Year 7 maths homework

[Putthebiglightonffs]

It’s so hard!!

I’m a teacher (but primary, not secondary) I’ve been asked to help my friends Dd with her maths homework as she really struggles, but honestly I’m struggling with it too.
I feel embarrassed as I’m a teacher, shouldn’t I know how to help her?
Does anyone else struggle helping their secondary school child with their homework, especially maths?

Haha I google it every time and I got A in maths gcse and was welcome to take a level. The only maths I really remember properly is stats, have to look up rules for fractions etc. Unless you teach year 5 or 6 in which case I don't think there is much new stuff yet usually in year 7!

I struggle with the methods, and have been struggling for years!

You know better than anyone that teaching is not about giving them the answer, is the process to get there. If it's not one of your subjects, or the methods have changed since you graduated, of course it's a struggle.

There are loads of resources on the internet for helping with secondary maths, including videos.
Good ones are here: https://www.mathsgenie.co.uk/gcse.html (it says GCSE but it goes down to the very basics)

and https://corbettmaths.com/contents/

If the homework is on something online like mathswatch, they have their own videos to help. Ideally your child should be supported into looking up help independently.

Even for experienced maths experts, the answer is to just email the maths teacher. Trust me!

Don't feel bad, during lockdown my very bright DC struggled with some maths work, he was in primary school. We phoned the teacher who couldn't complete it, he agreed to phone back in 5 mins, 35 mins later he proceeded to give the answer but he had to what's app all the teachers in the school as none of them could work it out
🤣🤣🤣

This thread is really depressing.

@EatYourVegetables Why?

If you teach Y6 maths as a primary teacher, I think you should do a bit of CPD and teach yourself Y7, as that’s good stretch work for your more able Y6s.

But don’t all primary teachers have to have passed GCSE maths? In which case, even if you teach KS1 now, you should be able to teach yourself Y7 again.

But… that’s just what you should be able to do. You don’t have to - it’s not your child. You don’t have to help them. One of mine had a Y6 teacher as a tutor, and when mine moved up to Y7 the tutor said she’d recommend someone else as she just didn’t regularly do that stuff. I didn’t think any less of her. She was clearly able to refresh her knowledge - just chose not to. I expect that’s the same for you.

Year 11 DS is struggling with quadratic simultaneous equations - no idea how to do those, I did GCSE maths many, many years ago!

I did maths at Uni. I absolutely LOVE simultaneous equations. However, teaching methods change. I find it really hard supporting my kids in maths as I don’t understand the new methods. However, I ask my kid the name of the method e.g column division or “bubble” method for simultaneous equations and google it or I ask the kid to show me one easy one so I can understand the method.

And if I get really stuck…then I ask older sibling to show younger sibling!

Primary teacher here. Often help Secondary kids with Maths: my own/ family/ and sometimes outsiders. Always take time to study it up beforehand. Don't get landed with them just asking. They give me the topic. I have the books. I go through it a few times, different examples until l am comfortable to help. Sometimes l use a different method to their teacher..unknowingly..but that helps them understand better or maybe suits them better.
It's all about prior warning, look at examples and swot up.

I haven't been able to help with maths since they went into Y6. It went beyond anything I remember doing for GCSE. Though I instantly forgot everything after the exams and never used any maths I learned for GCSE in life.

What are you actually struggling with?
In this house, it's the arts/languages side that we are less likely to be able to help with.

Google can be your friend.

However, what year do you teach? I think some CPD might be in order if KS2.

Yes, DS maths really hard.
They have only been in Y7 for 3 weeks- surely they will still be doing Y6 stuff just making sure the whole class are ok with that?

What on earth are they learning? I only scraped an o level in maths and even I was able to follow a good deal of Y7 maths, it wasn't that different to ks2 and that was top set stuff as (unlike me) my dc are good at maths.

Asking ChatGPT to explain the answer to 'and quote the question' is a really really brilliant way to get you started. The answer won't be perfect til you get the hang of asking the question. A few goes and you will get it ok.

Good luck

What's depressing about it?

I don't remember most of what I learnt in secondary school - especially things I've never had to think about since.

The only maths I use these days is basic addition and subtraction - everything else is done by software or apps.

It's depressing that someone who could be allocated a year 6 class doesn't have enough of an understanding of Mathematics to provide work they can mark for those in the class who are beyond Y6 maths.

As @BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz said, it’s depressing that teachers in Year 6 don’t know the content of Year 7. And it illustrates how bad maths and science education is in this country.

Further, it’s depressing how PROUD all these PPs are of not knowing maths. Can you imagine someone being this proud of their ignorance in another subject? Can you imagine someone saying “Yeah I never really got reading” or “My reading is at the level of an 11 year old child and I am proud of that”?

Last year I ended sending a piece to my brother who has a Masters in Maths... we finally worked it out but his response was "why do they want them to that?". It wasn't hard as such, just illogical. But then a few lessons later they did something harder, using the same techniques and it made sense.

Her homework actually comes with instruction videos. She rarely actually asks for help.

If you put the maths question on here then I'm sure several mumsnetters including me would be able to help show you the method to answering it.

Primary teachers aren't maths specialists though and secondary is a completely different syllabus. Thete is no requiremeht for prinary teachers to be maths specialists as they have to teach maths,English, science, PE, PSHE, history, geography etc. Therefore why should they have subject specialist level maths skills?
In theory secondary school maths teachers should be specialists in maths, unfortunately with the current recruitment and retention crisis, in many cases that isn't true. I would personally be more worried about whether my DC's maths teacher was a maths specialist than whether a primary teacher can do Yr 7 maths.

It's depressing that someone who could be allocated a year 6 class doesn't have enough of an understanding of Mathematics to provide work they can mark for those in the class who are beyond Y6 maths.

Maybe OP only teaches KS1.

At any rate, primary teaching and secondary teaching are very different kettles of fish. I don't think it's fair to criticise and try and compare the two.

Plenty of people don’t enjoy reading, or struggle with comprehension, etc. I love reading, but it doesn’t bother me that others don’t. I’m sure they have other interests and skills.

To be honest, if posters have managed to get through 20/30/40 years of post school life without needing to use certain elements of mathematics, then they’re obviously not that vital.