Top 10 best maths facts

1. In a group of 23 people, at least two have the same birthday with a probability greater than half
2. Everything you can do with a ruler and a compass you can do with a compass alone
3. Much as with people, there are irrational, perfect and complex numbers
4. If you write our PI to two decimal places, backwards it spells “Pie”
5. The word hundred is derived from the word “hundrath”, which actually means 120 and 100.
6. If you shuffle a pack of cards properly, chances are that exact order has never been seen before in the whole history of the universe
7. The post popular favourite number is 7
8. The number 4 is considered unlucky in much of Asia
9. Zero is an even number, but people take longer to decides whether it’s even or odd because it’s not as easy for us to mentally categorise
10. Take any four digit number, follow these steps, and you’ll end up with 6174

·         Choose a four digit number(only condition is that it has at least two different digits)

·         Arrange the digits of the four digit number in descending then ascending order

·         Subtract the smaller number from the bigger one

·         Repeat

·         Eventually you’ll end up at 6174, which is known as Kaprekar’s constant. If you then repeat the process you’ll just keep getting 6174 over and over again.

New online maths activities from 10ticks

Over the last few weeks we have added in lots of new online maths activities to our courses. We have created these to complement our existing maths content and offer variety for our students, helping to keep them engaged.

By creating lots of different ways to do maths on the course we are helping students with all learning types. Our new interactive maths activities help kinaesthetic learners and particularly younger learners as they tend to be more hands on.

You can try out one of our new online maths activities by clicking on the link below.

http://www.10ticks.co.uk/draganddroptests/wordsearch.aspx

Let us know what you think!

New maths app helps you cheat on your homework

A new maths app called Photomath lets you use your smart phone to work out maths problems. All you have to do is point your camera at the question and it will tell you the right answer. It works by using optical character recognition technology to read printed equations on a page, then pops up and augmented-reality display that works through captured equations in real time.

At the minute it only works on printed text and doesn't pick up hand written equations but is still quite impressive! Photomath can work out arithmetic expressions, fractions and decimals, powers and roots, and simple linear equations. 

This is a great tool for parents trying to help with their kids maths homework, or even for students who want to mark their own homework.

Boy calls 911 for help with his maths homework

A young boy who is struggling with his maths homework calls 911 for help, with hilarious results. Watch the video below to for the full conversation.

Chief Welsh exam officer calls for Maths GCSEs to be started earlier

Gareth Pierce, chief of the Welsh exam board said schools would need sufficient time to cover all the work. From September 2015 most children will study for two maths GCSEs rather than the one currently offered in schools.

Some schools already study for GCSE courses in years 8 and 9 but Mr Pierce told BBC Wales that the new double maths qualification should be a three-year course.

He said, "Without a solution of that kind there is a question of how much workload will be on pupils following the two GCSEs.”

"Although there is quite an overlap in content, the assessment styles are a bit different and there is some different content in the GCSE mathematics compared to the numeracy.”

"So I'm sure schools will be thinking very carefully about ensuring there is sufficient time to cover all of that work."

The Welsh government doesn't agree and says there will be no extra time added. 

From next year a numeracy course will assess what maths skills learners need in their everyday lives in the world of work and in other general curriculum areas.

A second mathematics qualification will extend to aspects needed for progression to scientific, technical or further mathematical study.

The new qualifications are an attempt by the Welsh government to raise standards and improve performances in maths, which is the weakest of the core GCSE subjects.

At 10ticks we have been mapping our maths resources to the new GCSE framework, and we will be adding work into year 8 and 9 to make sure teachers have enough time to cover everything in time for GCSE. 

Don’t forget to download our free Christmas maths worksheets

Our free Christmas maths worksheets are still available to download. All you have to do is sign up on our website and you will get access to our worksheets. Our Christmas worksheets contain lots of fun games, puzzles and activities, perfect for the last few lessons of the year or for home over the holidays. The worksheets are a great way to consolidate basic maths skills in a fun and festive way. There are 30 Christmas worksheets in total, covering all age range and abilities.

You can also visit out interactive Christmas maths page. This also contains lots of fun games and puzzles as well as E Christmas cards and a Christmas quiz.

http://www.10ticks.co.uk/christmasmathsactivities.aspx?tab=sls

Try our Online Maths Game and see if you can beat our high score!

