Year 8 maths; is this normal?. What to ask teacher?

[Surferfish]

I see nothing new at all and only a push for textbooks which are totally a waste of money.?

I agree, nothing new here. I'm no fan of text books but having primary school teachers scour the web for questions seems a waste of time to me.

Are we talking about "Shanghai Maths" text books in particular or school text books in general?

If the former, I have no knowledge and can't comment. If the latter though, I strongly disagree.

Since DS started secondary I've been quite shocked and frustrated that he hasn't been provided with text books for any of his subjects. Instead all he seems to have are his half legible notes and dog-eared photocopies that he's always losing (he's not the most organized child ).

Perhaps I'm old fashioned, but when it comes to homework and revision I think that you can't beat a good text book as a resource. We've resorted to buying some of the CGP revision guides and they proved to be invaluable. The number of times he's said he's stuck or doesn't understand something and I've said "Have you checked the text book?!". Invariably the answer is explained clearly there in black and white (and colour) and found within seconds for anyone who knows how to use an index.

[Amber]

Agreed - and sticking at it for longer always pays off with maths in some way. This is what the OP 's child needs.

DD's Maths teacher called it 'toffee chewing'. She always said that too, Mystery. By her own admission not a 'natural' mathematician but ended up with top grade at A level though dogged hard work. I would not like to live through that again, however.

[Guest55]

Surterfish - I'm talking about Primary maths where there were extensive resources provided and detailed schemes of work for non-specialists so a textbook was not needed.

Some secondaries don't have texts but often have online texts on their moodle or whatever they call their students website.

[Surferfish]

Surterfish - I'm talking about Primary maths where there were extensive resources provided and detailed schemes of work for non-specialists so a textbook was not needed.

Some secondaries don't have texts but often have online texts on their moodle or whatever they call their students website.

Fair enough if its just Primary maths, I agree that text books aren't necessary.

I'm talking about secondary school in all subjects though, up to GCSE level. Yes there is a school portal with information and links on it, which is a useful resource but shouldn't be exclusively used in place of books.

Is it just purely a financial issue with schools these days or do teachers really not value text books anymore? Even for English Lit the school does not provide pupils with books of the texts which they are studying. Parents are expected to buy children their own copies privately.

[Guest55]

Most still have texts around here - but online texts are just the same without the wear and tear on the books and the children having to carry them around and remember them!

With English many schools ask students to buy them so they can annotate them - in the past they needed a 'clean' unmarked set for the exam. I'm not up to speed with the new English GCSE requirements.

[mystery]

Text books aat our school --- hit and miss. No communication with parents about whether they have them or not. In some subjects only part of the year group have them. In some subjects classroom set only. In some subjects they put them online but tell some classes and not others.

I don't know why it is like this. It's a school which has a lot of donations from parents and mmost parents would be happy to buy textbooks on top of that too. I think they deal with it by selling CGP revision guides for GCSE

[tiffinboys]

With regard to PISA tests, were Labour ministers under Tony Blair / Gordon Brown indifferent to UK position in these tests?

[loobylou]

Okay soooo.... Slightly scared that I'm being stalked on here by school but...
Today ds had a different teacher come to teach his maths class. It was the end of topic summarising lesson and he came home excited that he understood it, with two pages of his exercise book (a lot for him ) filled with options of different methods of how to work out the problems and has just happily shown me how they work.
And now he says he thinks it is a problem with him not understanding his normal teacher. Tricky when we're only halfway through the year.
But he's feeling much more positive which is a good thing. I hadn't appreciated that his lack of understanding had been bothering him .
Now wondering whether to address the comprehension issues at parents' evening (I have an absolute horror of coming across as a fussy parent!)

[Guest55]

With regard to PISA tests, were Labour ministers under Tony Blair / Gordon Brown indifferent to UK position in these tests?

I think they viewed them with a healthy scepticism. In some aspects, we do well but that never hits the press. Remember the schools are picked randomly here but not always like this abroad.

[Amber]

With regard to PISA tests, were Labour ministers under Tony Blair / Gordon Brown indifferent to UK position in these tests?

I think they viewed them with a healthy scepticism. In some aspects, we do well but that never hits the press. Remember the schools are picked randomly here but not always like this abroad.

Hmm, and hmm.

England's first two attempts at taking part in PISA were invalidated after attempts to, er, tweak the results. Sample sizes were too small as less able children suddenly vanished from the results, and less high performing schools found themselves deselected. This did not prevent (Labour) ministers declaring them a huge success. And nor did it prevent Tory ones then announcing that the first ones which were allowed (2006), which showed an apparent decline (bearing in mind that the first two sets were invalid), showed a heinous failure on the part of Labour.

It is all one big political game, in this country especially, with blame being batted back and forth between the two main parties. The Tories have shown an unusual taste for trying to bring in new initiatives on the back of it all though - selectively - not much appetite for decent school dinners, removing inspections or starting school at 7 (Finland); but dead keen on long school days, rote learning and formal maths teaching (East Asia). The irony of it all (or one of several ironies) is that places like Hong Kong are actually looking to us for ideas on introducing more creativity to the curriculum, while we are looking to remove it and drill children in a restrictive core curriculum delivered by de-professionalised teachers and ruled over by a punitive inspection regime.

Beware the politician citing evidence from abroad, I say. And remember Michael Gove sending shudders through the heart of anyone who witnessed it, and many who didn't, when he said 'we need a cultural revolution like the one they had in China'. Education is a political football, and PISA makes the game so much easier.

Loobylou, I hope your son has a different teacher next year. Sometimes it just needs a different face, a different voice, and all will be well.