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My college opened 4 years in the past and has added a brand new 12 months group yearly, so we now have our first 12 months 11 cohort. It is a actually essential 12 months for us – we’re more likely to have our first Ofsted inspection, and we’re additionally going to have our first ever GCSE outcomes subsequent summer season. I am assured we’ll do nicely on each counts. Subsequent month we’ll even be operating our first ever Sixth Type Open Night and establishing our A stage buildings and curricula, prepared for the opening of our new Sixth Type subsequent September. Beginning A stage provision from scratch is one thing none of us have carried out earlier than, the truth is just a few academics within the college have expertise of educating A stage, so this can be a actually thrilling problem.
I am very fortunate that I’ve a incredible maths division (twelve wonderful maths academics and nonetheless rising). I am hoping to promote for a Key Stage 5 Coordinator to hitch my workforce subsequent September (when you’re , get in contact!).
I’ve spent the final three years placing my coronary heart and soul into constructing this college as a member of the senior management workforce, and I’ve made the choice that it is the greatest place for my very own daughter to attend from subsequent September. I care deeply about making certain that the varsity is very profitable, and a superb maths division is a crucial element of that success.
There are a number of Heads of Maths who’ve been doing the job for many years and are a lot better positioned than me to provide recommendation on ‘learn how to be a Head of Maths’. So I will not do this. However I’ll share a number of issues I’ve carried out throughout my first seven weeks within the function, as a result of for a very long time now I have been an enormous advocate of academics sharing apply with different faculties. I wrote an analogous put up ‘Some Things I’ve Tried‘ precisely seven years in the past in the present day. Whenever you learn the concepts under, it could be that you simply already do all of this at your college, or maybe you do not wish to do any of this. However even when only one college borrows one thought from this put up then I feel it is price me taking the time to share it.
1. Papers Society
So each Thursday after college, nearly half of 12 months 11 come to the canteen to eat and chat and do maths papers collectively. Wonderful. In the event that they proceed to come back each week till June, they are going to have carried out a minimum of thirty further GCSE apply papers by the point they sit their remaining exams.
Shifting Papers Society to the canteen had a number of sudden advantages. As a result of there’s a great deal of area, college students who wish to chat and assist one another are welcome to, whereas college students who wish to work independently can sit at a desk on the quieter finish of the canteen. The opposite profit is visibility: college students in different 12 months teams can see what we’re doing as a result of we’re not hidden away on the maths hall. 12 months 7s to 12 months 10s inform us they wish to take part: they’re eager to sit down down with their mates and do some maths whereas they eat biscuits! Seeing 12 months 11s working laborious, and completely happy to spend their spare time doing maths, could be very optimistic for the tradition of the varsity.
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| Article from our faculty e-newsletter |
2. Help
Most faculties run some type of drop-in maths help. At my college we solely launched a maths clinic for the primary time final 12 months and it was a sluggish begin – some weeks we solely had one or two college students attend. This 12 months we re-launched it with a number of publicity, and it appears to be going nicely thus far. It takes place in my classroom each Tuesday lunchtime – that is the day I am not on lunch responsibility, which suggests I will run clinic for the entire of lunch. I’ve drawn up a rota so the opposite maths academics take turns supporting me. Most college students who attend deliver their train e-book and ask for additional rationalization and apply on one thing they struggled with at school. My classroom has a big inventory of textbooks – we do not use them in classes however they’re very useful for offering further apply in clinic.
We have had a great variety of 12 months 10 and 11 college students attending clinic thus far, nevertheless it’s open to all 12 months teams and we have barely had any attendance from Key Stage 3 college students. I’ve a sense that the presence of the older college students may put youthful college students off. Additionally, a lot of college students from my 12 months 11 Certificates in Additional Maths class have been attending to practise their Additional Maths – that is nice, however I do know the presence of the very best mathematicians within the college is laying aside a few of our Basis tier 12 months 11 college students. So to extend attendance throughout all 12 months teams, I feel we’d like three separate lunchtime clinics: one for Larger GCSE, one for Basis GCSE, and one for Key Stage 3. And subsequent 12 months, I’ll want one for A stage too. I simply wish to ensure everybody feels comfy coming alongside to ask for assist, and that anybody who attends a clinic will get loads of one-to-one help whereas they’re there. However I simply cannot employees all these lunchtime clinics. I do a number of lunchtime duties so I haven’t got capability to run extra clinics myself, and my busy workforce want the chance to relaxation and eat between their Interval 4 lesson and tutor time.
So in abstract – clinic goes nicely, I simply want I had the capability to develop our provision.
3. Communication
One of many first issues I did in September was write to all mother and father to introduce myself and supply details about maths at my college. That is partly a workload-saving transfer for me (so I do not spend all 12 months answering the identical queries from mother and father). I additionally did it as a result of I feel transparency and clear communication are important for good relationships with mother and father. It helps me get mother and father on board so we are able to work collectively to help their kid’s maths schooling. Everyone knows that parental engagement is extremely essential in maths, and even when simply 1% of fogeys learn my letter, it was price sending. It was good that some mother and father received in contact afterwards to say they discovered it useful. If you wish to see what I wrote, here is my Key Stage 3 letter and here is my Key Stage 4 letter.
The ultimate level I wish to make on communication regards the consistency of the messages our college students obtain in classes. If there’s one thing I would like all academics to inform their college students, I create a slide containing that info, to make sure that each scholar is instructed the identical factor. For instance: I wished all 12 months 11 academics to concern a pack of apply papers for college kids to finish over October half-term. So to cut back workload for my 12 months 11 academics and to make sure consistency of expertise for college kids, I printed all of the packs for my workforce and offered a slide to indicate at school.
4. Enrichment
We began doing UKMT challenges a few years in the past so that is now turning into well-established. I’ve all the time been adamant that ‘being in high set’ should not win you sure privileges, as maths enrichment must be accessible to all. Many faculties simply enter their high units into UKMT challenges, however we provide everybody the chance – it’s very voluntary. This 12 months we have had 88 college students signal as much as do the IMC and 130 signal as much as do the JMC. In order that’s round 20% of our college students, which I feel represents a great quantity of curiosity in doing ‘further’ maths. Nevertheless, maths enrichment should not be completely ‘opt-in’, as then you do not attain the scholars who love maths however do not realise they love maths! So we are going to run a Maths Week in Could throughout which each and every youngster will profit from extra-curricular maths enrichment in some type.
One factor I hope to do that 12 months is take a bunch of 12 months 10s to see the GCSE Maths in Action lectures. I’ve solely been as soon as earlier than, a few years in the past, however discovered them vastly inspiring, each for the scholars attending and likewise the academics. I am eagerly awaiting the journey’s approval so I could make a reserving. We’ll most likely supply the journey to the 12 months 10 college students who signed as much as do the Intermediate Maths Problem.
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I am very pleased with my wonderful workforce of maths academics and I feel we now have actually sturdy methods in place within the division, significantly the way in which we assess (I’ve spoken about evaluation many occasions earlier than so I have never included it on this put up!). I’ve numerous concepts for the division going ahead and am excited concerning the journey forward. You could already do every part I’ve written about on this put up, but when not then I hope you discovered one thing useful right here. I would weblog once more subsequent time period about another issues we’re attempting. Within the meantime, I’d like it if different maths academics would share a number of the stuff that their division does. I am all the time eager to study from others.
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