We have had a bit of a competition in the office to see who could get the highest score on our maths game. Chris our programmer got the highest score of 8.

For this maths game you have to drag the correct answer in to the box. You have 30 seconds to see how many you can get right.

Click on the image below to give it a go and see if you can beat Chris.

Let us know your high score by commenting below.

Good Luck!

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan refuses to answer maths questions asked by boy, 10

The Education secretary Nicky Morgan refused to answer a simple maths questions put to her by a 10 year old boy. The question asked was “what is the cube root of 125”.

Ms Morgan was taking part in an interview on Sky news where she had agreed to be interviewed by a group of school children. Presenter Anushka Asthana asked her “How’s your maths?” Ms Morgan’s reply was “Oh, I’m not doing maths in air”

However this didn't stop young Leon Remphry asking, with Ms Morgan’s response being “I think that’s one that I might just have to go away and work out”.

“I think politicians who answer maths questions or spelling questions on air normally come a cropper”

This isn't the first time a politician has been caught in the spot light when being asked what appears to be a simple maths question, a similar situation happened to George Osborne last year. It’s not just politicians who struggle with simple maths questions though, 4 in 5 adults have a low level of numeracy – roughly defined as lower than a C at GCSE. This is a huge amount but demonstrates how quickly you can lose those maths skills once you have left school.

Secondary schools warned by Ofsted that progress has stalled

Secondary schools in England have been warned by Ofsted that they are not increasing standards fast enough, with almost a third of secondary schools rated as requiring improvement or inadequate.

Chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw, delivering the education watchdog's annual report, says that secondary schools have "stalled". He says there are now 170,000 pupils in inadequate secondary schools, about 70,000 more than two years ago and these schools "need to concentrate on the basics".

The annual report, looking at the outcomes of inspections in 2013-14, says that the school system continues to improve, with more than four out of five schools now rated good or outstanding. Much of this progress has been driven by primary schools, with Ofsted saying there are 700,000 more pupils in good and outstanding primary schools than in 2012.

But Sir Michael warns that there are more worrying signs in secondary schools, with 50 more in special measures than last year. The rate of improvement has slowed and some have declined, with 71% of secondary schools rated as good or outstanding, compared with 82% of primary schools. It means that for secondary schools, 29% are rated as requiring improvement or inadequate.

He also warned the "transition from primary to secondary can be poor" and the "culture of underperforming schools is not good, with low-level disruption".

The Ofsted chief said more school autonomy needed to be accompanied by increased monitoring. He said that was one of the lessons of the so-called Trojan horse investigation in Birmingham, where schools rated outstanding were downgraded to inadequate.

In presenting the report, Sir Michael said he was also "increasingly concerned" about problems with recruiting teachers, particularly when there was a population surge. "This is a pressing issue. More teachers will be needed to match the substantial increase in the number of school-aged children expected over the next 10 years." If there were not enough teachers, he warned that the best schools would "cherry pick the best trainees", with the risk that this would widen the gap between strong and weak schools.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said "One of my tasks is going to be to make sure we see great leadership across the school system.”

"We have many excellent head teachers and now we want to see more of them working with schools that need the next boost to make sure that they are not failing their pupils."

Labour's shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt said, "Whilst we have plenty of reasons to celebrate success in our school system, we can see stagnation across secondary school performance. The way to address this is equally clear: by raising the quality of teaching in every classroom, in every school."

Students to learn about mortgages in ‘real life’ maths course

Sixth formers will learn how to calculate a mortgage, run a business and play the stock markets under plans for a new sixth-form qualification in ‘real life’ maths, it has been announced.

Up to 230,000 students in England could take the core maths course when it is introduced from September 2015 as part of a drive to stop students dropping maths altogether at the age of 16.

The two-year qualification will be worth half an A-Level and will count towards higher education admissions – encouraging students to take the exam to secure university places.

The maths course has been designed to build on concepts already covered in GCSE maths but will be less demanding than the full A-Level.

Subjects covered as part of the qualification include:

• Using different data sources to determine changes to average house prices over the course of a year and calculating the value of a mortgage loan.

•          Developing an advanced understanding of statistics, financial maths and modelling, including understanding investments and analysing trends in popular growth.

