Do you sometimes wonder why you send your child to school in the last few days of term? Those last days of term were often seen as wasted days. Do you know the days I mean, where teachers put on a christmas film? I really didn’t like wasting those days, but wanted to bring fun into my lessons. I would […]
Over the last few weeks we’ve been considering algebra. Today I want to give you my algebra top tips so that you can master those algebra basics. Understand the order of operations This is always the first thing that needs to be understood. Go back and read my blog post all about this, ‘How to Stop Getting Maths Wrong’. Once you’ve […]
Last week, we looked at the skills that you get from algebra. This week I want to look at the jobs that would use it. Now, we know that a lot of the jobs our young people will go into don’t even exist now, but the skills will be the same. It’s expected that we will change careers 5 times in […]
When I was teaching children, the phrase ‘my parents have never used Algebra since school’ came up more times than I care to remember, alongside ‘why should I learn algebra?’. At Parents Evening too parents would say ‘I’ve never used algebra since school’ or ‘I could never do algebra’ We know that mindset makes a massive difference to the way […]
It’s November, and for this month I’m going to be looking at algebra. So many people fear algebra but there are so many ways to help you conquer it. Today I want to focus on the order of operations, as if you don’t understand this you will not be able to do Algebra, or indeed any maths! When we teach […]
In the 2022 Summer maths exams, the formulae will be given to the students on a handout for use during the exam. For the most part, this is acknowledgment that this year group has had a lot of disruption. If you’ve had that news, it might seem a little strange to you that I’m writing a post all about how […]
In my 16 years in education I came across so many different parents. Some were really involved in their child’s education, where others left it up to the school. It became obvious to me that there were some parents who were successful at getting what they wanted for their child. It all came down to how they were communicating with […]
Is it STILL September? It must be, because we are knee deep in my deep dive on communicating with school! As Head of Maths for 11 years, I was on the receiving end of many angry parents, and mediated between teachers and young people. So today I thought I’d use some of what I learnt to help you navigate the […]
During September, I’ve been exploring communicating with the school in my Facebook community Education Support 4 Parents. My 16 years in schools (you can find out more about me here) showed me that the best results come from schools and parents working together in a co-productive way, to support their children from all angles. The most successful children were not necessarily the […]
We’ve just been through that time of year, when young people get their results and they feel the whole of their future is pinned on that one day. Just like last year, there has been a lot more uncertainty than normal this year. Today we meet Joanna Rawbone, her story has echoes of Sophie Breslin who we met in January, having […]