It’s that time of year again, and we can play the 2026 NCTM Year Game in our January lessons. Use the digits in the year 2025 and the operations +, −, x, ÷, sqrt (square root), ^ (raise to a power), ! (factorial), along with grouping symbols to write expressions for the counting numbers 1 through 100. Full rules are here.
We see that the title Happy 2026 is most appropriate, as 2026 is a happy number! Happy Numbers – one of my favourite investigations!
We can also check WolframAlpha for number properties of 2026.
2026 is a semiprime (semiprimes are used in Cryptography), meaning it is the product of exactly two prime numbers: 2×1013. Consulting the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, we can search for sequences in which 2026 appears as a term, and we see that 2026 occurs in numerous sequences, including sequences connected with semiprimes.
Sarah Carter has several lovely New Year 2026 activities, including a challenge and several puzzles on her excellent M + A + T + H = love blog. You can find all the activities here.
Returning to WolframAlpha we can see what 2026 looks like in historical numeral forms. We could use the various historical numerals examples to learn how Babylonian, for example, numerals work. I have successfully used this as an interesting starter for January lessons.
The Babylonian system was a positional base 60 system, though it interestingly uses ‘units’ and ‘tens’ symbols to create the 59 symbols needed.
We could look back and use the excellent MacTutor History of Mathematics from the University of St Andrews, Scotland. We could check today or any day for Mathematicians who were born or died on that day.
The site is searchable in several ways, including the comprehensive index of History Topics.
From Quanta Magazine, The Year in Math (2025); the features of Quanta’s video are described as follows:
Video: 2025 marked a historic year in mathematics. Researchers solved a major case of Hilbert’s ambitious sixth problem, proved a sweeping new theorem about hyperbolic surfaces, and settled the longstanding three-dimensional Kakeya conjecture.
Wishing educators and students everywhere a Happy New Year!
…from Jonny Griffiths (I just had to use his words for that title!) A massive thank you from teachers everywhere, Jonny, for your brilliant resources. I have used these for years and love them.
Download a free PDF copy: www.risps.co.uk, where you can also download all the new files also. Note the Word version, which you could edit if you wish.
As a backup, Jonny has also placed this on Payhip, where it can be downloaded for free.
This update to Jonny’s 40 investigative tasks for A Level is a major revision. Tasks have been made even clearer, errors corrected, and GeoGebra and Excel files added. Navigation is excellent – all from the very clear Contents list.
Jonny Griffiths, RISPS 2026
For each task, you will find lovely, clear teachers’ notes and references to any files available.
More fantastic resources from Jonny Griffiths are available on his website. I shall be enjoying reading this over Ch-risp-mas!
Worked hard on a big revision of my risps. Weeding out mistakes, making tasks clearer, writing Geogebra and Excel files, all with better navigation; look out for the free eBook coming out in January!
From Jonny Griffiths, try RISPS (Rich Starting Points), Open-ended investigative activities for the A Level Pure Mathematics classroom. On the home page, note the helpful index by topic, choose a personal favourite of mine, Risp 21 Advanced Arithmagons, for example, and you will see not only the task but also teachers’ notes.
Andy Lutwyche – Edecel IGCSE, RAG resource
I am always keen to find resources for IGCSE (Edexcel) and was so pleased to find this Topic RAG resource, from Andy Lutwyche on TES. (Andy is a favourite resource author; there are many references to his resources on this blog.) As you can see from the image, all the topics on the IGCSE maths syllabus are listed, and for each, an example is given. Two resources are provided: versions with and without answers. This resource has been added to my IGCSE collection.
With GCSE Papers 1 and 2 now complete, only Paper 3 remains. For paper 3, we have key topics suggested by 1st Class Maths. We also have a ‘best guess’ practice paper for Paper 3 from Hannah Kettle.
Hannah Kettle ‘best guess’ Edexcel Paper 3F
Students could also use questions for their chosen topics from Corbett Maths and/or 1st Class Maths. Links are provided below.
1st Class Maths
On 1st Class Maths, we can find November 2025 Key Topics. Currently available are suggested key topics to prioritise for revision for Edexcel and AQA Foundation and Higher Paper 3. Star ratings indicate how likely the author believes the topic is to appear in Paper 3.
Many helpful revision resources are available.
Corbett Maths – Revision ResourcesCorbett Maths – A Bit of Everything practice papers
On Corbett Maths, try the Ultimate GCSE Revision Videos; use the GCSE Revision resources available for Edexcel, OCR, AQA, and CCEA, you will also find Revision checklists, a collection of Practice Papers, and A Bit of Everything Papers; the papers with questions provide very comprehensive syllabus coverage! Each paper includes a contents list with the relevant teaching video.
CorbettMaths revision checklist
On 1st Class Maths, the Edexcel Revision page offers questions and solutions by topic and difficulty, note the final column in the table which shows the Edexcel past series percentage correct up to and including the November 2024 exams. The Ultimate Revision Booklets for Foundation (114 questions) and Higher (106 questions) each include one question per topic, with accompanying video solutions.
