Question for people who use Maths Whizz.....

[Romann]

What do you think of the 'maths ages'?

I subscribed for ds2, who's struggling a bit at school. He's actually 7.6, and the assessment gave him a maths age of 7.2 or thereabouts. I was quite happy about that. But I then added ds1, who's doing very well at school, but who is much less confident in maths than any other subject. He's actually 10.3, and it's given him a maths age of 12.66. I don't think ds1 is a maths genius. I'm wondering whether ds2 is doing even worse than I'd thought. Basically I'm

What do you think of your children's 'maths ages'?

Overall I think the programme's pretty good, by the way. Should be very useful for both of them

Bump

I have never heard of Maths Whizz.

Have you thought of getting a tutor for your DS2? My DD has a tutor for English/Maths - I originally got her a tutor because I wanted her to learn to read and write in English earlier than she would have done in the normal course of events in her French-English bilingual school, and that morphed into following the Galore Park Junior English textbook. But I have always been aware that I wanted her to be able to do maths in English as well as French and so she now follows the Galore Park Junior Maths textbook as well. The real benefit, however, is that her tutor identifies weaker areas in DD's maths (mostly due to poor teaching IMO) and goes over them with her until she has mastered them, thereby ensuring she proceeds with no gaps in her basic arithmetic. I am totally addicted to this system now and DD doesn't mind one little bit.

Hello,

How does this compare with following the English and Maths Bond Papers? My DH uses them with our DD (she is in CP).
Y.

Sorry, how do the 'Galore Park ..' compare with the Bond?
Thanks

Galore Park publish text books for classroom/teacher use for 7+ whereas Bond papers are designed to be used independently by children at home.

Thanks for that. My DD 'might' have a place in CE1 in a new F/E Bilingual Primary School in London sometimes in the autumn (School not opened yet). They will do circa 60% F curriculum & circa 40 % E curriculum. I agree with you as to ensure that there are no gaps.

It is all too easy to acquire gaps in knowledge in the French primary curriculum and the only way of finding out is to test your DC yourself (or outsource that testing).

My DD is completing her CP in France at the moment. I must say that teachers are more concerned with their ideologies than with teaching the kids. I taught my DD how to write and how to read in F because i discovered that the teacher was hell bent on gestuelle combined with globale!!! Same with the writing -- don't want to get into that ... Like anywhere some teachers are brilliant, others not so .. As you say, best to test. Do you find the homework load heavy in a bilingual stream?

School itself hasn't generated much homework, but I do find that we need to do a lot of topping up in order for DD to stay at monolingual level in both languages and I try pretty hard to stay on the ball. I am not enamoured French education (but have no choice at the moment) - DD does a lot of extra-curricular activities to ensure that she develops on all dimensions.

Some parents , in London bilingual schools, have complained that their children have too much homework' one of them prepares the kids for both the French Lycee and the 11+. I have given up comparing both systems as they are totally different and have different priorities. To keep up DD's confidence in E, we ensure that she attends theatre and music workshops when back in London as well as many playdates 'hijacked' from the local Square. Our goal is for her to be bilingual and bicultural-let's hope that she agrees with it!!!We'll keep that way until she is 10-11 then we will reassess.. .How many British schools do you have in Paris?

There is a single British school, in the Western suburbs of Paris, but there are quite a few schools with "sections internationales anglophones" or equivalent, where the schools are sous contrat and teach the French NC for 75% of the time and teach English for 25% of the time. The quality and quantity of the English component varies dramatically from school to school - there is no governance or control or external evaluation of what is taught or attained

I think that if you want your DC to be fully bilingual/bicultural/biliterate that you need to accept that it is a huge burden on the whole family!

May I add 'and sacrifices ( personal, financial, familylife etc..). Let's hope that it is allworth it!?
I get so p** off when I hear people stating ' oh, isn't your DD lucky to be bilingual? Their eyes normally glaze with boredom when one tries to explain all the work that has gone into it and still is..

I agree, there are sacrifices. Those parents who claim there is no need for extra work or sacrifice end up with DCs who speak more than one language but have little grasp of their other culture(s).

This must be a nightmare for the English side of it..In London, all F/E bilingual schools (might be exceptions) are inspected both by the Ministere for the F and Ofsted for the E, Health & Safety etc..Does the British Council inspect any of these schools? It sounds that you have to be very much on the ball indeed!!

They aren't "British" schools (just Anglophone, really). Some of the Anglophone sections are run by parents' associations and British parents tend to want the sections to have checks and balances in the form of measurement of pupils to NC levels etc. But others are just free to exploit the situation as much as their lack of professionalism and morals allow them