•          Using maths in business settings, with pupils asked to calculate costs, estimate demand and set a selling price for products to maximise profits.

•          Learning about the impact that income tax rates and National Insurance contributions have on family finances.

•          An introduction to foreign exchange rates, with pupils calculating loss in pounds as a percentage of the original amount paid to the cashier for the euros should they sell them back.

Nick Gibb, the schools minister said. “England has been falling behind other countries’ maths performance, which is why we have launched a new maths curriculum to match the best in the world and are introducing rigorous new GCSE and A-Level maths qualifications.”

“Only one fifth of pupils in England continue to study maths at any level after achieving a GCSE – the lowest of 24 developed countries.”

“These new core maths qualifications will help address a 16 to 18 ‘maths gap’ whereby students who achieve a good maths grade at GCSE currently drop the subject and start to lose their confidence and skills”

From 10ticks point of view this is good news, as the longer a student is taught maths the more they will benefit later in life. Learning real life math situations will also help to keep students engaged with maths, as they will see real benefits to the course and won’t be able to use the age old excuse of “when am I ever going to use this in real life” and switch off.

Maths and Science teaching a priority, says Cameron

David Cameron announced the opening of a National College of Digital Skills in London in 2015, to enhance economic competitiveness in the global race.

There will be specialist training to improve the skills of 17,500 maths and science teachers.

However, Labour says the government has already failed to meet its teacher recruitment targets. They warned that the government’s teacher training policy was already leading to shortages. The Association of school and College leaders also warned recently that schools would have to recruit from overseas to fill vacancies, including maths and science teachers. They said “Shortfalls in the recruitment of maths and physics teachers are especially concerning”

Mr Cameron argues that maths, science and technology are the key skills for a modern globalised economy.

“There’s no secret to success in the modern world. If countries are going to win the global race and children compete and get the best jobs, you need mathematicians and scientists – pure and simple”

“So today, we commit to deliver more maths and science teachers”

“This is all part of our long-term economic plan for Britain – making sure our children have the right skills they need to thrive and get on”

The Prime minister announced the extra training as pupils visited Downing Street for a lesson in computer coding, as part of the international Hour of Code project.

“It will take time but it’s absolutely vital for the success of our country that we teach maths and science and computing in a modern way, because that will be one of the things that will determine whether we succeed or not” said Mr Cameron.

A £67 million initiative, covering the next five years, will give extra maths and science training for 15,000 existing teacher and recruit an additional 2,500 teachers.

Improving maths skills will benefit the competitiveness of the economy and improve job chances of individuals, said the Prime Minister.

New A-Level Maths to be delayed by a year

The introduction of new maths AS and A-Levels will be delayed by a year until September 2017, the government says.

The delay has come about due to fears students would struggle to bridge the gap between the current GCSE and new A-Levels. Nick Gibb the School Minister said the delay would give students the benefit of having studied the new GCSE maths syllabus which starts next year.

This will be welcome news to teachers, who have argued against the rushed implementation of the new A-Level Curriculum all along. The head of the teachers’ union ASCL said the decision was logical but should have been made “in the first instance”.

Exams regulator Ofqual and A-Level Content Advisory Board (Alcab), advised that the current GCSE maths and A-Level maths would not line up in terms of content.

National Association of Head Teachers’ general secretary Russell Hobby particularly welcomed this aspect of the deferment.

“It takes a long time for schools to prepare for a new exam properly. This includes changes to teaching programmes, resources and even staffing.” Said Mr Hobby

The new A-Level Maths Curriculum contain substantial changes in emphasis and content, with a  much bigger focus on making sure students embrace fluency, reasoning and mathematical problem-solving.

With teachers and students already having to adapt to a new maths Curriculum from Years 7 to 11 in Secondary schools, this will help relieve some of the pressure on teachers and allow them time to adapt. 

Australia’s Science and Maths are slipping, says chief scientist

Australia is well known as one of the best countries in the world for research, but its science, technology, engineering and mathematics performance is generally lagging, according to Ian Chubb in his new report.

Mathematical literacy in students, in particular, is slipping relative to the world, raising fears of a “growing cohort of students who might struggle to participate fully in a range of life situations and jobs in a modern economy”, the report said.

