts like Dr. Heidi Kirkland, and segments like 'The Maths of Life' which discuss real-world applications of maths, as well as a resource spotlight showcasing tools for teachers.
The Primary Maths Podcast is a year-round maths podcast for teachers, leaders and anyone interested in how children learn mathematics.
Every Tuesday, join me, Jon Cripwell, for an in-depth interview with an expert voice from across education – teachers, leaders, researchers, authors and thinkers – as we explore what really works in primary maths. We dive into the big ideas shaping maths education, from maths anxiety and fluency to task design, curriculum, reasoning and problem solving.
Then on Fridays, Becky Brown and I return for Aftermaths — a shorter, light-hearted, practical debrief where we unpack the week’s key insights, and share clear takeaways for the classroom.. We also share listener stories and discuss The Maths of Life, amongst other topics.
Across the week, expect:
– Insightful conversations with the people shaping maths education
– Clear, actionable takeaways for teachers and maths leads
– The Maths of Life — the surprising ways maths shows up in everyday moments
– A weekly resource spotlight
– New episodes every Tuesday and Friday, all year round
If you’re looking for a thoughtful, practical teacher podcast that blends research, real classrooms and conversations that matter, this is the place to start.
Who decided how long a metre should be? Why is a mile 1,760 yards? And what connects the French Revolution, an expedition from Dunkirk to Barcelona and the speed of light?
In this AfterMaths Summer Special, Jon and Becky explore the messy, surprising and occasionally bewildering history of measurement.
They begin in a world before standard units, when lengths were measured using hands, feet, cubits, spans and paces. These methods were convenient and widely understood, but rather less useful when accuracy mattered and everybody’s body produced a different answer.
From there, they investigate the historical accumulation that gave us imperial units, including the supposed connections between inches and barleycorns, feet and actual human feet, and miles and Roman paces.
The story then moves to revolutionary France, where mathematicians and astronomers attempted to create a universal decimal system based on the dimensions of the Earth. Their effort to establish the metre involved years of surveying, triangulation, political upheaval, arrests and the inconvenient discovery that neither the Earth nor their measurements were quite as perfect as hoped.
The metre was later represented by a platinum-iridium bar, then by a wavelength of light and, finally, by the distance light travels through a vacuum in a precisely defined fraction of a second.
It is a journey from body parts to universal constants, with plenty of mathematical history, questionable conversions and the inevitable disagreement about whether a pace and a “dolly step” are the same thing.
Explore The Primary Maths Podcast and more from Twinkl:
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/twinkl-podcasts/primary-maths-education-podcast-twinkl-podcasts
We always love hearing from listeners. Send your questions, episode ideas and examples of maths hiding in everyday life to:
Subscribe to the podcast newsletter on Substack:
https://primarymathspodcast.substack.com/
Connect with Jon on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joncripwell/
If you enjoyed the episode, please follow the podcast, leave a rating or review, or share it with a colleague. It really helps more teachers discover the show.
Thanks for listening, and as ever, keep doing the maths.
Disclaimer
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