The Scottish Mathematical Council is delighted to announce that Carol Lyon has assumed the role of Chair, with effect from 17 July 2019.

Carol has a wealth of experience as a primary specialist, initially as a classroom teacher and later in positions of leadership at school and local authority level. She has served on the SMC since 2015 and is the inaugural editor of the Scottish Mathematical Council Primary Journal. Her SMC colleagues believe she will bring a freshness and new perspectives to the role and wish her every success.

Dr Chris Pritchard has now stepped down as Scottish Mathematical Council Chair. Chris has served on the SMC since 2003, as Journal Editor from 2005 and as Chair from April 2014.

A retired Principal Teacher of Mathematics, Chris has been an extremely hard working, proactive Chair. His commitment to fostering a love of mathematics across all sectors is commendable and SMC has truly grown under his leadership. Chris, your SMC colleagues extend their warm and grateful thanks and wish you well in your continuing support of mathematics learning and teaching.

A message from the ICME14 Bursaries Committee:

The International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME14) will be held in Shanghai from 12 to 19 July 2020: see

https://www.icme14.org/static/en/index.html

Under the auspices of the Joint Mathematical Council, and with the generous support of the London Mathematical Society and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, the ICME Bursaries Committee are able to offer bursaries of up to £500 to support attendance at ICME14. Full details and conditions are given in the notes attached to the application form.

Applications, including a letter of support, should be received by 30 November 2019, and we aim to make decisions by 31 December 2019.

We have been made aware of concerns about the lack of diversity among the characters appearing in the Summer Maths Challenge questions which the SMC produced on behalf of the Deputy First Minister.

We recognise the importance of representation, especially for groups of people who have traditionally been under-represented in maths, or more generally discriminated against. In theming this Challenge around the Scottish Women’s National Team we aimed in particular to address the under-representation of girls and women in maths. We recognise, however, that other aspects of diversity were not addressed in these questions.

We will work to ensure that other aspects of diversity are addressed in future Challenges, and we apologise to anyone who felt excluded as a consequence of our choices this time round.

The Scottish Mathematical Council was saddened to learn of the recent passing of Professor Edward Fraenkel FRS after a long and illustrious career.  In addition to his major work in his professional life he made several significant donations to support the work of Mathematical Challenges and the SMC is very grateful for them.