My faculty 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. This can be 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 time. I am assured we’ll do properly on each counts. Subsequent month we’ll even be operating our first ever Sixth Type Open Night and organising our A stage constructions 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 executed earlier than, in truth only some lecturers within the faculty have expertise of educating A stage, so it is a actually thrilling problem.
I am very fortunate that I’ve a incredible maths division (twelve glorious maths lecturers and nonetheless rising). I am hoping to promote for a Key Stage 5 Coordinator to affix my crew subsequent September (in the event you’re , get in contact!).
I’ve spent the final three years placing my coronary heart and soul into constructing this faculty as a member of the senior management crew, and I’ve made the choice that it is the finest place for my very own daughter to attend from subsequent September. I care deeply about guaranteeing that the college is extremely profitable, and an excellent maths division is a crucial part of that success.
There are plenty 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 ‘tips on how to be a Head of Maths’. So I will not do this. However I’ll share a couple of issues I’ve executed throughout my first seven weeks within the position, as a result of for a very long time now I have been an enormous advocate of lecturers sharing follow with different faculties. I wrote an analogous submit ‘Some Issues I’ve Tried‘ precisely seven years in the past immediately. Whenever you learn the concepts under, it could be that you simply already do all of this at your faculty, or maybe you do not need to do any of this. However even when only one faculty borrows one thought from this submit then I believe it is value me taking the time to share it.
1. Papers Society
So each Thursday after faculty, 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 executed no less than thirty further GCSE follow papers by the point they sit their ultimate exams.
Transferring Papers Society to the canteen had a couple of surprising advantages. As a result of there’s a great deal of area, college students who need to chat and assist one another are welcome to, whereas college students who need 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 need to take part: they’re eager to take a seat down with their mates and do some maths whereas they eat biscuits! Seeing 12 months 11s working onerous, and comfortable to spend their spare time doing maths, may be very constructive for the tradition of the college.
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2. Help
Most colleges run some form of drop-in maths help. At my faculty we solely launched a maths clinic for the primary time final 12 months and it was a gradual begin – some weeks we solely had one or two college students attend. This 12 months we re-launched it with plenty of publicity, and it appears to be going properly up to now. It takes place in my classroom each Tuesday lunchtime – that is the day I am not on lunch responsibility, which implies I can run clinic for the entire of lunch. I’ve drawn up a rota so the opposite maths lecturers take turns supporting me. Most college students who attend carry their train ebook and ask for additional clarification and follow 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 follow in clinic.
We have had a very good variety of 12 months 10 and 11 college students attending clinic up to now, however 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 would possibly put youthful college students off. Additionally, plenty 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 one of the best mathematicians within the faculty is pushing aside a few of our Basis tier 12 months 11 college students. So to extend attendance throughout all 12 months teams, I believe 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 need to make certain everybody feels snug 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 workers all these lunchtime clinics. I do plenty of lunchtime duties so I haven’t got capability to run extra clinics myself, and my busy crew want the chance to relaxation and eat between their Interval 4 lesson and tutor time.
So in abstract – clinic goes properly, I simply want I had the capability to increase our provision.
3. Communication
One of many first issues I did in September was write to all dad and mom to introduce myself and supply details about maths at my faculty. That is partly a workload-saving transfer for me (so I do not spend all 12 months answering the identical queries from dad and mom). I additionally did it as a result of I believe transparency and clear communication are important for good relationships with dad and mom. It helps me get dad and mom on board so we are able to work collectively to help their kid’s maths training. Everyone knows that parental engagement is extremely essential in maths, and even when simply 1% of fogeys learn my letter, it was value sending. It was good that some dad and mom acquired 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 need 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 lecturers 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 needed all 12 months 11 lecturers to difficulty a pack of follow papers for college kids to finish over October half-term. So to cut back workload for my 12 months 11 lecturers and to make sure consistency of expertise for college kids, I printed all of the packs for my crew and supplied a slide to indicate at school.
4. Enrichment
We began doing UKMT challenges a few years in the past so that is now changing 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 believe represents a very good quantity of curiosity in doing ‘further’ maths. Nevertheless, maths enrichment should not be solely ‘opt-in’, as then you do not attain the scholars who love maths however do not realise they love maths! So we’ll run a Maths Week in Might throughout which each baby will profit from extra-curricular maths enrichment in some kind.
One factor I hope to do that 12 months is take a gaggle of 12 months 10s to see the GCSE Maths in Motion lectures. I’ve solely been as soon as earlier than, a few years in the past, however discovered them massively inspiring, each for the scholars attending and in addition the lecturers. I am eagerly awaiting the journey’s approval so I could make a reserving. We’ll most likely provide 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 glorious crew of maths lecturers and I believe we’ve got actually sturdy techniques in place within the division, significantly the best way we assess (I’ve spoken about evaluation many instances earlier than so I have not included it on this submit!). I’ve numerous concepts for the division going ahead and am excited in regards to the journey forward. It’s possible you’ll already do every little thing I’ve written about on this submit, but when not then I hope you discovered one thing useful right here. I’d weblog once more subsequent time period about another issues we’re attempting. Within the meantime, I might find it irresistible if different maths lecturers would share a number of the stuff that their division does. I am all the time eager to be taught from others.
