Dr Mark Hodds gives talk on Maths Anxiety

News - Oct 22

Many students, and adults, struggle with mathematics, and this can create a specific form of anxiety called Maths Anxiety.  

36% of younger people, aged 15 to 24, feel anxious about Maths and 23% of parents of children aged 5 to 15 have reported that their eldest child often feels anxious when attempting to solve a Maths problem – Maths Anxiety Trust, 2022.  

Although many of our students here at Colyton Grammar School have a very good relationship with Maths, many will experience some anxiety, especially coming up to their exams. This is why the Maths Department recently invited Dr Mark Hodds from Coventry University to talk about this in more detail. He has done substantial research on the topic of Mathematics support and was able to offer practical ideas to tackle Maths anxiety, build resilience, and empower students to venture beyond their comfort zones to complete complex examination questions with confidence.  

Adam J, Year 12 student, said:  

‘We had a presentation delivered to us about Maths Anxiety, an underrepresented issue which affects many people. It was an extremely informative talk, which not only spread awareness about the issue, but also offered inventive ways to tackle any stress caused by maths. I had not heard about Maths Anxiety until this presentation, and had thought that it was normal to occasionally experience stress due to Maths, however, I now know that this may be a form of Maths Anxiety. The methods given to us to help us to manage Maths Anxiety proved to be useful to both students who experience it and those who take Maths at A Level, such as myself, as it showed how to easily abstract questions into more approachable parts. Overall, this talk shed light on an issue not frequently spoken about in Colyton, to the point where I had never heard about it myself, whilst still being beneficial to those who take Maths at a higher level’.