Websites all students and maths teachers should be aware of...

The internet is a massive resource with a good amount of rubbish on it.  However, now and then you come across some truly excellent maths websites.  I intend to review them and keep them on a separate page so come back regularly to see the updates Here!!!

Feel free to suggest pages that need to go on the list - especially if they are currently under used or unheard of.

First up is the excellent Corbett Maths.  If you haven't heard of them yet then you are missing out.  It seems that this website is currently relatively unknown given that it has 167 twitter followers and 74 shares on Facebook.  It is time to change that.

What a fab website this is!

This website contains a fantastic amount of brilliant, and free, resources, for students, teachers and parents.

On the one hand you have videos aimed at those working for the top grades in GCSE, or just starting A Level (see below)

On the other, you have video solutions to the fantastic 5 a day worksheet that allows students to revise bite size chunks of the GCSE curriculum as they go along.

As well as videos, there are worksheets, revision tips and a blog to keep you up to date with current events.

If you haven't shown this website to your students yet then it is a job for the first week back.

Edexcel GCSE Foundation Grade Boundaries (Updated 2014)

Here are the historic grade boundaries for the past few years for the GCSE Maths Edexcel Foundation course.

The y-axis is out of 200 which is the maximum score you can have over the two papers.

.
Grade C

A tiny drop on last year but still significantly above the average.  I think it is becoming more and more accepted that students who are capable of a C should be entered for the Higher paper.  Trying to achieve 70%+ on the Foundation paper gives you very little wriggle room in you make an error or two or come across a topic you haven't studied.

Grade D

 Just like the grade boundaries on the Higher tier, this grade boundary is still creeping upwards and is way above its average.  I don't know about you but I haven't noticed that the papers have been getting easier...

Grade E

And the pattern continues...another step upwards...

Grade F

Another jump...but wait until you see Grade G....

Grade G

Staggering...a jump of over 10%.  How does this grade boundary jump by so much?

I have to admit that I am starting to lose faith in Edexcel and their ability to maintain standards.

What do you think?

Things I wish I had known as an NQT - marking!

Marking

Whether you are a primary or secondary school teacher, marking is going to become a key part of your job.  It will take up a lot of your time and it is important that this time is used for the maximum benefit of the students.

Most schools now have a marking policy which you must follow.  Consistency in feedback for students across subjects is hugely under rated in my opinion.  However, many marking policies are on purposefully vague to allow teachers to use their professional judgement.  Indeed in some schools you will still not find a marking policy.

So, what should you mark?

Firstly, you will never be able to mark every piece of work a student completes.  You might be able to keep it up for a few weeks but you will be working to midnight every night and will eventually go off sick for a few weeks with exhaustion.  You are no use to your students when you are off sick so I hope we all agree you can’t mark everything.

Secondly, the marking needs to be purposeful.  The days of “tick and flick” are long behind us, thankfully so!  Students need to understand the marking which must inform them how they can move forward with this piece of work.

Finally, it must be done by the teacher.  I am all for peer marking and self-marking but there comes a time when a teacher needs to give formal feedback.  When you have work to mark I advise you to hide away at school and get it done.  I speak from experience that if I take home 45 mins of marking I am able to make it last 2 or 3 hours.  Additionally, I can easily socialise away an hour at school with other teachers when I could have got my marking done.  When you have marking to do, hide yourself away and get your head down and get it done!

Here is what I do.

My school has a vague marking policy.  So, at the start of September I explain to my students how and when their work will be marked.  I do this and encourage them to hold me to account to this as I hold them to account with their homework etc.

Our students have maths for 4 hours a week and I typically teach 4 groups, although I used the same idea when I was an NQT teaching 22 hours a week.

I mark on a 2 week cycle.  For us this is 8 lessons. 

I explain to the students that in lessons 1, 2 and 3 they will learn about a new objective or two.  For simplicity sake let’s say this is working out how to do long division and long multiplication.  The three lessons will have a range of tasks, peer marking, self assessment etc.  At the end of lesson 3 they will get a homework that is due in on lesson 5.  (The hope being the can ask for a bit of help in lesson 4 if they got stuck).