Australians like to believe they are punching well above their weight when it comes to research performance, but if you compare Australia to other free market economies this isn't necessarily the case.

 The report pulled together published information on a range of measures of stem performance including citation rates, research funding, international collaboration and maths and science literacy. The results were compared with the United States, Canada, New Zealand, 11 countries in Europe and another 10 in the Asia-Pacific.

As you can see from the chart above Australia comes in at an average position ranking at 14^th. There are lots of areas Australia does do well in though, with four fields in particular. These are Earth sciences, physical sciences, mathematical sciences and biomedical and clinical health sciences.

The concluding remarks in the paper about Australia’s STEM performance state “This overall performance means we have no room for complacency. Nor can we let STEM drift. We must distribute resources carefully and strategically, just like most other countries”

The report looked at the number of teachers with a maths-specific qualification for year 8 students across a number of countries. Australia had the second lowest proportion of teachers with a maths-specific qualification. This could help to explain the decline in Australian student’s mathematical ability, although the repost does point out that countries such as Sweden which has a much higher proportion of teachers with maths-specific qualifications is also declining in mathematical ability.

Chubb said science and maths teachers needed “a real discipline base” alongside their pedagogical training. “Even if they do a teaching degree it’s still got to have real science and maths in it” he said.

Over all the report states that their needs to be a rethinking and prioritisation of resources to raise STEM standards. The placement of specialist maths and science teachers in every primary school was seen as crucial.

If you would like to see the report in full just click on the link below.

http://www.chiefscientist.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/BenchmarkingAustralianSTEM_Web_Nov2014.pdf

10ticks famous Christmas Maths Worksheets now available!

With Christmas fast approaching we wanted to give everyone an early Christmas present. Our famous Christmas Maths Worksheets are now available to download from our website for both parents and teachers. Our Christmas Maths Worksheets contain lots of fun games, puzzles and activities, perfect for the last few lessons of the year or for at home over the holidays. They are a great way to consolidate basic maths skills in a fun and creative way. If more than 30 worksheets in total we cover all age rangers and abilities.

To access your free Christmas Maths Worksheets all you have to do is sign up to our website, you will then get instant access to these fantastic resources via your User Area. We also have lots of other fun and interactive Christmas maths activities on our Christmas page. You will find quizzes, puzzles, online games and even E Christmas cards. For our Christmas page just click on the link below.

http://www.10ticks.co.uk/christmasmathsactivities.aspx?tab=sls

Educating Yorkshire: Genius or just another Big Brother?

Educating Yorkshire has been a huge hit, with viewing figures in excess of 3 million, making it one of the highest watched programmes this year for channel 4. This got me thinking about how there is a genuine interest in finding out what kids are getting up to in schools. Of course there are positives and negatives to putting cameras in schools for all to see, an invasion on students privacy for one, as I am sure most don’t want their parents seeing what they get up to at school. Also are there repercussions in the future for these students when they try and get a job?

These are all important questions and 1984 always pops to mind when you talk about adding more cameras to an already over invasive society. But I think in this case getting an insight to the everyday lives of students as well as teachers, gives the everyday person much greater respect for a sometimes under appreciated job. One thing I am interested in exploring is how schools can implement this on a smaller scale and that doesn't take up to much a teacher’s already busy schedule.

First of all what are the possible advantages of implementing something like this? One of the big advantages is cutting down on low level disruption. If students know they could be being watched by their parents they are much less likely to act up as they know they could get a telling off at home. This is similar to the Hawthorne effect where an experiment was carried out on workers in two workplaces to find out what effect light had on productivity. What Hawthorne found was that productivity would increase during the experiment and then slump again when it was concluded. He concluded that the workers were more productive if they knew someone was taking an interest in their work. Whether or not having students knowing their parents could be watching would improve class behaviour or even results remains to be seen but it could be a possibility.

Another positive is getting more parent involvement in the school. Too often the only contact parents have with schools is a parents evening once a year. Being able to see their children in class and to see how they actually act in class could give parents a much better insight into how their children are actually doing at school. They can then push them on if they are acting up in class and get them to knuckle down and likewise if they are doing well they can reward them and encourage them to keep going.

