Mixed ability maths Y7

[ihearttc]

Ive posted about this before but we are now 6 weeks into the school year and nothing has changed. DS1 loves maths (or at least he did until he started High School) and is completely bored and disengaged with the work they are doing. He got good SATs results (111 in maths) but is not any kind of mathematical genius or anything but genuinely enjoys the subject. He used to have extra maths lessons for extension work in Y5/6 before school for fun! His High School don't set for maths until the start of Y9 so we have 2 whole years of this. Yes I knew they were mixed ability when we applied for the school but we live quite rurally so it is literally the only High School around here...next nearest is in a different county and he wouldn't have got in (plus I can't get him there everyday).

They have learnt to use a number line apparently (which my 5 year old is currently doing!) and have done some work on multiplication x 10. They have 3 levelled sheets to chose from and he picks the hardest one (he said the hardest question on there was 23X10). He could do stuff like that in Y2 so completes it in 5 minutes and basically sits there the rest of the lesson.

We had a form tutor parents evening 2 weeks ago and I mentioned it then and his tutor said he would speak to the maths teacher but nothing has changed. Im completely at a loss of what to do? Whatever I say comes out like I think he is some maths prodigy and needs calculus or something but I just genuinely want him to be challenged and to enjoy maths again.

[guardian123]

I know a maths teacher from a comprehensive school. she told me the lower sets students can be a few years behind in maths skill than their top sets peers. If compared to Far East Asian country, the English curriculum is considered as easy. As a result, even the top sets students here are not really that top either. Unfortunately this problem can not be resolved easily. Many of these "bad" students do not have strong foundation from primary school, they don't know basic times tables and have no concept in fraction, for example, 18 divided by 2 can be extremely challenging for certain yr8/yr9 students.

[jeanne16]

Jessica. What noblegiraffe has described is pretty good going for even selective private schools. I know as I teach maths in one of them.

The problem with mixed ability classes in y7 is there can be a massive range in abilities, from pupils who don't really understand the concept of place value to others who could be doing the y9 syllabus. It makes teaching very difficult. Having said that, an Ofsted Inspection would come down heavily on a teacher with pupils who have nothing to do. The golden rule is all pupils must be occupied and progressing at all times.

[user1474361571]

No wonder we are doing so bad in international comparisons.

How many world leading university maths departments does Singapore have? And how many do we have? We are NOT doing badly.

[redskytonight]

They may still not be set. As I said upthread, DS's school doesn't set at all. However he's been in some groups of students that definitely work better than others! As long as the school recognises that a particular grouping is not working and mixes them up, that's the main thing!