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Our approach to Outreach is anchored in evidence-based understanding of which students are facing significant challenges and where we as a STEM specialist university are best placed to offer activities and resources that can make the biggest impact. This picture is always evolving, which means that we are constantly probing, researching, and adapting to ensure that our provision supports students effectively.

We are also passionate about sharing evidence of what works. Across the education sector, we are all still learning about what works, for whom, and in what contexts. Where our research and evaluation leads us to insights that may be useful to others working on similar projects, we are committed to sharing those results. 

The Maths Excellence Pipeline 

Our vision in Outreach is ensure that young people from any background are empowered to choose the educational and career pathways that are right for them, and have the skills and confidence to thrive in their next steps. As so many STEM pathways rely on fundamental skill levels in mathematics, a lack of confidence in maths can lead to early disengagement with STEM. 

Our maths-focused programmes tackle the unique challenges at each stage of the maths excellence pipeline: 

• Primary Maths Transition school partnership programme, bridging the gap between primary and secondary maths by building confidence, finding the fun in maths, and providing a link between primary and secondary school teachers in partner schools
• Future Maths school partnership programme, addressing the underrepresentation of girls in maths through a targeted year 8 programme that brings together small group academic tutoring with enrichment activities designed to showcase a range of role models and education and career pathways building on maths foundations 
• mA*ths Online and Further mA*ths Online, hybrid tutoring programmes designed to recognise the limited access to teaching support for many underrepresented students, offering a combination of campus visits, self-directed online learning, and small-group virtual tutoring focusing on the most challenging elements of the A-level maths and further maths curriculum 

More on our research into barriers to Further Maths: Our research into Further Maths.

Theory of Change 

A theory of change is a key tool that we use across our programmes to clarify the elements at the heart of the activity: who are we working with, what are we planning, and what change do we hope to see in the short, medium and long term? 

We developed this simple template as a way to capture these essential aspects of a programme. You can download our Theory of Change template to use for your own programmes.