Team Maths Challenge

[BlueBelle003]

My DS came home yesterday not happy as he found out a boy in his maths class had been chosen for the team maths challenge. Only two children were chosen in his year one from each of the two top sets. Now the reason DS who is in Y8 is not happy is that he has consistently come top in all the end of term maths tests and when he did the junior maths challenge in Y7 he was awarded a gold and top in year. My dilemma is we have parents evening this week do I mention it and will it just sound like sour grapes.

Oh no! What happened then?

No idea hopefully the school thought to have a reserve but I wouldn't bank on it! I just think the whole thing is not very well organised the last maths event where four children from each band were chosen initially my DS was told he was chosen following week teacher said he had forgot who he had asked so those wanting to go put your hand up and he randomly choice 4, my DS no longer one of them - paranoid me!!

It may well be that his teacher wants to expand the confidence of other children in the classroom.

I wouldn't worry about it from the point of his uni application. They really won't be looking at what he did in ks3 and if he is a good mathematician he will have a lot more to put on it as he gets closer to the time.

It sounds like your main gripe is that his talent isnt being recognised. You won't really have time to talk about that in a parents evening. I would use that appointment to listen to what the teacher has to say and then ask to book a follow up phone conversation or meeting, preferably without your ds, on another occasion.

"Just to clear up the mystery concerning 2 top sets.."

It's clear. Kind of. I expect the timetable is responsible for some of the other troublesome bits e.g. there is a lot of split-teaching for Y7, although I can't figure out why I don't recall any split-teaching in my day.

The reason I asked is that once upon a time I had a "choice" of trying to get DD trained well enough to get into a quite shiny super-selective (disturbingly lengthy commutes) or the closest comp. One of the many considerations for the comp was around ermm.. safety in numbers in maths i.e. would there be enough children around her level to keep her company and perhaps provoke a bit of credible differentiation?

Beyond some children from the same primary school I don't know anything about the other top-set, but parallel top sets can clearly break up a quite small number of children at the top end of the ability range who might benefit from being together in a system that isn't good at accommodating ability extremes.

In DD's top set there are three, with the two others being similarly whizzy boys. The differentiation for them isn't brilliant, but it could be a lot worse and they all seem to enjoy working and amicably competing with each other. We were also very lucky because some subtly poisonous competitive girls from the primary have ended up in the other half of the current divide. If this school ever suggests a boy/girl divide experiment you'll find me chained to the school gates waving a placard.

We don't do any of the "top sets" stuff as far as I can see. My DSs had some sort of test at primary for something and were measured at 3 or 4 years above their age. School reports have always been good but other than class knowledge refresher type tests, they don't seem to do much formal testing until their first exams in 4th year (roughly year 11 I think) I really have no clear idea how they are doing against their peers - they aren't streamed or anything.

When I read threads that are mainly related to English schools, it seems much more transparent.

Regarding splitting each year group in to two separate bands I know at the transition stage they work hard to ensure there is an equal split between ability and behaviour(!) between each band; although my DS would benefit if they did it on ability, I think it could be quite demoralising for those not in the top band and its not what I would expect a state comp to do, they have to act for the benefit of all not a select few!

I've read the thread and I think I would mention it at parents' evening, if I was in your shoes. Not to make a big deal of it, but just to say he was disappointed that he didn't get to go and ask if there are other extra-curricular maths things that he could get involved in. No harm in asking and it may help you understand how teachers are viewing his skills.

Finally it was actually DS that wants me to ask the teacher at parents evening why he wasn't chosen

I would encourage him to ask the teacher himself.

What's the point of mentioning it at parents' eve if the Team Math Challenges are done for this year (I think so?) and he'll probably have a totally different teacher for yr9?

If it's that important to your DS then the time to bring this up again is start of yr9 with math teacher he has then. To say how disappointed he was and how keen he still is.

No... I will take that partly back. If your DS is amenable, I would mention at next Parents Eve that he was disappointed about not being chosen and what could he do to increase his odds next time.

Only if your DS is fully on board with making this a constructive opportunity to improve; but some teens would be mortified that you brought it up.

Also the team challenge is not the JMC that all can do. In our area 2 year 8 and 2 year 9 make up the team. Our school did a prelim test in class similar to team challenge questions and then the top 2 got in the team. Son is usually top but was joint 2nd with a number of others and the 2nd was pulled from the hat (not my son). School came 3rd - hooray. He'll still do JMC at end of April and it won't prevent him doing maths a level if he wants to. Just ask what selection process they used and accept what they tell you.