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Original poster

Maths GCSE in Primary

406 replies

winterisstillcoming · 13/05/2018 21:49

Hey everybody, I was wondering if you could help clear something up for me.

I was speaking to my SIL yesterday who told me her Y5 son is revising for his maths GCSE. He is at independent school. I said be careful only the first attempt counts. As a trustee of an Academy trust that has recently decided not to put students forward early for this reason, I thought I knew what I was talking about. Apparently not according to my SIL.

So was she correct, and is it an independent school thing that students are allowed to resit? Which puts my Trust's students at a disadvantage??

She was so bloody patronising too. And she got my nephews GCSE text books out at a family wedding.Confused

OP posts:
BrendansDanceShoes · 19/05/2018 09:56

I remember these colour coded cards. It was in the equivalent of years 5 to 8. Called the Kent Mathematics Project. You had a grid in your book which set out the cards you had to do and you worked through at your own pace in one or 2 lessons a week.

cantkeepawayforever · 19/05/2018 10:08

The reading comprehension was on cards.

The maths was in books.

I don't remember the class teacher 'teaching' all that often, except for in English.

RubiaPTA · 19/05/2018 14:53

I think any of you who oppose early exams would, in reality, never stop your child from learning GCSE once they'd finished ks3, and wouldn't stop them from taking the exam if they wanted and were ready. I think it might be a case of " it hasn't happened yet for my children so it doesn't happen at all"

cantkeepawayforever · 19/05/2018 15:03

Rubia,

No.

The most able child mathematician I know (luckily, the child of mathematician parents) took 'end of phase' exams (GCSE / A level equivalents) at about the right age, despite following a hugely wide-ranging and advanced Maths curriculum from the age of about 9 (attending, or video linking to, or watching videos of, appropriate lessons / lectures / topics, and receiving teaching from, when younger, a secondary maths teacher, and then a university maths tutor to broaden the curriculum)

Again, you are falling into the trap of believing that Maths is a single, linear path - so that there is only 'KS3 maths' and then 'GCSE maths', not 'Maths, from which the exams - at whatever level, even university -pick a few areas to study, and of which there is far much more to explore'.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 19/05/2018 15:14

Rubia, you assume entirely incorrectly. Though dd like us didn't see the point of doing her exam early, nor was she accelerated through ks3, it was all rather obvious to her. It's possible for a good comprehensive to allow a child to access maths at their level outside the curriculum.

RubiaPTA · 19/05/2018 15:16

And point proven ...

cantkeepawayforever · 19/05/2018 15:21

Sorry, Rubia - what point?

Of course it DOES happen - usually when non-mathematical parents have a mathematical child, and so cannot see anything outside the curriculum - and are badly advised by the school (or attend a poor school).

Whether it SHOULD happen, and whether anyone here who knows something about maths education, including education of the very able, would ADVISE it, is an entirely different point.

noblegiraffe · 19/05/2018 15:22

Rubia were you the poster looking for KS3 maths books for a pre-schooler?

RubiaPTA · 19/05/2018 15:24

It's ok not to get it because you've never been in that situation/your kids aren't in that situation

cantkeepawayforever · 19/05/2018 15:29

Rubia,

I get the position you / your children are in, absolutely.

But I do not 'get' - based on my experience of knowing some exceptionally able (1 in 10,000+ level) mathematical children (not my own) - that the ONLY solution is to march rigidly down the 'KS2 / KS3 / GCSE / A-level route, especially as those children I know are almost all the children of exceptionally able mathematical parents and NONE have gone down the route you suggest.

cantkeepawayforever · 19/05/2018 15:32

If professional academic mathematician parents, educated in and working at at the most prestigious schools / universities, having represented their countries at IMO etc, absolutely choose AGAINST accelerating their own children through 'end of phase' maths exams, opting for a wide variety of enrichment instead, who am I to suggest that the best option for similarly able children from other families MUST be to be frogmarched through the exam factory?

titchy · 19/05/2018 15:33

It's a shame you won't look beyond the curriculum Rubia - your child is missing out on some incredibly interesting and thought provoking maths.

