5 Maths Gems #102

Welcome to my 102^nd gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.

1. Grade Boundaries and Exam Dates
You might have already seen Jonathan Hall's (@StudyMaths) GCSE grade boundaries page. I find this page surprisingly useful! He has now updated it with the November 2018 grade boundaries.

Also, don't forget about the Exam Countdown page which is really useful for quickly checking exam dates.

2. Algebra Resources
Thanks to Sarah Carter (@mathequalslove) for sharing a set of free algebra resources from Region 18 ESC (@Region18ESC). Examples include:

• probability scavenger hunt
• proportional relationships true/false card sort
• graphical inequalities card sort
• solving linear equations sum it up
• domain and range dominoes
• solving equations stacking pyramid

3. Core Maths Links
Catherine van Saarloos (@CoreMathsCat) has created a regularly updated list of links for Core Maths teachers. I know that many Core Maths teachers struggle with the lack of teaching resources and the time it takes to prepare lessons, so hopefully this will be helpful.

4. Joint Maths/Science CPD
For years I have been meaning to create a CPD session relating to the crossover topics in maths and science. Thankfully Teresa Robinson (@teresaarob1) - Lead Mathematics Adviser for the Russell Education Trust - has shared an awesome CPD session that is designed to be run with both maths and science teachers. Thank you to Teresa for her generosity in sharing this fantastic piece of work, and to Mel (@Just_Maths) for blogging about it. Mel's post explains how to run this CPD.

5. Times Tables Booklet
I am very fortunate to be part of a Maths Hub that is currently hosting a visit from Shanghai exchange teachers - it's a great CPD opportunity for me. Last week I met Eva who is a primary teacher from Shanghai. She ran a great session for my team on how she teaches division. I asked her about teaching times tables and she said that in Shanghai children tend to memorise their times tables at home before she teaches them. This means that her job is just to teach them to understand what times tables mean. In this country we have to help with the memorisation too, so our primary teachers have far a bigger job to do.

Eva shared an adorable little times tables booklet that is designed to help with understanding. I took it home and gave it to my Year 2 daughter who absolutely loved it. I don't think it will help her memorise her four times tables but it did help her make sense of the ideas of grouping and repeated addition. You can see instructions for something really similar here - thanks to @WycombeBus for finding this link.

Update
In case you missed it, I recently blogged about 'Five for Five', a teaching idea that works really well with students who lack confidence in maths. I was also interviewed for the Cambridge Maths blog: Seven Questions with Jo Morgan.

I added a new page to my blog: 'Online Historical Maths Textbooks' which lists links to free online maths textbooks from the 16th century to the 20th century. It might be helpful for researchers, or for people like me who just have an interest in the history of maths education. In addition, I added a number of new events to my conferences page where you can see upcoming maths education events in the UK. Both pages can be accessed at any time from the 'Extras' menu on the right hand side of my blog (if you're viewing on a mobile, you have to scroll down and select 'View web version' to see this menu).

Did you hear the calculator news? The Casio fx-83GT and fx-85GT (currently used by the vast majority of secondary maths pupils) have been discontinued. They'll only be in shops while stocks last. So if one of your current Year 11s loses their calculator before this year's GCSE exams you can't guarantee they'll get an identical replacement. The calculators you'll probably be telling all your incoming Year 7s to buy in September are the Casio fx-83GTX and fx-85GTX, which look like the A level Classwiz but have less functionality. These aren't yet available on the high street but will be soon. As always, Adam Creen's blog is the place to go for calculator availability and pricing.

Last week  I did a couple of Twitter polls on hours of maths lesson. In case you were wondering how your school compares to others, here are the results:

I am delighted to share the news that from July 2019 I will be Assistant Principal at Harris Academy Sutton. I am so excited about working at such an incredible school. This science specialist school is part of the London Cancer Hub (sharing a site with the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital) and is moving to an amazing new building in September. The school will only have Year 7 and 8 next year, which presents a wonderful opportunity for a teacher looking to develop their pedagogy without all the exam pressure that comes with Year 11. We will do proper maths teaching, in depth, and our small team will be totally teaching and learning focused. I can't wait. We are currently recruiting for both maths teachers and a Director of Maths. Please come and join my team! Email me (resourceaholic@gmail.com) or DM me on Twitter to discuss.

I did three presentations last week - I spoke to Harris NQTs about methods, I presented on Large Data Set at the London A level Pedagogy Maths Hub work group, and I did my Indices in Depth session at the London MA/ATM Branch alongside my Twitter buddy Ed Southall. I'll be presenting at a number of conferences over the next few months - if you're at one, please do come and say hello.

Have you booked your ticket to #mathsconf18 yet? It's in Bristol on 9th March and it's guaranteed to be a great day. I'm presenting on unit conversions, which sounds really dull but I promise it will be worth coming along. Trust me!

I'll leave you with this great tweet from @kyledevans. Have a lovely week!

Pythagorean humour. Not to scale. pic.twitter.com/2tnMqb3FZr

— Kyle D Evans (@kyledevans) 9 January 2019

Success Stories: Core Maths

There is a case for making maths compulsory until age 18. I find it hard to get on board with this. One of my brightest Year 11 students is currently choosing his A level subjects - he wants to be a barrister so English and History are top of his list. He enjoys maths and he's very good at it, but I certainly don't want to force him to continue to study maths.