I always offer additional homework online (e.g. www.mymaths.co.uk) but always provide a worksheet for homework.  This worksheet is also emailed to the student's school email account so they can print a spare out if they have lost the original.

In lesson 5 I collect the homework in and give each question a simple tick or cross.  I normally give a score e.g. 8 / 10.  

In lesson 6 the students are challenged to figure out where they went wrong whilst working with a partner.  If they scored 10 / 10 I have extension work available.  In some of these lessons I have to re-teach some aspects of the objective again.  Often, in lesson 6, I spend a lot of time extending the topic.

In lesson 7 they have a formal 30 minute assessment that I have written.  It is a bit of work in the first year but once you have the tests they will always be useful!  Ideally, the whole department would join in and help you write them.  We have 60 min lessons and I would spend the first 30 mins revising.  This gives the students some experience at how to revise which becomes so important for their A Levels.

After lesson 7 this piece of work is formally marked.  I have found that the more able students prefer to do this assessment in a separate book and the lower ability students prefer doing it on the sheet.

My formal marking gives them a score or percentage.  I am not comfortable giving them a GCSE grade or KS3 Band at this point but will let them know what grade the objective examines.

When the student gets their assessment back I have done the following.

1.       They get a mark / percentage.

      2.    They get an effort number for the past 7 lessons (1 is rubbish, 5 is excellent.  You can't get a 5 without          good, on time, homework).

      3.    I pick out something they have done well either on the test or in the previous 2 weeks.  (E.g. you have          asked some very probing questions recently)

      4.      I highlight what they need to do next to get better at this topic (E.g. your long multiplication is great but         you need to now practise multiplying with decimals).

Lesson 8 is my key lesson as each student will have a different target (number 4 above).  However, I have found that because I fortnightly assess, the class will only have 2 or 3 different targets between them.  Lesson 8 is spent giving the students the opportunity to reflect on their test and give them the opportunity to go back over some learning and demonstrate they can do the objectives they got wrong.

Lesson 8 can be quite difficult to plan but www.mymaths.co.uk can be very useful here as you can set different students different work which allows you to give attention to smaller groups as and when they need it.  

For the last 20 minutes of the lesson students are to re-do the test questions they got wrong (in silence).  I project the answers at the end for them to self-mark or copy down.  By the end of lesson 8 every student has a copy of the correct answers for the test.  

Those who still find it a complete mystery are encouraged to come and see me after school to sort out the issues.   I will also phone a couple of parents whose youngsters have impressed me during the past 2 weeks at this time.

Obviously, I stagger it at the start of term so that my classes don’t all get to lesson 7 on the same day as this would be a lot of marking and planning in one evening!

My marking system isn’t perfect but I think it works quite well for the students and I feel it is a good use of my marking time. 

Let me know what you intend to do and whether it works!

Updated Edexcel Maths Higher Grade Boundaries (June 2014)

So, the waiting is finally over and we now have the June 2014 results.

In a previous blog I looked at the historic grade boundaries for Edexcel's Maths GCSE.  Today, I have updated them.  Each y-axis has a range of 20 marks (10% of the total grade).  The y-axis goes 10 marks below the 4 year mean and 10 marks above the 4 year mean.

Take a look...

Grade A*

One of the few boundaries at Higher to remain consistent which is nice to see.

Grade A

Certainly an upward trend here......

Grade B

More upward mobility here....


Grade C

Again, another jump....

Grade D

Not much change but still slightly upwards...

Grade E

A slight step upwards....

So, what does this tell us?

Well, Grades A, B, C and D had a boundary above their 4 year average and the A* was higher than last year as was Grade E.

My own personal opinion is that the paper was a little harder than previous years so it seems to be getting harder to get one of the top grades.

Although, this is the first year where the results don't contain a large number of Year 10 students.  Logically, the Year 10 students would have scored lower marks than their Year 11 counterparts thus pulling the grade boundaries down if a similar percentage of students are to get a C+ each year.

(E.g. if 100 students took the exam and 30 of them are Year 10 students you would expect them to score lower marks than similar students to them in Year 11.  If 60% of students are to get a C+ then having Yr 10 students in the mix helps you get in the top 60%.  When the 30 Year 10 students are no longer entered you need to get in the top 60% of 70 Year 11 students rather than the top 60% of 100 Yr 10 and 11 students. )

I'd be fascinated to hear your views on this and see how your schools did.

