Real-life course

I have to admit that the new real-life course that our beloved government is investing huge sums of tax payers money looks like a really good idea, but that is as far as it goes. Let's face it who are in need of this course? Is it really the few who manage to get the holy grail of grades and gets their "C" who don't go on to A'level maths or is it those students that can't get that grade "C" in the first place.

I'd really love to spend the hours of lesson planning and delivering for those students that need access to maths that they will come across in life. Surely these are the students that would benefit the most from a course based on real-life maths with a heavy emphasis on personal finance and the ability to get through life and past the people that try to rob them of their money at every hurdle. The number of supermarkets that put up these special offers that are special for them and not the customer is appalling and these things are part of the course that students really need rather than looking at area of trapeziums and compound shapes.

Surely with the freedom independent schools and academies have to either follow the curriculum or not it wouldn't take too much money for an exam board to offer a course that was worth an equivalent to a grade "c" at GCSE rather than perpetuating an ideology that everyone can attain it.

I hope that all the kids I teach get either the grade "C" or aim for the "A*" grade that they can attain but really a lot of the kids I teach would get more out of a money and finance course than not knowing the difference between averages and the reason for having them.

Anxiety within Maths

I agree that there are lots of contributing factors to Maths anxiety. Certainly the continuing testing builds anxiety but the number of adults/ parents that believe that saying “I’m not very good at maths” and not feel ashamed or embarrassed has given our youth a massive get out clause so that they don’t have to worry about really trying.
This is compounded by the way the subject is taught and then continually tested leaves students incredibly anxious about what is a fantastic subject.

Although I am a new teacher, in the UK, I see students that have given up on Maths a long time ago and have no desire to succeed meaning that they enter college with a need to sit a remedial class or an adult numeracy class eventually.

Is there a single answer? I think that the straight answer to this has to be no. Dylan William says that the only reason that we give students a mark is because we have a spreadsheet or mark book that needs filling in. I have been turning my classroom into a practical based environment. Similar to Art and Design and Technology where instead of standing at the front of the class and using the interactive whiteboard all the time I can demonstrate around a grouped table the skills and problems faced by either using paper, multilink cubes, paper plates or even a bar of chocolate.

I have broken away from the traditional and spend many hours preparing these practical demonstrations and tasks so that the students can learn and develop skills from. Maths is a subject that doesn’t need these continued tests to see a pupils ability. Designing a poster or creating a lesson plan based on things that they have learnt is far more valuable then telling a student they failed because they didn’t achieve a certain percentage! Pupils also feel less pressured about these forms of assessment as they don’t see it as one.