Mominatrix · 19/05/2018 15:53

I think any of you who oppose early exams would, in reality, never stop your child from learning GCSE once they'd finished ks3, and wouldn't stop them from taking the exam if they wanted and were ready. I think it might be a case of " it hasn't happened yet for my children so it doesn't happen at all"

Rubia, your wording is quite telling - a parent of a gifted mathematician certainly would object to their child "learning GCSE"s. I would think that they would want their child to want to be challenged mathematically instead of learning an exam. I do have a gifted child, well in the top 2%, and the idea of aiming to sit an exam early baffles me. If I could avoid him having to do these exams, I certainly would. I chose to privately educate my children to avoid state exams as long as possible because they are the opposite of what I think is the point of education for highly able children. The resources given above are are much better challenge for those who are advanced in maths. In fact, they are better because some of them have on-line forums where other young, advanced mathematicians can interact together to solve interesting questions.

user789653241 · 19/05/2018 16:25

Rubia, your child hasn't even started school yet. These knowledgeable posters will be your help for years to come, especially secondary teacher like noble. I would listen to their advice.

RubiaPTA · 19/05/2018 16:28

I'm not even talking about my child

RubiaPTA · 19/05/2018 16:30

Mominatrix why do you have exam anxiety?

cantkeepawayforever · 19/05/2018 16:36

Rubia,

That is a very odd response, especially as Moomin explains:

"I chose to privately educate my children to avoid state exams as long as possible because they are the opposite of what I think is the point of education for highly able children."

That is a very clear, and recurring, theme here: that education for the genuinely highly able is restricted, rather than improved, by standard exams and their curricula. Yes, such children might take such standard exams at fairly normal points, usually as 'general entry tickets' to the next stage of their education / employment, but not as 'part of their mathematical education'.

MaisyPops · 19/05/2018 16:37

I think any of you who oppose early exams would, in reality, never stop your child from learning GCSE once they'd finished ks3
I wouldn't go down that route because even the way you speak in terms of 'learning GCSE' is all about ploughing through set frameworks and ticking off exams.
That is not extension or stretch abd challenge. That's taking a child and putting them through the process so you can say 'look my child did X early'.

(I did a GCSE early, started in y9 and sat in y10 by the way. There was a class of us who did that. Do I think that was as challenging and enriching as all of the other privision for bright children in that area? Not a chance.)

cantkeepawayforever · 19/05/2018 16:44

Like Maisy, I was accelerated - a year ahead of my age and took 3 O-levels early (Maths, French and English language), so I had 3 As at O-level before i was 15.

Was that challenging or enriching? No. What WAS challenging was the freedom it gave, particularly in French and English, to study a wide range of literature (plays, poems and books in French) in those lessons for the next year. We could easily have done that 'along the way' alongside studying for those exams at the normal age, and tbh that would probably have been better.

RubiaPTA · 19/05/2018 16:46

So you genuinely would stop your child from doing something they wanted!? Saying oh they can't be learning anything outside of the NC just because they are learning the NC is just ridiculous. I'm just going to leave this now as people are going in circles

cantkeepawayforever · 19/05/2018 16:48

Why would a genuinely able child mathematician WANT to do GCSE early? A genuinely able [rather than 'held up by their parent to be able'] mathematician would have more intellectual curiousity than that and would want to do all the OTHER maths, not exam maths for the sake of it.

RubiaPTA · 19/05/2018 16:51

Well my non existent parents must have been terrible

Mominatrix · 19/05/2018 16:56

Rubia, the posters against taking GCSEs early for gifted mathematicians are saying precisely what you say they are not - that those children need to look beyond the national curriculum. If you think that the route for them is the take GCSEs early, you are promoting the NC and its limited, boring pathway! Confused

BertrandRussell · 19/05/2018 17:10

Rubia-how will it benefit the child to do GCSEs early?

titchy · 19/05/2018 17:25

So you genuinely would stop your child from doing something they wanted!?

That is a parent's job! So yes, if doing something they want is potentially harmful in the long run.

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