It’s the start of another half term and this morning I woke up with a mixture of emotions. Part of me was raring to go and excited but there was a little part of me that felt like a hamster on a wheel with the same view ahead of me that there has always been – it’s just that time of year!.

Having then spent a couple of hours pottering and making the “list of all lists” of things I want/need to do in the next couple of weeks I feel OK about it all. There is just so much going on, and the uncertainty within Maths education with the new GCSEs is unsettling and I need to get “ahead of the game” and get myself organised.

We are hosting one of the Edexcel GCSE launches (to book a place at one of their many launch events – ours is 24th Nov –  go to here-> Edexcel booking form)  in a few weeks and I know lots of people are concerned about the level of difficulty presented in their sample assessment material. I get regular emails/tweets/calls asking for an opinion and who we would be using and my view is that it is still too early to say and I want to see more materials from the boards … so was delighted to hear that at least one of them will be releasing some “mock” type materials in Jan/Feb (If you are one of the exam boards that I haven’t spoken to recently and you’d like me to share your plans for supporting teachers please email me, as I am more than happy to share the information).

I also had an interesting conversation this week with regards the sample assessment material where it was discussed that the intention of sample materials is to “showcase” how they could examine certain topics and specific strands within the technical specification they were working with. When I compared the changes (post -> here ) that all the boards made between their original submissions and the materials I was looking at the changes they had to make to ensure they fulfilled the brief from Ofqual – I didn’t really look at the specific levels of difficulty as I know that they are almost like a portfolio of evidence and it isn’t until we get to see further exam materials that we will get a true picture. It really is too early to say and I think we should take a moment to breathe … people panicking, or whipping up a frenzy is just bloomin’ draining. Let’s just wait!

After all, the content is the same for all boards and there is enough similar overlapping content that can be taught to year 9 that there is no urgency. The changes are what they are, I can’t influence them and I don’t have enough information YET to make an informed decision. At the minute my main focus are my current year 10’s and 11’s and preparing them for their upcoming internal mocks. During half term revision it was great to see our year 11 “super group” really holding their own in terms of retaining what they’ve been taught during the previous 8 weeks …  I was really proud of them (am I allowed to say that in light of the Sutton report?)

That said, I do love teaching year 7 (old school started at year 9!) even if they do try to get me in trouble with other teachers. Every Friday we have “fun Friday” … by that I mean “Fraction Friday” (I haven’t yet convinced them it’s all fun, fun, fun!)  and last week they called someone into my room to say that I had said the “F-word” …  meaning “fractions”. Cue lots of explaining on my part!

Anyway, lots going on and a trip to my mother-in-laws later .. joy!!!