However, I am very much in agreement with the principle that everyone should have the opportunity to study mathematics until age 18. Currently almost three quarters of students with a good pass in GCSE mathematics do not continue to study maths after their GCSE exams. This may be because there is no suitable pathway available to them. England is unusual in this respect - we have very low rates of post-16 participation.

In most schools in England, the choice our students face at age 16 is A level maths or no maths at all. Although the Core Maths qualification has now been put in place to cater for those students who pass their GCSE but are unable to take A level, uptake is relatively low. As of June 2017, there were around seven hundred post-16 providers offering Core Maths, which is approaching 30% of the sector. So why isn't every school offering it? Clearly there are funding concerns and staffing pressures at play here. In addition, some schools simply aren't on board with the idea of universal mathematics education post-16.

My school has a relatively healthy uptake of maths at A level. Last year we had 99 students doing AS maths in Year 12, of which 17 got a B at GCSE. Of those students with a B at GCSE, all but one ended up with a D, E or U at AS level (the majority got a U). It was heartbreaking seeing them open their results in August. If only I had been more honest and realistic upfront. The fact is, a student with a B at GCSE is very unlikely to have the underlying knowledge required to succeed at A level. Given lots of time this could be fixed, but we don't have lots of time. Jemma Sherwood explains this very well in her latest post. In light of this, I recently decided that we should raise our entry requirement for A level maths to a Grade 7. I really agonised over this decision, but I feel it is the right thing to do for the students. Part of my justification was that anyone with a Grade 4, 5 or 6 in their maths GCSE would be able to study Core Maths, so at least we wouldn't be excluding them from mathematics. After all, mathematics education should be available to all. This opportunity is particularly important for students who want to study subjects like economics and science, where strong mathematical skills are vital.

Although my request to raise our A level entry requirement to a Grade 7 was accepted, unfortunately my school's leadership team rejected my request to continue to offer Core Maths. They don't see the value in it. I think this is probably a commonly held view. We've run Core Maths for a couple of years with very low uptake (only a couple of students per class) so it's hard to see it as a success. But having gathered inspiration and ideas from Twitter, we were planning to promote it better this year. I do hope that we will get this opportunity in the future.

To support all those teachers who are hoping to implement Core Maths but are facing resistance from leadership, here are three case studies where schools have made Core Maths work well.

1. Maria (@MrsMLL) works at one of the colleges in the North West that piloted the Core Maths Qualification in 2014. Initially the course was highly recommended to students not studying A level maths but studying any A level in science, business, economics, psychology, sport science, computer science and accounting. In 2014 they had 44 students in their Core Maths groups. From 2017, Core Maths is now compulsory for A level science students not studying A level maths. They currently have 55 Core Maths students in Year 12, divided into three groups. Students are told that the main purpose of Core Maths is to support their science studies, and it is increasingly valued by students.

2. Miriam's (@mathsonthebrain) school decided to offer Core Maths because the Sixth Form Leadership Team were looking to provide more alternative pathways for less academic students. When A levels aren't suitable then courses like Core Maths and BTEC Science are recommended. Core Maths is a popular choice, and that popularity partly stems from the fact that maths is well liked in the school. There are lots of students whose favourite subject is maths but they aren't strong enough to do A level, so Core Maths is perfect for them. Miriam's school runs it as a one year course which means they get additional uptake in Year 13 from students who have had to swap courses at the end of Year 12.

3. Chris (@cjshore) works at a large 14-19 comprehensive. With the backing of the college leadership team, in September 2015 they started teaching Core Maths as a qualification to fill the gap between the students who took A level maths and those who retook their GCSE. In the first year 35 students started the course. It was highly recommended to students on mathematically rich courses such as the sciences, geography, economics and psychology. Whilst most students enjoyed the course and reported it helped them with their other studies, there was a high drop out rate during Year 13. Of the 35 students who started the course, only 21 took the final exams. The students who dropped it were those who were struggling with their other A levels or felt that studying Core Maths was not needed for their University offer. Numbers taking up the course at the start of Year 12 remain strong though, with 57 students choosing to take it this year.

I am very grateful to these teachers for their contributions. I have shortened these case studies to keep this blog post to a reasonable length, but I'm sure that each of these teachers would be happy for you to get in touch if you have questions regarding implementation and delivery. There are more case studies here, and of course the Smith Review is full of evidence and recommendations.

To make Core Maths work well, it's vital that school leadership is on board with the idea that all students should have the opportunity to continue to study maths post-16. In addition, it seems that Core Maths has to be actively promoted (or indeed, made compulsory) to students choosing certain courses.

Although we have seen some positive moves from universities in terms of endorsing Core Maths, the Department for Education has a lot of work to do here. To get buy in from schools, and from students themselves, we need the Government to do more, both in terms of funding provision and in terms of promoting the Core Maths qualification at a national level. In the meantime, it's great to hear some success stories. Please add a comment below if you've managed to make Core Maths work well.