I wonder what next year's boundaries will bring...

Things I wish I had known as an NQT - Seating plans!

This series of blogs is going to concern things I wish I had known when I started out as an NQT in an under-performing inner city school 15 odd years ago.

Let me be clear, there is no magic wand that will make the youngsters into model students (well, if there is I haven’t found it yet!) but there are lots of small things I could have done that would have had a cumulative effect on their learning and progress.

If you are lucky you will be working in a school which has a policy that the teacher sets a seating plan for every lesson.  The teacher is welcome to change the seating plan when they see fit but it will be easier for you if every classroom has this consistency.

If your school doesn’t insist upon this then hopefully your department will.  If your department doesn’t then I still encourage you to go for it on your own.  The students will reap the benefit.

Why have a seating plan.

A seating plan should not be used to just control behaviour.  If you try to use it to simply control behaviour you are missing out on some of the extra benefits this simple classroom strategy can bring.  Seating plans allow you to group students in a way designed to help them learn and make progress.

How do I set a seating plan up?

I have experimented over the years and have found the most effective seating plan is to sit students by current or recent attainment.  I know there are other theories behind seating plans but this is the one that works best for me. 

To one side of the room, always my right as I look at the room, I sit the most able students and the least able are on the left.  I initially thought students might complain about this but have never had any problems with students over this.

What are the benefits to doing this?

1   

     1. I instantly know where to aim my questioning.  Easier questions are aimed to my left so that I can build student’s self-esteem by giving them questions they find accessible and harder questions go to my right.  I rarely ask for hands up as I normally target all my questioning at a specific student.  This has the added bonus of keeping all the students focused as they are never sure when they will be asked to answer.

     2.  I try and differentiate my tasks in most lessons and it is far easier to do this if I can talk to a small group of students at the same time in one area of the classroom rather than having these students dotted around the room.

     3.   It makes group work so much easier because if I want similar ability levels to work on a problem, which I find works best, then everyone is already physically near each other.  If your group has a wide range of ability I have found that the most able tend to dominate and the least able get little out of the activity.  Also, I tend to find that the activity in a group with a wide range of ability fails to test the most able.

What about parents who complain?

Very occasionally parents do complain about seating plans having been encouraged to by their children.  In this case I give them a phone call to explain my thinking.  After the phone call I have had only a few parents, in 15 years, continue to complain that their child is sat away from their friends.  When I point out that the student is in my classroom to achieve the best they can academically and that there is plenty of time at lunch and after school for socialising they normally stop complaining.

What else?

Celebrate success.  Students are more accepting of your methods if you celebrate their progress.

The students in the type of school I work in (inner-city) respond so well to praise.  I suspect all students do but have most of my experience in this type of school.  When students are successful in my classroom I make sure the parent knows.  Minor successes get a phone call home (e.g. a good piece of work that is academically of a good standard for that student and not a piece of work that has just had lots of effort put into it.) , major successes get a letter home.  (e.g. a good performance in the end of term assessment.)

I am always surprised by the number of students who bring the letter in to show me as they and their parents are so proud of it.

Try a seating plan and let me know how it goes.

GCSE Foundation (Edexcel) Historic Grade Boundaries for Maths.

Recently, I posted a blog on how the Edexcel Grade Boundaries (Maths GCSE)  for the last 3 years have changed.   It can be found here....

GCSE Higher (Edexcel) Historic Grade boundaries.

This time I have taken a look at how the Foundation grade boundaries have changed in the past 3 years.  The y-axis (the vertical axis) is out of 200 which is the maximum mark attainable across the 2 papers.

Essentially, there is a very clear pattern.  Grade boundaries have been on an upward path for the past 3 years and last year's jump was phenomenal.  It is becoming very difficult for anyone to forecast what students will get this year.

Anyway, take a look and let me know what you think.

Grade C

As many of us will know, there was a massive jump in the C grade boundary last year....

Grade D.

Hmmmm...there seems to be a pattern developing here already.


Grade E.

So, the third grade in a row suffers a huge jump in grade boundary and is far above the 3 year average.

