What are we testing?

Ramblings of a mad woman probably but I’m trying to get my head around ways to work with our current and future cohorts to overcome issues whereby some students do this: Read the question Decide they aren’t going to be able to FINISH the question Don’t even start having a go … arggggghhhhhhh!!! I’m going to … Read more

A little every day .. February 2017

Short and sweet … Calender for Feb can be found here -> Monthly Maths – February 2017 NOTE: I’ll update this post with the solutions for January up tomorrow as I’m a world away from home at the minute – somewhere up north!!  Update: Jan Solutions can be found here -> Monthly Maths – January … Read more

A little every day – JANUARY 2017

I did mean to get these posted last week but sometimes forget how manic the end of term is … just starting to chill out – it’s only taken 4 days! The file for the January maths calendar and also solutions for the December one can be found below: January 2017 -> Monthly Maths – … Read more

They know that I know!

We’ve just finished our first assessment cycle (well .. one more paper to go with year 9’s tomorrow!) and we’ve done the whole RAG’ing of questions and reviewed the papers so when someone asked me last week if we re-test students it really made me think. The answer is no we don’t but I definitely … Read more

Being systematic

I love teaching my year 9 group. I’ve taught them for 2 years now and in the main, they are really up for having a go at most things I give them and they usually try their best. There are times when they’re a little loud but they are such a fun group to teach. … Read more

Fluency

I’ve been thinking a lot about the need for “fluency” (whatever that means!) and how not having a firm grasp of the basic number facts and relationships sometimes holds students back from accessing higher order topics. I think that there is a definite difference between “sums” and “maths”. Now, don’t be getting all academic on … Read more

Blown Away – Our WINNERS!

Last night I drew names out of my hat for the giveaway competition the JustMaths “boys” announced a week or so ago. OK so it wasn’t a real hat but I did print off my spreadsheet and cut every entry up into slips – as Sunday progressed and responses kept coming in I found it … Read more

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