Nitty Gritty

Just a quickie … I’ve been putting together another “nitty gritty” worksheet this morning and have decided to put them all in one post rather than hidden in other posts where I’m waffling (don’t laugh at that point as if you know what I mean!). The idea behind these are that they focus on the basic numeracy … Read more

Why teach them anything?

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

Frequency Trees

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

New Maths #1

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

Jeez Louise!

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

Maths that’s Mental

I’ve been asked for some ideas about mental maths and this got me really thinking about the range of abilities I’ve encountered and also how a students’ confidence is affected when they aren’t as quick doing “sums” than others in the group.  You will be pleased to hear I’ve come to a conclusion (I don’t have … Read more

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