Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

We were discussing this at work yesterday and my colleague and I were both saying how we enjoyed Maths and were good at it. (I did my son's GCSE Maths paper in 15 minutes last year - it only took him 20 minutes mind) She has two daughters, the older a Maths/Science whiz who scraped a C in English, the younger aiming for an English A* but struggling with Maths.

Katharine wrote:
I find it very difficult to believe that either illiteracy or innumeracy could be genetic. I think the fault lies with poor teaching at primary level. When I was teaching we used to reckon that the children coming to us in first year secondary displayed mathematical abilities with at least a seven year range. We would do our best to rectify the effects of teaching by people who did not always understand the concepts themselves (at this time primary school teachers did not need an O level in Maths to enter training). Given five years I reckoned I could get almost anyone to GCSE standard, but sadly I did not always get the chance. I really enjoyed the chance to show the realities of Mathematics, not the boring side remembered by so many.

From all I read now, there are too few Maths teachers with a qualification in the subject. The qualification is only the start, to be a good teacher you have to love the subject - and I do. You may ask why I am no longer teaching, the answer is that my Welsh is not good enough. I fear it would take me far too long to learn the language to a standard sufficiently well to be able to teach in it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/educ ... 431840.stm shows how standards have decreased over the years. Deputy director of Reform and a co-author of the report Elizabeth Truss said: "In today's Britain it is acceptable to say that you can't do maths, whereas people would be ashamed to admit they couldn't read". That quote is something I have been saying for years. I even had a father at a parents evening say to me that he didn't think any woman could understand Maths.

How ridiculous that an excellently qualified dedicated teacher, in a subject clearly lacking such teachers, is lost to the profession in the name of political correctness.

I'm all in favour of the Welsh or anybody else knowing their heritage and historic language but to stop a Maths teacher practising because of an inability in Welsh....madness!!

One would be before the race relations board for suggesting the English of an Asian or African doctor, for example, was inadequate to allow them to practice.

How come the Sheepshaggers get away with it?!

(I am part Welsh myself!)

Alan P5age wrote:I am afraid that mathematics will always be a foreign language to me. In the same way that musical notation will be a foreign language to many people no matter how well its taught.

The hardest students to teach are those who come with such an entrenched attitude, Alan. The real skill of the teacher is arousing interest in the subject and then building on that. I would NOT claim to be able to teach anyone to A level standards, or even to a Grade A at GCSE but I would hope to be able to take anyone of average intelligence to GCSE Grade C, given that there is at least an inkling of desire to pass it. I have failed with students who were ingrained by their parents to believe it was impossible for them - I don't know at what stage you decided that you could not do it, Alan but I am sorry that you did.

When I was teaching in Brunei I was bemused by some of my students. At first all called me "Mrs Dobson", to my face anyway! Then after a few weeks some started calling me "Cher". I enquired about this in the staff room, only to receive the reply "Already? That was quick" and other such remarks. Eventually it came out that Cher was an abbreviation of Teacher and that it was an honorific and it showed that these, mainly Chinese, students had decided I was worthy of this accolade. After that, I never insisted on being Mrs Dobson, I felt I had been honoured.

Just to say...I had my last exam today, and no lessons for 2 1/2 weeks! Permission to feel smug?

I remember after exams getting my Scalextric from home and putting it out in one of the common rooms in Maine A and having many competitions...

I read about 300 Barbara Cartland books, haven't touched them since.

Great Plum wrote:We normally then would do our final 2 hour session between 8 and 10 - 3 hours after the beer!

yes 3 hours after the beer started??

I'm surprised Plummo could manage a 2 hour session after all that beer.

Obviously, no problems with brewers-dro............... !

(Taxi ???)

Katharine wrote: I find it very difficult to believe that either illiteracy or innumeracy could be genetic. I think the fault lies with poor teaching at primary level.

IMHO there c a n be a genetic link; it's called dyslexia. Yes, a dedicated primary school teacher could teach a mild dydlexic but a) the teacher would not have the time and b) the amount of work required of the pupil could be called mistreatment / slavery / ...... For the past two years or more my grand-daughter (who does not appear to have such a problem) has a very intensive supervised five minute exercise in maths six evenings a week - all kids should do it.