There are of course negatives to an experiment like this. The first is teacher’s time, with an already busy schedule do teachers need another gimmick that will distract from the actual teaching of the class, and will students just act up if they know they are being filmed. I think this is an important question and if the project were to be time consuming than no this wouldn't be worth it but as I will point out later in the article there are quick and easy ways in which you can set this up.

Another important area to bring up is whether more cameras in life are a good idea. The average person is already caught on camera 300 times a day, do students and teachers need another aspect of their lives monitored? I think this will be the biggest reason a project like this won’t get off the ground as it is already such a sensitive topic and it may cause issues with some parents.

The time and cost of implementing a project like this I believe could be very little in terms of time and completely free financially. Having worked in a small company you often have to find solutions to problems quickly and cheaply. I had to find a way to deliver a talk to teachers all over the world all at once and for it to be cheap or free but also look professional. At first I thought this was an impossible task, but after a bit of research I quickly discovered there were a number of free services out there that could deliver exactly what I needed. The one downside side of using a free service is there might be the odd advert but these have a minimal impact most of the time.

The main streaming software I used was Ustream, this is free to use and viewers watching don’t have to sign up, which helps keeps things simple. One of the really good features of this is that you can link it to your Facebook page, making it really easy for parents to find and access. Ustream will also record and store the live stream for you and save it on your account and on your Facebook page as well. So parents that are at work or are busy can watch it later when they have some free time, making it more accessible to everyone. All you need to set this up is to have a webcam linked to a computer with a view of the class, and then you just click ‘Live Broadcast’. This will then go straight out to your live stream account and Facebook page for parents to watch.

As teachers it is important to find innovative and interesting ways to incorporate technology into the classroom, but I think the key thing is to make technology work for you. By using a free streaming service and a webcam, it is a cheap and simple solution that won’t take up much time but delivers something exciting for parents, teachers and students. This could even be used as a marketing tool for schools allowing them to show prospective students and parent’s fun and rewarding lessons with the schools best teachers. This could be much more effective and then the traditional prospective and power point presentation and show off the best qualities of your school in real time.

Secondary Schools set to increase amount of maths teaching time

According to a recent survey, more than a quarter of schools are planning to increase the amount of time spent teaching maths next year. This will be in time for the new Maths GCSE set to come in next September. Half of schools have said they will introduce new training programmes for staff and a third of schools are going to recruit more maths teachers.

The survey finds that 28 per cent of secondary schools plan to increase teaching time for maths by up to one hour at key stage 4, while 27 per cent aim to do so at key stage 3. Half of secondary leaders say they will introduce a programme of professional development for maths teachers and 36 per cent say they will recruit additional staff.

The findings were carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research for the department of education, who surveyed school leaders and teachers.

Reforms to the maths Curriculum aim to make it more challenging, with a greater emphasis on problem-solving. The syllabus has been expanded by a third, with new topics including ratio and proportion. Students will be required to tackle financial mathematics and learn mathematical formulas by heart.

School reform minister Nick Gibb said he welcomed the news that teachers were responding to the new course by increasing the amount of time spent on maths. “Our plan for education is ensuring more pupils will benefit from an increased focus on maths and other key academic subjects,” he added.

The survey finds that half of schools are planning to retain existing systems for assessing students’ progress in the new national curriculum, introduced this September, while 23 per cent say they are going to use a new system developed by their school or group of schools. A further 19 per cent are undecided.

If you think you are good at maths, this guy is on another level!

A fantastic TED talk from Arthur Benjamin, who makes maths exciting and fun. He races calculators and guesses birthdays, as well as teaching a few interesting short cuts to solving maths equations. Watch the video to find out how he does it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_benjamin_does_mathemagic

How do Primary School Teachers use 10ticks Maths Worksheets

10ticks maths worksheets can be used in a huge variety of ways, and have been designed to cater for all learning styles. 10ticks has 4 main types of maths worksheets:

• Traditional exercises to consolidate basic skills taught
• Investigations to let students explore mathematics at their own pace
• Puzzles involving key concepts centering around fundamental mathematical skills
• Games providing fun ways of reinforcing key skills without the monotony of repetitive exercises

Mr Ayres uses the maths worksheets to aid his lesson planning, during lessons, for homework, group activities, individual consolidation for exercises to provoke discussion, reinforcement and introductions.

