Now that we have Sample Assessment Materials (expect a lengthy blog post later this week as I’ve been working through them) some of this is somewhat “background” but also me reflecting on the bo77ocks that are public sector organisation putting “spin” on things. It’s also me finally making publically available some of the letters from “subject orgainisations” that are supposedly speaking on behalf of maths educators – I’ve published most of them in full (but worth a read! so apologise for the length of the post in advance!) For me I can honestly say that they are waaaaaaayyyyy more politically correct than I can ever promise to be.

Let me remind you that 22nd January was the date the Maths GCSE research programme was announced …

Well … on the 28th January there appears to have been a board meeting at Ofqual because the notes have been published last week (funnily enough the board notes from Jan, Feb and March all appeared on the Ofqual/.gov website on the 2nd July under the category of transparency) … not sure who’s idea of transparency that is with notes appearing 4 -5 months after a meeting (Ofqual publications can be found HERE)

The most telling comments is that in these notes from the Jan meeting is that someone “has the neck” to make the comment (and it get minuted) about the “Maths community in particular”

2 - 28th Jan

1 - POINT 21

What “maths community” is this? It’s not “my community” …. Who are Ofqual talking to? And how can these organisations honestly say that they are speaking for other members of the maths community. I do wonder.

In my quest to find out what this so called “maths community” are saying on my (and your!!) behalf you may remember I made a freedom of information request to Ofqual and got letters from the subject associations – many of which are available on their websites. However one of them that really didn’t want to make theirs available is the JMC (Joint Maths Council). One of their letters dated 22nd December was :

4 - JMC to Ofqual 22nd Dec

This was followed by the below response from Ofqual on the 9th Jan and then followed by a subsequent response from the JMC on the 20th Jan – two days before the research project was made public to us at the coal-face.

5 - OFQUAL TO JMC 9TH JAN

6 - JMC to OFQUAL 20th Jan

MEI wrote on the 12th Jan – much of which concerned the A level changes but in relation to the GCSE they mentioned:

10 MEI to OFQUAL 10th Jan

The response they received was as follows.

11 OFQUAL TO MEI 10th Jan

ACME also wrote to Ofqual on the 23rd Jan (after the project was announced) – there doesn’t appear to be a response from Ofqual on this one:

9 - ACME TO OFQUAL 23 Jan

There was also communication between the ATM on the 2nd Feb (again after the project was announced) and then the subsequent response on the 9th April. On the basis of the dates we can assume that at least it wasn’t the ATM that formed part of the supportive “maths community” and to be fair I like what they have to say in the main. Common sense.

7 - ATM to Ofqual 2nd Feb

8 - Ofqual to ATM 9th MARH 2015

Not a flood of support for the project and in my opinion it certainly doesn’t warrant the comments “the maths community in PARTICULAR” … no it isn’t. These bodies do not represent me nor 100s (dare I say 1000s) of teachers who “actually” have to deliver this GCSE. In fact the only body that can be construed as supporting this given the timing of the meeting is the Joint Maths Council, who to be honest until about 6 months ago I didn’t even know existed.

What we really need is some joined up thinking.