DD finding maths not challenging enough

[tiffinboys]

Wasn’t Labour in power for 3 consecutive terms before Coalition came in power?

Why didn’t they ban the employment of unqualified teachers in all schools? More likely, they agree with this policy.

[Amber]

Wasn’t Labour in power for 3 consecutive terms before Coalition came in power?

Why didn’t they ban the employment of unqualified teachers in all schools? More likely, they agree with this policy.

I was actually at the Houses of Parliament in 2014 when Labour proposed a motion to require teachers in state schools to be working towards QTS. It was voted down by Conservatives. The academisation programme was begun by Labour to target weak schools and require them to improve. It was then morphed (in rather the same way as my mother said happened to margarine after WW2) into something which was considered desirable for all schools, even though if you look at the small print, it clearly isn't. Not long after that, the 'freedom to hire the brightest and best' (Conservative speak for the cheapest) was translated into the removal of the requirement to be qualified.

[tiffinboys]

My point exactly.

Labour make all the ‘good’ proposals when not in power. When in power, it was Labour who started Academisation in Schools and privatisation in NHS, besides University fees.

Politics is again very interesting since JC took over. May have won over many voters lost in the Blair/Brown era. I hope that all State Schools return to LEAs and Academies disbanded (and new grammar schools in every LEA).

[Decisiontime639]

Hi all.
A friend of mine recommended a maths app called doodlemaths. It seems quite expensive. Has anyone used it before and what do they think of it? Does it provide content for secondary school level?
If it’s good I will get it for dd for a month and see how it is.
Thanks!

Merry Christmas for tomorrow!

[Guest55]

No need to buy anything - there's a lot of [good] free stuff online.

[Daogroupie]

Has this been sorted yet?

Reading back over the thread it is quite extraordinary that a top selective private school should have such an issue in such a fundamental subject such as Maths. DG

[ToadMum]

Has this been sorted yet?

Reading back over the thread it is quite extraordinary that a top selective private school should have such an issue in such a fundamental subject such as Maths. DG

Possibly part of the problem was the amount of 'stretching' that had gone on in year7? I can't help thinking that the maths department as a whole should have some kind of 'KS3' policy, though?

[mystery]

Agree, would be interesting to know what happened. I went to an indie for a while and the fact that parents paid made a difference -- remember a huge queue outside the head's door of all the pupils who had a particular science teacher ---who left soon after. But round us, I understand that if anyone moans about something, no matter how justified they are, at a private school it's the parent / child that ends up moving on not the staff concerned.

[Decisiontime639]

Hi all,

Writing about what happened..There was a parents meeting in Feb in which I talked to the teacher. She said the work starts off easy ‘to get into the swing’ for the fundamentals and increasingly gets harder. So dd showed me her books that she brought home for the holidays. Most recently they had been doing very basic algebra eg.
3x
— = 27
2


so x = 18

It is progress from what they were doing at the beginning of the year, but still not at the correct level I think. I think the main problem I had with this was that DD was bored, she didn’t want to be doing polygons and primary school maths, she liked maths and doing challenging work, which she was used to from year 7.
Or is this the national curriculum for year 8?
I was talking to a friend of mine ( her daughter is in the same year same school as dd). Her year 7 teacher was dd’s teacher now, and apparently they used building blocks to demonstrate ‘partitioning’ which was very basic. And ridiculously easy.
Oh well, DD is just doing most work at home by looking at Ukmt resources and Nrich which she enjoys. She likes choosing her own work. Do write if you know of any other good maths websites.

Decisiontime639

[ToadMum]

Hi all,

Writing about what happened..There was a parents meeting in Feb in which I talked to the teacher. She said the work starts off easy ‘to get into the swing’ for the fundamentals and increasingly gets harder. So dd showed me her books that she brought home for the holidays. Most recently they had been doing very basic algebra eg.
3x
— = 27
2


so x = 18

It is progress from what they were doing at the beginning of the year, but still not at the correct level I think. I think the main problem I had with this was that DD was bored, she didn’t want to be doing polygons and primary school maths, she liked maths and doing challenging work, which she was used to from year 7.
Or is this the national curriculum for year 8?
I was talking to a friend of mine ( her daughter is in the same year same school as dd). Her year 7 teacher was dd’s teacher now, and apparently they used building blocks to demonstrate ‘partitioning’ which was very basic. And ridiculously easy.
Oh well, DD is just doing most work at home by looking at Ukmt resources and Nrich which she enjoys. She likes choosing her own work. Do write if you know of any other good maths websites.

Decisiontime639

Part of the whole point of being an 'indie' is that one doesn't have to take any notice of such things as 'national' anything, including the NC.

Have a look here, though:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... s-of-study