“We use 10ticks across the school both for homework and in lessons, the variety of tasks

offered coupled with the depth of questioning make them an invaluable resource. The

calculated colouring sheets are especially popular.

The 10ticks maths worksheets cover everything I could possibly want from simple introductions to complex extensions for top end Year 6. They challenge pupils to apply their knowledge in different ways and have given me, as a teacher, new ways of looking at, introducing and reinforcing concepts.

Tasks such as the prime pirate maze or the factors and multiple game test pupils true understanding rather than relying on simply regurgitating methods or working through procedures.

Pupils throughout our school have benefited from using the 10ticks maths worksheets through the

reinforcement offered, each sheet provides plenty of questions allowing pupils to better

internalise and assimilate concepts and relationships quicker and with much greater levels of

retention. Pupils enjoy the variety on offer and the mix of challenge and accessibility.

The variety and the depth of work on offer. Also the range, with one scheme I’m able to

introduce the very earliest of number concepts right through to post GCSE work. Pupils are

familiar with the layout and expectation and the ability to differentiate is a real bonus.

10ticks is always my first port of call when designing a new topic, to the point where I often look

at what is available through 10ticks and work backwards incorporating the tasks into my

planning and teaching. A typical day for me, especially as I teach two sets across Year 5 and 6,

involves either photocopying the sheets that best fit the needs of my set. I like to go for a mix

of procedural sheets that offer repetition of methods coupled with some of the more

challenging / abstract sheets to provide extension and homework. If pupils are fairly well

through a topic I will look for one of the games to provide pupils with an opportunity to put

their understanding into practice.

I always look for a variety of tasks throughout the week, ranging from collaborative group work

activities to individual consolidation tasks and exercises that will provoke discussion. 10ticks

provides exactly this.”

Mr Scale of Teby Junior School:

“I mainly use 10ticks maths worksheets as a differentiation resource. 10ticks is great for targeting key areas that most schemes do not cover. I also use the activities as homework.

For me it is a comforting to know that I have extensions ready for all the topics regardless of the varying abilities within the same year groups, whether the children are in Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6.

They feel comfortable to attempt the activities even if they haven’t attempted the topics before because the worksheets are clearly explained with examples. The examples are clear and easy to understand.

I also use the maths worksheets as an extension activity for my high achievers; I will often use them depending on the weekly topic i.e. If we are studying percentages I will search for percentages, using the New Search Tool, find the relevant pages and check that they are more difficult than my current

work. They always are, because the worksheets progress in difficulty, which is perfect in helping me to push my students on. The benefit of the new symbol system for the 2014 curriculum means that I can give students in the same year group different difficulty levels without them knowing”.

10ticks Friday Maths Puzzle

Can you figure out the answer to this weeks Maths Puzzle?

Free Halloween Maths Worksheets

Our world famous free Halloween Maths Worksheets are now available to download from our website. If you are already signed up on the 10ticks website, you will just need to sign in and the free Halloween Maths worksheets will be available to download in your User Area. There are lots of fun games and puzzles, perfect for both teachers and parents to use with students and children.

If you have signed up to 10ticks before there are plenty more reasons to sign up as well as the Halloween worksheets. Throughout the year you will get access to Christmas maths worksheets, Easter Maths Worksheets and many others. You will also get access to our free sample packs as well.

To sign up for your free maths worksheets today just go to www.10ticks.co.uk and register as a new user.

Happy Halloween!

Work experience at 10ticks

During the summer holidays Gordon from Manchester, came into the office and did some work experience with us. He was a great asset to the team and proved himself more than capable, helping us with research, testing and even creating some new maths resources. Below is his account of the week and what he learnt from his week in the 10ticks offices.

During my week of work experience at 10ticks.co.uk, I’ve been given the chance to experience, first-hand how a company is run.

As everybody would expect, working hours normally start really early and end late, and this is no different at 10ticks. During my week here I’ve seen the pure commitment of the staff towards their work, one example would be Chris. As people would know waking up early in the morning is one of the gruelling challenges that one must overcome every morning however Chris’s passion for his work is so great, that he manages to arrive at work at 6 o’clock in the morning, the time at which I would still be lost in my dreams for the next morning of work.