Grade F

The pattern continues...

Grade G

Any surprises!


So, the grade boundaries have been getting higher and jumped massively in 2013.  This does make it particularly difficult for anyone (students, teachers or parents) to know where they are going to be set this year.  Logically, they can't go too much higher as there is a ceiling!

I keep coming back to the conclusion that the government will not want GCSE attainment to drop in the run up to an election and Gove wouldn't have been moved if Cameron was delighted with what was going on.

Add in to this that I thought the 2014 papers were more challenging than in previous years and the grade boundaries have to come down.....don't they?

Can the grade boundaries go much higher this year?  We will find out in a couple of weeks time...

The charts will be updated as quickly as possible.

GCSE Maths - Edexcel Higher Grade Boundaries Review.

As always, at this time of year, teachers, 16 year old students and their parents wait to see what their GCSE results will be.

In the past experienced teachers would be able to make pretty good estimates of what grade each student would get.  However, as politicians have become more focused on driving up standards (not necessarily a bad thing) it has become more difficult to predict what grade a student will get.

Grade boundaries are on the move.

I have had a look at the last 3 years worth of grade boundaries for Edexcel GCSE Maths (Higher) and there seems to be an interesting picture. 

For each picture below the vertical axis (y-axis) is out of 200 which is the maximum possible mark a student can get across the 2 papers.

Let's see how the grade boundaries have changed over the last 3 years.  The red bar is the mean of the three year's scores.

Grade A*

So, students wishing to get an A* have seen the boundary creep up in past 2 years, with the boundary for 2013 a clear jump above the average needed.

Grade A

As with the grade boundary for A*, the Grade A boundary has also risen in each of the last 2 years with a clear gap between last year's boundary and the overall average.

Grade B

There seems to be a pattern developing here....

As with the boundaries for A* and A, the marks needed to get a B have also steadily increased....

Grade C

And again, the bar is being raised.  Only be a couple of marks this time but it is still creeping up...

Grade D

Interestingly, the picture changes once you hit the boundary for Grade D.  This has remained very constant over the past 3 years.

Grade E

And to finish off the boundary for a Grade E has been going down!

So what does this all mean?

In all honesty, I'm not sure.

There are a few theories that could be applied here.

1.  If exam papers were getting easier, and I don't think they are, then the grade boundaries should rise to ensure consistency in performance from year to year.  E.g. if you got a B in 2011 you had to score more marks to get a B in 2012 as the paper was easier.  That seems fair to me.

However, if the papers are getting easier, why are the grade boundaries for D and E going downwards?  This would mean that someone who got an E in 2011, would be getting a D in 2012.  That isn't fair!

2.  Maybe, the difficulty of exam papers is remaining at a similar level year on year.  If this is the case then standards are rising for the grades of A* - C e.g. it is harder to get these grades.  Again, this doesn't explain why the boundaries for grades D and E are going down.

3.  Maybe the answer to this is a politicians answer in that the papers are getting harder and easier at the same time.  Let me try and explain.  Maybe the questions aimed at examining grades A*-C have become more demanding.  This would raise standards.  At the same time, Edexcel do not want to have large numbers of students failing their course so have built in a safety net?  Maybe the politicians just want to raise the standards of students studying for a C or above and are not so concerned with weaker students.....

So, what does this tell us about this year's grade boundaries?

Nothing for certain.  I thought the papers were harder than in previous years which, if standards are to remain the same, should result in slightly lower grade boundaries.  The Higher boundaries are fairly consistent and do follow some type of pattern.  The Foundation boundaries, which will be my next post, are far more variable.

I hope this year's boundaries are set with a bit of thought.

How the reduction in entries, from schools not entering Yr 10 students for early entry, will effect the grade boundaries will be fascinating. 

Although, am I alone in thinking it shouldn't make any difference at all?

If I am a Year 11 student desperate for a grade B, and I think I might have just scraped it, how does whether the Year 10's in my school have been entered for the exam affect my maths ability and my attainment level?

Interesting days ahead.

I will be updating my bar charts after Result's Day!

Top 5 Maths Twitter Accounts we should all be following.

