A blooming success
One initiative to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee is a huge array of flowers and plants – a ‘superbloom’ – around the Tower of London. Many organisations sponsored this event, including the Worshipful Company of Actuaries.
On 17 June 2022 a group of 40 members and their guests visited the Tower of London for this event, followed by a traditional supper in the historic Dickens Inn at St Catherine’s Dock. We had the luxury of a wonderfully sunny day as we gathered outside the Tower to enter the superbloom. The flowers are an evolving event, and we walked through several specially planted areas to see UK and international wildflowers. In temperatures of over 30°C, we took in the colours and scents.
The Dickens Inn was also looking fabulous, decked in flowers; supper and conversation followed.
Back at UCAS
Tessa McAuliffe – IFoA acquisition and retention marketing leader
In June we were delighted to join the UCAS Birmingham exhibition at the NEC. UCAS runs events aimed at secondary school students considering university choices. The event was attended by almost 10,000 students, plus parents and careers advisers.
Our aim was to encourage those interested in a maths career to consider becoming an actuary and advise them on first steps. It was great to speak to so many students and get them considering this career.
We had so many positive conversations, including one teacher who said, “Nobody at our school talks about becoming an actuary, but I discovered something new that will really benefit our students.” Thanks to Niraj Shah who joined us for the first day – students loved hearing about his career.
If you would like to get involved in events such as this in the future, find out more about our Career Ambassador programme at bit.ly/IFoA_Volunteers
If you are an actuarial employer and would like to get involved with our programmes promoting actuarial careers, please contact [email protected]
IFoA Foundation: Count on Us success
The Count on Us Primary Maths Challenge final took place at City Hall, London on Wednesday 29 June. This programme for state primary schools in Greater London is run by the Mayor’s Fund for London and supported by the IFoA Foundation.
Over the year, 54 schools and 4,000 children aged 8–10 took part in classes, maths clubs and tournaments. Following regional heats in May, 12 schools competed in three rounds of games, including codebreaking, T-shapes and dominoes, and the mental maths game 24®. It was inspiring to see the children work together to solve problems.
Elmgrove Primary School (Harrow) was crowned Champion, with Nelson Primary School (Newham) and Harris Primary Academy East Dulwich (Lewisham) coming second and third.
Your donations will help us support more education projects like this. Please take the opportunity to give to the Foundation when you renew your membership this year.
WCA- A much-awaited return
After three years, it was wonderful for the Worshipful Company of Actuaries to return to Mansion House in 2022.
More than 180 members and guests arrived for drinks at 6.45pm, where the atmosphere was supplemented by the Royal Marines Association Concert Band. The Lord Mayor was represented by Alderman Sir Peter Estlin and his wife Lindy. Sir Peter attended our last banquet in 2019, when he was Lord Mayor himself.
Dinner started in the Egyptian Hall with presentations to the Edmonton Sea Cadets – a cup to the Cadet of the Year and a donation from our charitable trust to the unit. We then had a delicious four-course dinner. After the toasts, the band got going again and the Post Horn Gallop was played.
We were then addressed by the Master and Sir Peter, and the Master presented donations to the Lord Mayor’s Appeal and the Mansion House Scholarship Fund.
The main address of the evening was by TV personality Bobby Seagull, who was on Emmanuel College, Cambridge’s 2017 University Challenge team. His book The Life-Changing Magic of Numbers reached the top 50 Amazon UK bestsellers and he is co-presenter of the Maths Appeal podcast. The Master closed the evening, presenting Bobby with a donation to his chosen charity.
Image credit | Ben Stevens