Throughout my wonderful 8 hours of work each day, I was given lots of different tasks, they range from simple stuff such as creating maths worksheets to analysing and researching about the market in which 10ticks.com works. One thing that I discovered during my research is that 10ticks is one of many different maths education sites in the world, and that there is a lot of competition, one of them being Mathletics (Take notice that MATHS is spelt wrong here), which is owned Rupert Murdoch. Some people may think that 10Ticks has no chance of going against him, but the fact is 10Ticks is in over 60% of schools in the UK, plus many more schools worldwide, helping to increase maths standards for more than 4.6 million students. I personally think that this is colossal achievement for a company with just 5 members of staff.

Personally I really enjoyed my week learning how a company runs day to day, and helping to create more maths resources that will help students excel in maths for years to come.

Gordon.

Get ready for the new Maths Curriculum with 10ticks

From September the mathematics National Curriculum is changing.

Currently we run a ‘stage not age’ curriculum. This means teachers find an ability level for your child and then teach them from that point at an appropriate pace for your child’s ability. The National Curriculum Levels start at Level 1 and go through to Level 10 (though not all children will reach level 10, some just reaching level 5 or 6 by the time they get to 16).

The new curriculum, starting in September, is an ‘age not stage’ curriculum. There is a body of work that has to be covered for that age group, and regardless of ability, that work will be delivered. This is quite common around the world. One of the arguments for this is that it drags the weaker children along, achieving more than he/she would otherwise. Whatever the merits this will be introduced in September.

Year 6 will still be taught the old National Curriculum in 2014 so they are not disadvantaged in the SATs. The following year everyone else will be on the new curriculum.

The body of work has been designed to push children on faster than they would have been previously. It could mean that for your child there is a gap in knowledge as Year 3 teachers will have to teach Year 3 work and so on. We have designed our new courses to deliver the new curriculum.

It could be dispiriting for children to be told they are working at a lower Year group than they are actually in.

We have named our courses after two mathematicians. The courses and worksheets will show the corresponding letter, not the Year level.

Year	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
10ticks Reference	T	U	R	I	N	G	P	O	L	Y	A

So a child covering Year 7 work will see the letter P on their course and worksheets.

Primary School Programme of study for the 2014 National Curriculum

Click on the report below to see the governments latest Programme of study for Primary Schools as well as years 7, 8 and 9. We have added in some of our thoughts, and also how we have mapped our resources to meet the new requirements of the 2014 Curriculum.

http://issuu.com/tenticks/docs/primary_school_programme_of_study

Blended Learning

Blended Learning is becoming more and more common in schools today, as technology becomes a bigger part of our every day lives. It is important however to remember that some of the old ways of teaching are still some of the best. Professor John Hattie's Table of effect sizes on what helps to improve learning best shows that feedback and instructional quality are the most important things. By using both together in a well planned way, technology and traditional teaching can create the perfect learning experience for students.

Revision Survival Guide

In this blog post my aim is to help you feel confident during your exams. It is important to remember that exams are not designed to catch you out, but to find out what you know, what you understand and what you can do. If you have prepared well, you will have nothing to fear.

Step 1.

Make a plan – It is easy to just delve straight into revision with no clear plan, and this is where the amount of work you have to do can become daunting. This can lead to students becoming overwhelmed and often leads to a lack of focus as they jump from 1 topic to another trying to make sure they cover everything.

However if you take 20 minutes to sit down and create a revision time table, you can rest assured that you have factored in enough time for each subject. This means you can be more focused when revising, as you know this is the only subject you have to revise for at this specified time.

Below is a good example of a revision time table, it doesn't have to be down to the exact minute just rough times, so you know you are keeping on track.

Step 2.

Ideas on how to revise – It is easy to say, just revise at these specified times, but you will want to know the way you are revising is effective and actually helping you.

•          Make your notes imaginative and creative. This will help you recall the information more easily. In contrast if you just make pages and pages of similar looking notes you will find it hard to pick out specific topics as it will all merge into one.
•          For really important information, make posters and stick them to your wall. That way you will see them on a regular basis and it will help the information to stick into your memory.
•      Record information and play it back when you are relaxing or doing a mundane task.
•          Study with a  group of friends. Conversation is another great way for your brain to process information. If you don’t understand something, asking a friend to help explain it to you can be much more effective than trying to teach yourself from your notes.
•          If you have time it is always a good idea to read around the topic. This will give you a deeper understanding of the topic you are trying to learn.

