We’ve done our first full week with year 11 and I’m buzzing! They have (in the main) been amazing. 

As I always say context is really important so I’d probably better give some background to my specific groups. We have 300+ kids in our current year 11, split into two bands which we set by current attainment at the end of year 10 … this process is massively critical to year 11 and when we come around to it next June I’ll write about what we do.  We currently have:

• X band and sets 1, 2 and 3 are definite higher tier, set 4 is still to be confirmed but they are focussing on “lower higher” and then there is the group that myself and a colleague, lets call her “Emma” (cos thats her name) are teaching. It’s the “Supergroup” whereby we have about 44 (at the minute) students currently with us both and it’s basically all the other students left in that side of the year. Why we’ve done this would take its own post, and there are so many benefits … the main one at this point of their education is that there is always someone on patrol making sure behaviour is impeccable and the reality is, if students aren’t listening or working then they aren’t learning. Simple. But genuinely there are so many other softer benefits … the least of which is that teaching at this level can sometimes be soul destroying and when there are two of you,  you bounce off each other and maintain that essential motivation and as teachers you also learn so much from being in such close proximity. I love it. We are both invested in the students success too … so it’s not just one teacher they are building a relationship with, its two! Those that are worried about class sizes I would say that these kids get a better deal than a normal class size with one teacher as we get around them all and no one goes “under the radar” 
• Y band. This is slightly different in that I am teaching (and yes I’m lucky in that I have two classes in year 11) a set 4 Foundation (A couple may try higher) and then there is a smaller group below mine. 

The important thing is that both groups are being taught the “Crossover” … regardless of their starting point my opening schpeil (spelling!?!) to both groups is reiterating the point that we can’t keep focussing on basic skills if they have aspirations of a grade 4 or 5 and so we are focussing on the topics in the second half of the foundation tier/ start of higher. I then spent some time explaining how my lessons work in that there will ALWAYS be a starter printed out at the front that will practice the start of the papers to ensure that they are getting the requisite practice of those one markers, but then buids up to revisit the stuff they get taught in lessons (my bread and butter starters!  (I’ll write about them more soon).  I even showed them our Summer exam analysis demonstrating the performance compared to the National Averages (see my last blog post) and was able to visually show that this works. 

In terms of the order of the “Crossover” scheme of work it’s something that myself and Seager have refined over the years and put some real thought into the order of the topics (it’s also the same order as the Crossover revision guide) … we wanted to start off with something that gave students some tools for their maths toolkit in terms of being organised, whilst practising some basic numeracy skills but ALSO was relatively simple but could be developed with some trickier questions which is why it starts the way it does as shown below: 

So … up until last Fridays lessons we’ve done:  Two-way tables, Frequency trees, (I slipped in Venn diagrams), Rounding and error intervals and started estimation. Yes it’s fast paced and no hanging around … after each topic I add it to my taught topic list that I keep on my board, together with  a rough number of marks that are “usually” available if it appears in the exams. This is important because I made a promise that I would never ask them to do anything that they aren’t capable of … that doesn’t mean it will be easy … and I also won’t ask them to do something that I haven’t taught them yet apart from calculations they need to be able to carry out. I am taking away that excuse when students don’t do any work of “I couldn’t do it” … and trying to be really blatant about whether its ” couldn’t do it” or “didn’t want to do it” … the strategies used to deal with these are different. I can deal with “Couldn’t” but “Didn’t want to” is in the students control and requires a bit more investigation. 

That last point is where students need to understand that we are on their side and that’s why I always send an email to the parents of my new groups (basically I’ve set up an 11X and 11Y mail group that includes all the students and their parents) introducing myself, stating that I know how stressful year 11 can be for students AND parents, explaining the curriculum, my lesson structure and ending it with I am here to help and if they have any queries to contact me direct. I mentioned our year 10 into 11 setting process and part of that was also making phone calls to some parents that I knew would need a more personal touch, especially if a student may have previously struggled on the Higher tier or who may have had some prolonged periods of absence, or even those that were jittery about a change of teacher. In fact I spent much of the afternoon of our first inset day talking to parents. It eased them in and they know that I am a human being and not the ogre some students may make me out to be (they don’t really do this!).

I started this post thinking I’d write about our sequencing and why we start where we do with what I suppose are traditionally known as “intervention” groups … I had grand plans to write about why some of these students find themselves hating maths or underperforming based on their potential and it hasnt happened. 

Brilliant news … that means I’ll HAVE TO COME BACK LATER THIS WEEK … 

Have a great week 3!