ArteMatika Summer Course 2026

Traditional school settings group children in age groups and society has normalised it. Also, traditional school maths often consists of practising the same skill repeatedly.

At ArteMatika, we work on carefully designed maths problems that lend themselves to mixed groups and are multi-level: we call them 'low-floor' and 'high-ceiling' problems as there are multiple entry points and several extensions possible.

We begin the course with maths tasks designed to coach participants on skills for productive group work. The maths problems in the course are suitable for pairs, groups of three or four students depending on the level of complexity, interdependence and accountability required.

We expand maths skills 'side-ways', meaning that we enhance the investigation, problem solving and communication of maths ideas skills rather than teaching the school curriculum.

If your child follows the IB curriculum, the language used in MYP is Criterion B and Criterion C, referring to investigating patterns, generalising patterns, finding multiple representations of the pattern justifying why it works, the need for algebra in doing this, as well as communicating mathematical ideas with rigour whilst being accessible.

If your child follows the Cambridge iGCSE curriculum, the relevant skills are Algebraic Pattern Recognition, Proof and Justification, Formulating Generalisations — required for higher-tier algebraic investigations, a route advised for A-level Mathematics and Further Mathematics.

If your child follows the Portuguese curriculum, the 'Aprendizagens Essenciais' documentation refers to mathematical literacy, mathematical competences and learning profile which include Problem Solving, Mathematical Reasoning, Computational Thinking, Mathematical Communication, Multiple Representations and Mathematical Connections, as well as Self-Regulation, Critical Thinking, Perseverance, Collaboration, Creativity, Initiative and Autonomy, Self-Confidence.

The course is built on neuroscience evidence showing that the brain grows most when we struggle or make mistakes. We move away from prioritising 'rote memorisation' and 'speed' toward deep, visual thinking. When students engage in creative 'Mindset Mathematics', their brain synapses fire more effectively than during repetitive calculation.

True mindset shifts take time. A two-week duration allows students to move past initial 'math anxiety', performance pressure felt by 'gifted' students and fully immerse themselves in the Mindset Mathematics and the Creative Labs. Research into effective maths interventions shows that sustained engagement — rather than condensed 'cramming' — leads to higher retention and a fundamental change in how a student views their own potential.

We use the framework developed by Prof. Jo Boaler at Stanford University. This involves 'low-floor, high-ceiling' tasks that are accessible to everyone but can be taken to very advanced levels. By combining this with Maths Busking techniques, we ensure students see maths as a flexible, artistic, and multi-dimensional subject.

The course is directed by Dr Sara Santos, a mathematician with a PhD from the University of Manchester. As the founder of Maths Busking and a former BBC commentator on mathematics, Dr Santos brings over 25 years of experience in making complex mathematics engaging, visual, and fun for all ages.

Testimonials frequently highlight the transformation in confidence. Parents often note that children who previously 'hated' maths begin to see it as a creative tool. By working in a 'mistake-friendly' environment, students report feeling 'unlocked' and capable of tackling high-level challenges they once found intimidating.

If you can't imagine your child enjoying a maths course, rest assured: there will be no tests, no boring book work, no comparisons, or speed calculations.

Instead the maths activities are about unlearning unhelpful myths our society holds about maths, opening our minds, expanding our capacities, doing maths in a fun and collaborative way as young detectives investigating patterns, delivering presentations, drawing their thought process and learning how others see the same thing differently.

Families sought the course for multiple reasons. Some have children who love maths, others who required a fresh start in maths to get over previous experiences, others to ignite their child's interest in the subject.

A father told us he woke up his daughter in the morning by saying 'maths camp!' and that got her excited to get out of bed and get ready quickly.

Some children were concerned it would be boring — they changed their mind once they began.

The Creative Labs take their name from Bruno Munari's Laboratori (artist, designer, educator, 1907–1998). Inspired by his conviction that art should be accessible to all and that the process of experimentation matters more than the finished result, we adopted the same name.

The goal is to promote learning through the understanding of art — the democratisation of artistic knowledge. The Creative Labs do not seek self-expression for its own sake, but rather to awaken the vision each person has of the world, and to understand the artist's conception as an instrument of life.

Bruno Munari called touch 'the forgotten sense' — and he was ahead of his time. Neuroscience now confirms that gesture and movement together form the foundations of knowledge and language learning.

The Creative Labs are designed to give the senses their rightful place: discovering the quality of each material through touch, the resistance of clay under the hands, the weight and temperature of different surfaces.

As Grassini (2020) writes: 'Weight and temperature are exclusively tactile sensations; consistency in all its determinations, including its most refined nuances, can only be perceived through touch. Sight may recognise a smooth surface and distinguish it from a rough one, but only touch can produce the sensation.'

At ArteMatika, science and art are not separate territories. Herbert Read put it clearly: 'Art is the representation, science the explanation — of the same reality.' And: 'What is wrong with our educational system is precisely our habit of establishing separate territories and inviolable boundaries.'

The Creative Labs always propose an interdisciplinary approach, connecting students' everyday lives to nature — a privileged field for understanding that every artistic form follows the same principles as nature (Goethe): there is a predisposition to be a certain way, yet many different ways of being.

According to the Portuguese Ministry of Education: 'Visual Arts are established as a fundamental area of knowledge for the global and integrated development of students, specifically the processes of looking and seeing, critically and thoughtfully, across different visual contexts. Their main purpose is the broadening and enrichment of students' visual and plastic experiences, contributing to the development of aesthetic and artistic sensibility, and awakening, throughout the learning process, a taste for appreciating and enjoying different cultural circumstances.' (Aprendizagens Essenciais, 2018)

The Creative Labs at ArteMatika are grounded in this same conviction.

'Aesthetic' comes from the Greek aisthesis — 'to feel or perceive through the senses' — understood today as 'thinking in a beautiful way'. Aesthetic education must be understood as 'education for beauty' (Sòcratti), attending to its double meaning: the capacity to receive impressions through the senses, and the capacity to fully understand and experience affective and emotional conditions.

The Creative Labs aim to cultivate both.