The CHOOSEMATHS Mentoring Program places girls in Years 9 and 10 into online discussion groups with university students and professionals using mathematics in their careers. Our aim is to provide a safe place for your students to ask questions about their future, to introduce them to role models in mathematics and to showcase the range of careers open to them with a mathematics background.

We are especially keen to encourage participation by girls who would benefit from having additional support in mathematics, either to boost confidence or to provide advice for those not sure of their career path. In particular, we would like to recruit girls who can be encouraged to choose a level of mathematics in Year 11 which is higher than the one they may currently be considering, whether it is choosing Methods instead of General, or Specialist instead of Methods.

Your school may nominate up to ten students (total) from Years 9 and 10. We ask that these students be selected from a variety of different classes and ability levels, to emphasise that our program is about confidence-building and not school achievement. (In particular, mentors will not help students directly with their school work!)

Students cannot join the program unless they are nominated by their teacher

As a school, joining CHOOSEMATHS Mentoring would commit you to the following:

• Providing a member of staff to oversee and organise the mentoring sessions;
• Timetabling a total of ten mentoring sessions over the year (these may be before school, after school, at lunchtimes, or during lesson time);
• Ensuring that the technology needed for the mentoring is set up and working for the duration of the program. This includes ensuring that each student has access to a device such as a laptop or tablet, and checking that the video conferencing platform Zoom is accessible by your students on these devices.

For further information please contact

Dr Julia Collins
CHOOSEMATHS Women in Maths Project Officer
Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute
Building 161, C/- The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia
E: mentoring@amsi.org.au