With the holidays in full flow I thought I would do a bit of research and list my top 5 maths twitter accounts that both students and staff should be following.

So, here we go….

Firstly, an honourable mention to NCETM.   It doesn’t make the top 5 as it is probably only suited to the CPD of teachers, rather than of interest to students, but nevertheless, it is one to be following.

We all know that continuing to improve our ability to teach is vital and following an account that has a heavy focus on Maths CPD is a no-brainer.  This account has a great community of skilled professionals working together for a common cause.  I particularly like the resources and support given for maths that is simply intriguing …rather than flogging topics that are going to be in the exams.  Keep it up!

So, my top 5....

5th  ASAPMaths

This is a teacher resource friendly yet fairly new twitter account.  Lots of regular and targeted resources seem to come out during the academic year to help students get a “C” or “A*” at GCSE and, brilliantly, the answers are provided!  Another area to keep an eye on is their “You Tube” channel which is starting to cover specific topics and past papers in a friendly way.

4th.  CorbettMaths

Another twitter account with excellent, and free, resources available.  This account is currently focused on giving students daily practise to ensure they keep their knowledge up to date.  For no other reason, this is a great account to follow.  The Corbettmaths website is linked to this twitter account with helpful and graded videos on a wide range of topics that students should find very helpful.

3rd.  Mr Barton Maths

A close call whether this should have been in 2^nd place or not but Mr Barton has just been edged out into 3^rd!  A truly outstanding twitter account and website is available.  His knowledge of Autograph is especially welcome and his role as a TES maths advisor means that there are lots of links to other helpful resources and people should you need them.  Most impressively, his twitter feed contains links to whole lesson plans and resources should you be needing a starting point for those topics that are tricky to teach.

2nd.  Just Maths  and  Revise Just Maths

Two accounts for the price of one!

This is an established and thriving community of people who regularly engage with the issues of the day.  In addition, Just Maths produces outstanding resources and is always ready to help with questions or queries any student or teacher may have.  They also have a great website linked in but some parts of the website do require a paid subscription to access.  The only reason this isn’t number 1 is because there is, currently, no KS5 stuff available…but I’m sure they are on it!

1st.   Hegarty Maths

A truly fantastic and supportive account that ticks all the boxes.  A brilliant "You Tube" channel is hailed as being absolutely vital by student after student after student.  His fascination with “growth mindsets” and “technology” means you are missing out if you are not following this one.  

Make sure you are following all of these to get September off to a flying start!

A Level and GCSE Maths exam results variability.

The BBC  is reporting of a warning to schools regarding this year’s forthcoming A Level and GCSE results.  However, on closer scrutiny, it is difficult to figure out what the warning actually is....

It seems that there are rumblings of great variations in results this year.  Greater variations of what though?  Greater variations between teacher prediction and actual attainment?  Greater variations between school’s expected and historical results and what they attain this year?  Or greater variation of student attainment across the subjects they have taken….or all three?

To muddy the waters more there is further contradiction.  Glenys Stacey (Chief regulator for Ofqual) says that standards would be “held steady”.  To me, this means that a student who got a “C” last year should get a “C” this year.  But, where is the variation in that?  Encouragingly, Stacey then goes onto say, “Overall, results are likely to look different because of the difference in entry patterns”.

The only difference in entry patterns is that many schools have cancelled their plans to enter Yr 10 students for the GCSE exam as it was claimed by some (principally Ofsted and Ofqual), though I never agreed with it, that entering students early for their maths exam did not result in greater attainment by the end of Yr 11.

So, following Ofqual and Ofsted’s logic, reducing the number of Yr 10 students sitting the exam should result in higher attainment for those in Year 11 this summer – especially as most Yr 11 students will not have been “damaged” by the historical early entry opportunities of the November, January and March sittings. 

But every teacher knows that would be a foolish and dangerous assumption.

Confused?  So am I.

And as the countdown to the results continues, us teachers wait for the traditional shrieks of joy and tears of despair, knowing that we too are receiving our judgement.

GCSE grade boundaries to be lowered?

So, further to my post a couple of days ago it seems that changes to the grade boundaries are afoot.

GCSE Grade boundaries to be lowered?

