Background
Lawrence Sheriff School is a Community
Boys Grammar School located in the heart of rugby’s birthplace.
We achieved Mathematics and ICT specialist status in September 2003
and one of the key objectives underpinning our bid was to:
offer G&T primary school children
the opportunity to extend and enrich their mathematical experience.
In response to this challenge our
newly appointed Virtual Learning Manager and colleagues in the Mathematics
department worked with our partner primary schools to put together
a series of Mathematics Activity Mornings. To date two of these
have gone ahead and have been voted a huge success by parents, teachers
and students alike.
“Mathematics Fun Morning”
This was the title of our first
session that took place in July 2004. Participants were invited
from both partner and non-partner primary schools. Each was asked
to send their most gifted and talented mathematicians in Year 5.
Unfortunately student places were limited to 24 and these were quickly
snapped up.
The theoretical framework for the
morning was to raise the profile of famous mathematicians and develop
problem-solving skills but this was by no means delivered in a traditional
manner. Student learning focused around a mathematical treasure
hunt all over our sixth form centre within which groups needed to
solve mathematical problems to get the next clue. The excitement
generated made this a very active session and students were happily
exhausted by the end of it. Other activities involved researching
famous mathematicians and presenting back in character.
“Sum Saturday”
Our second event took place in November
2004 and was more of a master class, aimed this time at 30 Year
6 students. The tasks undertaken were more directed than those for
the previous session but no less enjoyable for that! The activities
involved students in solving thought provoking problems and attempting
to explain the answers they developed. Themes included:
Why is it unlikely for there to
be two winners of Bingo?
How many ways could the letters in the word abacus be put together?
Gaining an understanding of the answers enabled students to set
further problems of their own – always an exciting and challenging
opportunity for any individual and those then given the task to
complete it. A logical cross number accompanied them home as again
they had run out of time due to student enthusiasm for the tasks
set.
Feedback
The following is just a flavour
of comments we received:
Students:
“I didn’t
realise Maths could be so fun.” |
“Why can’t I go?”
(year 4 sister of participant) |
| “ When are
we doing this again?” |
Parents:
“What
a brilliant idea!” |
“My daughter has not
stopped talking about it.”
|
Primary Schools:
“When are
the next ones?” |
“We have students desperate
to take part.”
|
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Chris Farr and a Number of Year
5 students at our first session
Outcomes
I believe there can be no doubt
that those students involved came away with a greater understanding
of Mathematics, but more importantly, view it as an enjoyable, stimulating
subject which has relevance to their everyday lives.
Of no lesser value are the benefits
gained in terms of easing the transition between primary and secondary
education. Students have been to a secondary school and been taught
by secondary teachers. The fact that they may not end up at Lawrence
Sheriff does not lesson the impact. Staff also gained a greater
understanding of where our Year 7 students have come from and use
this to inform their teaching.
The project has served to build
upon already strong relationships with our partner primary schools
and by offering places to students in other local primary schools
has gone some way towards cementing our role in the local community.
Involving some of our sixth form
students as mentors enabled them to see the reward of Mathematics
teaching as a potential career and made the day even more special
for the participants.
Plans for the future
Chris Farr, who has been responsible
for writing and much of the delivery of these mornings along with
other colleagues in the Mathematics department, is already working
on the next session. We have an aspirational target of one event
each half term. We are also in discussion with Coventry and Warwickshire
Universities about future events planned for our own gifted and
talented mathematicians.
All participants have been given
a set of problems to take away and solve. They have been emailing
their answers back to us, all of which are being responded to, in
order to maintain channels of communication.
In summary
There can be no doubt that such
cross keystage activities have numerous benefits for all concerned.
We have been fortunate in that the staff delivering the activities
have a real talent for inspiring younger Mathematicians and it is
to their credit that students have asked if we could run an event
every Saturday. I believe that there is a need for many schools
to develop similar programmes, whether they have an official specialism
or not and would encourage them to do so. For Lawrence Sheriff,
this represents very much the tip of the iceberg in terms of our
future plans and our challenge is to find the means to deliver our
ever growing wish list.
General Summary:
Since receiving Mathematics and
ICT specialist status, Lawrence Sheriff School in Rugby has been
working with Partner Primary schools to raise the profile of Mathematics
with young people. We have embarked upon a series of Mathematics
fun days run on Saturday morning for Years 5 and 6. They have proved
so popular that we have had requests to run activities every week.
Benefits include making Mathematics fun, easing primary secondary
transfer, enabling our staff to develop a greater understanding
of where our Year 7 students have got to and raising our profile
in the local community.
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