So Ofqual are launching an anonymous online survey next week, (TES article here) with the aim of teachers disclosing any tactics that schools have used to give students an “unfair advantage” in boosting their exam results. Basically the idea is that they want to hear about any practices, which according to the article are used to “maximise” results, and I quote “such … Read more
In a previous post here about “frequency trees” I said that I was more than happy to stand corrected by AQA, so I am on my feet and have been very much corrected … Who’da thunk it!! Today it was pointed out to me that “frequency trees” are explicitly mentioned as a requirement in the DFE programme of … Read more
BLOG 2 OF SEVERAL I’ve been looking over the draft specification and sample assessment material from Edexcel (sorry guys, your turn!) and immediately came across this (paper 3 question 19): My initial reaction was that it is probably covered in the programme of study under the section that reads “interpret and construct tables, charts and diagrams” … Read more
BLOG 1 of SEVERAL … So the draft specifications have been published for the new GCSE, which meant that whilst the footie was on last night I was working through the sample assessment materials (I know! I am soooo rock n’ roll!!). It did however turn out to be an interesting and hysterical evening, with … Read more
Back in March I set out a timeline for how I thought the changes to the new Maths GCSE (here’s the link) would happen…OK I was a couple of days out as some of the exam boards published them before the end of May (damn you!!) to coincide, I assume to the submission to Ofqual for accreditation. … Read more
At the back end of 2013 the government published their proposed programmes of study for both KS3 and KS4 Maths, and then subsequently opened a consultation to these proposals which closed on 3rd February 2014. I have previously posted a summary of the content changes in terms (here’s the link) in terms of what is moving from … Read more
In my adult working life of a little over 22 years (I had part-time bar/waitressing jobs whilst at school/university but am not including those!) I have had 5 jobs and so have been through leaving jobs four times. The first time was quite surreal as I’d already started out in the corporate world whilst we still … Read more
Once again some of our resources have been featured in the Guardian “how to teach” series, this time about mental maths (link here: How to teach: Mental Maths) I do however have quite strong thoughts (me? strong opinions? who’d guess that?) on the subject. Mental maths is a major component in a students’ toolkit of mathematical knowledge but … Read more
Last week my two year 11 classes that I teach as part of my day job started their exams, and so our lessons are very much hit and miss in terms of whether there will be 32 of them or 2 (there was only 2, for one of my lessons today). The entire year group are now following a revision … Read more
Let’s just say its been an “interesting” week and leave it at that – you can surmise all you want as to what that actually means, and depending on your general outlook and pre-disposition you will be thinking either (a) “oooh interesting is good and sounds exciting!” or (b) “interesting sounds like a cynical way of … Read more
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