Katharine wrote: Deputy director of Reform and a co-author of the report Elizabeth Truss said: "In today's Britain it is acceptable to say that you can't do maths, whereas people would be ashamed to admit they couldn't read". That quote is something I have been saying for years. I even had a father at a parents evening say to me that he didn't think any woman could understand Maths.

Of course that father is wrong but dyslexia commonly shows in females having problems with numbers more frequently than males having those problems. OTOH the males have problems with letters / words more frequently than females.

I have problems with maths- i got a c at gcse through pure determined hard work. I struggle with distances and sizes but i get round it and i dont think it has anything to do with my schooling-i just dont have a head for numbers....words, reading and writing no problem (except when typing on here)

blondie95 wrote:I have problems with maths- i got a c at gcse through pure determined hard work. I struggle with distances and sizes but i get round it and i dont think it has anything to do with my schooling-i just dont have a head for numbers....words, reading and writing no problem (except when typing on here)

I worked b*****y and determinally hard and got a fail at GCE O level Elementary Mathematics. I eventually ended up with Elementary, Advanced and General Mathematics, all three at O level (no grades in those days) which did boost my number of O levels to a respectable (but unlucky) number!

I never got to understand calculus but at one time I could "prove" Pythagoras for all that was worth.

sejintenej wrote:

blondie95 wrote:I have problems with maths- i got a c at gcse through pure determined hard work. I struggle with distances and sizes but i get round it and i dont think it has anything to do with my schooling-i just dont have a head for numbers....words, reading and writing no problem (except when typing on here)

I worked b*****y and determinally hard and got a fail at GCE O level Elementary Mathematics. I eventually ended up with Elementary, Advanced and General Mathematics, all three at O level (no grades in those days) which did boost my number of O levels to a respectable (but unlucky) number!

I never got to understand calculus but at one time I could "prove" Pythagoras for all that was worth.

give me a simultanious equation or pythagoras any day over logn division!

I can "do" maths as I remember being taught it - though I didn't see the point of algebra until I started using computers many years later - but ask me to interpret a balance sheet and I struggle to make sense of it all. Despite having covered it on my DMS (and IIRC having gained a distinction in my Finance exam). I get very easily confused when working with numbers, whether financial or otherwise, and I don't understand why. I think maybe I think it's more complicated than it really is (I always put off dealing with any numerical or financial information - have been intending to see a IFA about my pension for ages, but can't summon up the motivation) or maybe I make it more complicated than it needs to be.

I can do the basic mathematical calculations, if someone tells me which ones to do, but typically I get lost trying to keep track of whether I have already accounted for this or that eventuality when working things out. I don't mean I forget - record keeping would solve that - I mean, I get confused about whether what I have done has accounted for that particular element. It's hard to explain. I got very confused a few years ago trying to work out whether my company car tax was reflected in my tax code by just being deducted from my personal allowance, or whether it was deducted as tax every month. I'm still not convinced I didn't pay it twice over. That's the sort of thing I mean. Maybe it's more logic than maths, but I'm very logical normally, so I'm not sure that's the case. Does anyone else suffer from the same thing?

Jo wrote:I can "do" maths as I remember being taught it ........ I get very easily confused when working with numbers, whether financial or otherwise, and I don't understand why.

I can do the basic mathematical calculations, if someone tells me which ones to do, but typically I get lost trying to keep track of whether I have already accounted for this or that eventuality when working things out. Maybe it's more logic than maths, but I'm very logical normally, so I'm not sure that's the case. Does anyone else suffer from the same thing?

About 6% of the population according to a report on TV this morning (I think it was Sky News)

Ok, exams are now over. *rejoices* And induction week is less than two weeks away. *flails wildly with excitement*

However, I do have a couple of questions which I would be grateful if someone could answer...

1) Which lessons will I attend - my chosen subjects, or what the current Year 11s (GE, right?) are attending?
2) Have the current Grecians left? How do they fit so many people in the school?
3) What do I need to bring???