Cambs Maths HODs meeting
Monday 7 December 2015, 2pm
Meeting Notes
Meeting held at Netherhall School, chaired by Janay Fehr, notes by Mark Dawes.
Present: Janay Fehr (Netherhall), Clare Hargraves (Chesterton), Ben Tanner (Sawston), John Holder
(Melbourn), Deana Reckless (Cottenham), Susanne Mallett (Cambourne), Julian Merson (Longsands),
Cameron Fehr (Swavesey), Chris Woods (Netherhall), Lily Tang (CRC), Rachel Miller (Parkside), Cathy
Langham (St Bede’s), Sarah Goodey (Ely), Cordelia Myers (Cambridge Maths Hub), Will Scheilling
(Linton), Ruth Colenso (Bottisham), Mark Dawes (Comberton), Martin Lewis (Soham), Jamie
Shackleton (CAP), Jamie Freeman (Comberton), Chris Reilly (Ernulf), Charles Hallam (Hinchingbrooke)
1.
The New GCSE (9-1)
a) Will grade 4/5 pupils be better off doing Foundation or Higher?












[Deana]
Sixth form colleges currently require a GCSE Maths B grade for access to certain A-level
subjects. Will they want grade 5 (C + 2/3) or grade 6 (B + 1/3) ? Jamie Shackleton will
enquire about this.
Some colleges require a C grade at Higher tier at the moment. Will the same be true of
offers that involve grades 4/5? Jamie Shackleton will enquire about this.
Lots of classrooms have “D to C” sheets on the wall. What about “Grade 4 to 5”?
Questions won’t be ‘at a grade’ in future.
Grades 4 and 7 will be pegged and those in between calculated by interpolating. This means
we can compare our current pupils with previous year groups and get a rough idea of the
grades they will attain.
Resits of GCSE at sixth form: CRC use the Foundation tier.
Philosophically, from a mastery point of view, pupils who are aiming for grade 4/5 should do
Foundation.
Some pupils are motivated by not having very easy questions on the paper.
Remember: 50% of the exam will be non-standard questions – need understanding for
those.
The new F tier feels like the old Intermediate tier.
Multiple topics in one question will make it difficult to ‘game’ the system.
At higher tier: half of the marks will be at grades 4-6 and the other half at grades 7-9.
Jamie F said that for the first two years of the new GCSE students with a grade 4 at GCSE will not
need to resit at sixth form. Information (and source) is attached.
b) How do we attach grades to our internal tests for Year 9/10?
[Deana]
This is a particular concern when we are asked for predicted grades (for reports, etc).




Deana showed a conversion table document that she had edited. (Attached as a separate
document).
Can use the old lettered grades that we are used to and then convert. This will give a good
guide.
Some schools use SATs tests at end of Yr 9 and convert from that.
We need to explain the new grades to pupils and to parents (especially if they think they are
related to the old numbered levels).
We talked about target grades. Ben was surprised at the large number of grade 9s that these
included. FFT Aspire can be set to “top 5%”. This is more stringent than the old FFT-D and is very
aspirational. It might be worth talking to senior managers about using a more realistic target. If
Aspirational Targets = Fictional Targets then this helps no-one.
Jamie S pointed out that 6th forms find the GCSE predictions important but that schools know their
pupils best and that it may be appropriate for 11-16 schools to talk to sixth form colleges about
particular pupils after the grades are published, particularly regarding pupils whose grades are
weaker than expected.
If we can agree on a mock exam that many schools might use with next year’s Yr 11 cohort then the
marks could be collated and grade boundaries (which exam boards usually prefer not to set for mock
exams) could be calculated. Jamie Freeman was proposed for this job. (There is no record as to
whether he accepted.)
c) Materials for new topics at GCSE
[Mark]
New topics at GCSE are sometimes covered at a very basic level in new materials (such as textbooks
and online) and sometimes in a ridiculously difficult way.
At the next meeting we will share materials for teaching these new topics.
At the request of the meeting, Mark will set up a Dropbox folder that some of these materials can
be uploaded to immediately (with gaps being filled at the next meeting).
d) Ideas for problem solving/new GCSE that can be built into the SOW. [Ben]
Ben is particularly interested in how to embed problem solving into his Scheme of Work and to
ensure that every member of the dept is doing it. Suggestions included:







Collaboration in departmental planning: jointly created tasks
Big sheets for joint problem-solving
Could use the Growth Mindset boxes approach
Martin described how at KS3 his dept have a lead-lesson and a closing lesson for every topic.
These are high-quality and were created across the dept. The closing lesson includes
problem-solving
Chris likes to focus on 8 different problem solving skills (eg draw a diagram). Pupils generally
find the maths straightforward so the focus is on solving the problems.
John likes the CUP problem solving book and uses questions as starter.
Easy access problem solving questions in form time. Eg “how many triangles are there in
this diagram”.
e) Textbooks and other resources
[Cameron]
Cameron was interested in what textbooks people like and whether they plan to buy any.