The Times is reporting the lowering of grade boundaries to avoid the "Gove effect".  Essentially, Gove appears to have insisted upon harder exams this year to reduce the number of students getting each grade to ensure the best students are highlighted.

Whilst an admirable philosophy - students should certainly have to earn the top grades - this was always going to put him at odds with secondary teachers and schools who are rigorously judged by the amount of progress students make.

It wouldn't do, especially with an election on the horizon, for schools to see their results drop and the inquiring face of Ofsted to appear to annoy everyone...Did Gove really want to be the first Secretary of State for Education to see results go down?

So, just maybe, Gove is going to have the absolute opposite effect of what he intended as grade boundaries are lowered to ensure standards don't drop....

The writers of "Yes Minister" would be proud...

How to get the most out of your child's start to Secondary school maths.

Now that we have hit August the shops have started their “Back to School” sales in their bid to grab the academic pound.  Whilst most teenagers will be returning to familiar terrain, around half a million youngsters and their families will be especially nervous this September as they move from their Primary school up to Secondary school. 

With all the concerns of moving to a Secondary school, how do you make sure you get the best maths education for your child?

    1.   Be in it for the long haul.

A good secondary school will develop your child socially and emotionally in partnership with you.  But, academic qualifications are the main remit for schools.  The aim of the maths department is to ensure your child leaves with the best GCSE grade (or level) that they are capable of.

Don’t worry if things fail to get off to an explosive start.  Schools often have very little meaningful data on students in September when they join.  (Indeed, more and more schools are testing their year 7 students on entry to get around this problem).  Don’t assume we have their SATS scores – we normally don’t!

In addition, Year 7 students won’t be the maths department focus for the first week or so.  Appealing GCSE grades, getting the right youngsters on the right courses in the 6^th form and ensuring the new Yr 11 have started their final year well will be. 

Things should be flowing well by the 4^th or 5^th week and if they aren’t use the next point (which you will have done in the first week of September) to find out more.

    2.   Get in touch with your child’s maths teacher.

The beauty of email allows parents and teachers the opportunity to communicate effectively at a time convenient to both.  Send your child’s maths teacher an email to introduce yourself and to let the teacher know that you are there to help support your child’s learning.  Ask what day homework is set and when it is due.  Additionally, ask if there are any resources online that the school subscribes to as most schools now subscribe to something (Mymaths, Mathletics, Conquermaths etc) that students can access from home. Teachers really value knowing there is someone at home supporting them and the school.

    3. Take the opportunities – send them on a residential.

A benefit of a bigger secondary school is that they have the finances and staff numbers to offer more things to the students.  Encourage your child to get involved in new things and broaden their experiences.  More and more schools now run year 7 overnight events to help students bond and get to know each other and the staff.  Make it a priority for your child to go on these as it will help expand their friendship group outside of their current primary school friends.

Teachers will always tell you that the academically most successful students are  the busiest having taken advantage of the extra-curricular opportunities on offer.  Encourage them to get involved in the school play, join an academic after school club, join a sports team or start to learn a new musical instrument etc.

    4.    Big fish, small pond.  Small fish, big pond.

Many students start year 7 in a cohort of 200+ having come from a primary school where there were 30 or 60 in Year 6.  They may well have been the best in the year group at maths at their old school and are less likely to hold that title now.  We all like doing what we are successful at so be on the look-out for declining attitudes towards maths as your child realises they aren’t at the top anymore.  Some students react positively to this change and work even harder (this is the response we want), some accept it and continue to do a good job and a few blame their teacher (this isn’t the response we want!) citing personality clashes…. 

    5. Understand the school’s attitude to your child will be different.

In Year 6 the academic attainment of your child was hugely important for the primary school’s league table results.  To that end, it was likely they would have had the best teacher available and as much support and intervention as the school could afford.  The same happens in secondary schools – but in year 11.

See this change as an opportunity to encourage your child to develop an understanding of maths, which takes time, rather than an immediate focus on “knowing how to do it” and moving on as there is an important SATS exam around the corner.

All in all, the overwhelming majority of students flourish at secondary school.  Make sure your child knows you value education (social, emotional and academic), keep in regular touch with the school and give the school the opportunity to iron out any things that do go wrong and you should have a stress free year 7!