The provision of Mathematics Workshops, also known as Maths Resource Centres, Support Centres and so on, has grown dramatically over the past ten years. With the vast majority of HE and FE institutions now operating a workshop of some form or another, and with a number of these having been written about in detail in previous editions of this Newsletter, there seems little more that remains to be said.

    Here, then, is a checklist of advice that you will certainly wish to ignore…

    Don’t waste time and resources publicising the existence of your Maths Workshop. If it has been running successfully for a few years, people will already know about it. Students who need to attend for help and advice will probably find out about it by themselves. And the posters about the workshop you put up on noticeboards last year will probably still be there anyway.

    Run drop-in workshops at times most convenient to the staff. They are the ones who have to work there! It does not matter if there is no obvious timetable. The students who really need help will prioritise the workshop, however inconvenient the times. And if a student gets the times confused, arranges a baby-sitter especially and drives in ten miles through a dark winter evening to find that no workshop is running, then she will know better next time.

    A drop-in maths workshop does not need prioritising in terms of staffing. Get the proper classes covered first. Anyone with time left can do workshop duty; it does not need any particular skills. Better still; get in extra part-time staff to cover the workshop. Students with problems will be relieved to find that their regular lecturer is never around in workshop hours - how embarrassing that would be!

    The resources in the maths workshop are valuable. Keep them securely locked away in cupboards. Only let students see them if they specifically ask. The resources won’t last long if anyone can just walk in and use them.

    Keep the door closed. Those in the workshop won’t want to be disturbed by anyone outside. And the average student and lecturer outside finds maths bad enough as it is, without having to witness people in the workshop struggling at it.

    There is no point keeping attendance records and monitoring student progress. If students do not want to attend when they are expected to, then that is their choice. You can lead horses to water, etc. If they have any anxieties or worries about being able to deal with the support provided, then that is their problem. They will probably fail their course. Nothing to do with us.

    Maths lecturers tend to get annoyed when they hear that some of their students have attended the workshop for additional help. Do not let them know. Keep everything confidential. If a lecturer is told that students are having common difficulties with his course, then this could be construed as unprofessional criticism of his work. Avoid this at all costs.

    When individual students attend a drop-in maths workshop for some extra help, they want to be reassured that the staff on duty are experts in their field. Demonstrate your mastery at every opportunity. Leave no aspect of the problem uncovered. Explain everything in full detail. The students will then have plenty to go away and think about.

    Don’t waste time giving the students some examples to try themselves, they will probably get them wrong again anyway and reinforce their belief in their own incompetence.

    When a student group have a session timetabled in the workshop, treat it as an open tutorial. Ask them what problems they have. If nobody says anything, so much the better! Workshop sessions are not for learning new maths that is what proper lectures are for.

    If it is the case that some student cohorts receive all their maths entitlement through workshop attendance, then somebody somewhere will have devised a scheme of work for them. Best not to get involved in that.

    Make it totally clear on every occasion that the maths workshop’s role is to give remedial support to students who are struggling in basic skills. Students attending the workshop should know that this is what they are buying into. Use the words "remedial", "struggling" and "basic" as often as possible. Then everyone will be in no doubt what those students are doing there.