2.
CUP are offering free access to their online resources if you buy 10 textbooks (for teachers).
No-one has bought books yet. Partly because there is no money available and partly
because the first edition was written before the specifications were approved!
It would be good to have homework books. (Perhaps by CGP?)
AQA has good homework sheets on allaboutmaths.aqa.org.uk (you need to tell them you
intend to do AQA exams before you can gain access).
Janay pointed out that old textbooks are often good (Vickers has iteration), Cordelia said
that TaskMaths is also useful.
Sharing Year 11 interventions [Sarah]
Sarah asked about what other people do for Yr 11 intervention support. She started with the
following list:



Pixel
One day conferences (track the students before/after)
Interventions with PP/LOP/U or G grade
Others short comments were:



Rural schools often can’t do after-school sessions because pupils need to catch the school
bus home.
Early-morning intervention in the summer term, with pupils coming out of form time. Each
teacher works with a group of 4 and does a pre-/post-test.
Yr 10s come out of form time (they are more likely to attend form time than Yr 11s).
Charles explained how Hinchingbrooke uses the 30-minutes form time, once each week with Yr 11:
Pupils who are currently on a D grade, along with mentored pupils and PP pupils are paired up with a
member of the top maths set and work on maths in the library (where they are also registered,
giving 30 mins of work time). A teacher prepares materials and two teachers supervise the library
while this happens. More able PP pupils work with 6th formers. This is all very effective.
3.
Key messages from Shanghai
[Cameron]
Cam and Charmayne went to Shanghai and more recently hosted Chinese teachers at Swavesey.
The notes that follow are just about the things that Cam has taken from the experience:




Be pedantic about the maths notation and vocab. Some colleagues need support with this.
When a class is solving a problem, help them to decide on the most efficient strategy and
then get everyone to do it this way.
Focus on instructional issues in planning – not just on finding good resources.
Focus on one narrow teaching point for 40 min lesson. Eg: rather than including multiplying,
dividing powers and raising a power to a power, just focus on multiplying indices.





Go through all questions and don’t move on until everyone has got it.
Set homework every day and mark it during the day.
Move between the following (esp with numberwork): Concrete  Pictorial  Abstract
Procedural Variation: keep what doesn’t matter the same (eg 6x9, -6x9, 6x-9, -6x-9)
Conceptual Variation: look at the same concept in different ways.
Read Shanghai research. Below are links to resources, including copies of the Chinese-language
textbooks (Google translate will help with this!).



4.
Resources: http://bit.ly/MasteryResources
Secondary textbooks (suitable for KS4):
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bz4EHX05penOc0xsUkotSDlFclk&usp=sharing
Primary textbooks (suitable for KS3):
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gmgqo1exrlxagdg/AACjiniu-aGPcxJRRVPzchrVa?dl=0
What do you do in department time? [Cordelia]
Cordelia said that the Cambridge Maths Hub can fund departments that want to take part in Lesson
Study work. This is potentially very exciting and valuable. Sue Southward (who has just returned
from a Lesson Study trip to Japan) can support a department in setting this up. The focus of the
planning/observation is on the problem solving the children do in the classroom rather than on the
teaching.
The Hub will pay for a full round of lesson study and Sue will be there at the start and end of the
process too. The process is:





Choose a problem solving task (eg one of the Bowland tasks)
3 or 4 teachers from the school meet with Sue to set things up. Lesson planning takes place.
The teachers all observe each other teaching the lesson. Reasonable cover costs are paid for
by the Hub
There is then a paid-for afternoon of meeting time to discuss what happened.
Later, if you wished, you could be paid to support/mentor other schools with this.
If interested please contact Cordelia: cordelia@cambridgemathshub.org
Cordelia asked for ways people use departmental meeting time.







Will: T&L focussed. Admin happens via email. Recently looked at 9-1 GCSE topics, for
example how to teach quadratic equations to foundation (Grade 4) classes.
Charles: moderating mock exams
Cam: moderating mocks – went through markscheme together, marked a different teacher’s
papers, sampled marking.
Julian/Ruth: we never moderate mock marking
Cam: timetabled lesson per week of departmental time. This year two groups: one working
on Yr 7 mastery lessons and the other on new GCSE topics for the whole dept to use. Noone else has time available like this.
Clare: all depts have a weekly meeting – and there are no pastoral meetings
Julian: 10 minute briefing (full of admin) each week, and then 2 meetings per half term.




5.
Chris: Joint meeting with Science Dept to look at overlap topics (such as scattergraphs). The
way formulas are used is different in science. Lessons were planned jointly with Science
teachers in small groups. TAs also involved in the planning process.
Janay: uses a timer to control how long is spent on individual items and to stop anyone
talking for too long.
Sarah: rotates the chair of the meeting amongst members of the dept.
Martin: Part of the meeting time is for whole dept, part in groups. Time is given for work on
(and feedback from) performance management tasks.
Next meeting: Monday 14 March – Impington Village College, hosted by Ceri
The local AQA teacher supporter had offered to come to our meetings. Mark will invite him to
attend on 14 March. We will send him questions in advance – Mark will ask for these in January.
6.
AOB
Ofsted
Deana offered to share the questions she was asked during Cottenham’s recent inspection. These
are attached.
Core Maths
Lily will be in touch about making a Core Maths visit.
Maths Hub – CPD
Cordelia has funding for professional development. Do contact her about Lesson Study (see above)
but also regarding any other training needs.
Susanne mentioned that she and Jamie were running the course “Changes to the Curriculum” and
there are still places available for 12 Jan. Contact Cordelia about this.
cordelia@cambridgemathshub.org
Thanks
Janay was thanked for hosting the meeting (and for the mince pies!).