Step 3.

Preparing to revise – Before you start, make sure you have a nice quiet place to revise with a drink and a snack ready, as well as any other pens, pencils, books and paper you will need. This way you can avoid distractions and really focus on the task in hand.

Step 4.

Take care of yourself – During revision it is easy to get absorbed in revising as many hours as you possibly can. This isn't always the best technique, it is important to take regular breaks every 30 minutes or so, and longer breaks after a couple of hours. This isn't time wasted, your brain needs time to process the information it has absorbed. Also if you don’t take breaks you will lose your focus and won’t take anything in at all.

It is always important to eat healthily and exercise. Things like energy drinks and junk food won’t help you revise and will only make you lose focus in the long term as you have a sugar low. Exercise can also help you de-stress and take your mind off revision.

Spend time with your friends and family. You still need time to relax and enjoy yourself especially during revision. This gives your brain a rest and gives you a chance to enjoy yourself helping to get rid of stress and stay relaxed.

Step 5.

During the exam – If you are nervous before exams don’t worry this is a good thing and is completely normal. It means you are getting ready to focus and give the exam your full attention.

•         It is important to remember that the examiner wants to give you marks. Exams aren't there to catch you out they are there to give you an opportunity to show off what you can do.
•          Make sure you read the questions. This may seem obvious, but when you are eager to get started it is easy to miss read a question and give the wrong answer.
•          Make sure the examiner can read your hand writing. You don't want to lose marks because you were in a rush.
•          Make sure you answer all parts of the question, it is easy to delve in and miss one part of the question.
•       Keep answers short, simple and direct. This will help you save time and big fancy words won’t get you extra marks.

At the end of the day revision comes down to being focused and putting in the time. The key is to start early so you have plenty of time to go over what you need. Then you can go into your exams with confidence and show off what you can do, good luck!

Why choose a career involving maths?

As a student you are always told maths is one of the most important subjects and that if you do well in maths then you can go far, but is this really the case? Well in this blog post our aim is to explore where maths can take you and why it can be such a lucrative career path, as well as provide you with some seriously cool jobs!

Taking a look at the average graduate salary based on subject we can quickly start to see that maths pays off. If you look at a pure mathematics degree the average salary is £23,478 well above the average of £20,964 and ranked 13^th out of a total of 63 degrees, not bad. But if we take into account other subjects that are also heavily maths based it paints an even better picture. Civil engineering, Mechanical engineering and General engineering are ranked 10^th, 9^th and 7^th respectively earning you up to £24,937. If you take into account economics it gets even better, this is ranked 5^th best with the average salary being £25,637. (These figures are based on data taken from the Higher Education Statistics Agency report)

So the average earning potential is looking pretty good, but what kind of jobs are available for maths related degrees? Well there are some really exciting jobs out there that you may not have associated with maths. You can be an animator working a Pixar. Animators use linear algebra to show the way that an object is rotated and shifted and made larger and smaller. What about a special effects director? These involve lots of calculations making sure explosions and stunts work to perfection. If you what to work for Google or Facebook maths is key programming and creating all those algorithms takes a lot of skill. Possibly one of the coolest jobs has to be an astronaut, they use maths to make precise mathematical calculations, from how the spacecraft leaves Earth’s atmosphere to how astronauts pilot the craft. These are just a few of the jobs that are out there, with career paths in engineering, teaching and banking there is something for everyone.

Maths has the power to unlock many doors offering you well paid and more importantly interesting and fulfilling jobs. The key is to start early as the basics in maths are the foundations for future learning. So make sure you do you pay attention in school and do your homework and you will be well on your way to landing your dream job.

Free Easter Maths Worksheets

10ticks Easter Maths Worksheets are now available to download for free, for both teachers and parents. Theses Easter Maths Worksheets are great fun, and are fantastic for consolidating basic maths skills. The worksheets contain lots of games and puzzles, perfect for entertaining the class at the end of term or kids over the Easter Holidays. If you are already signed up to 10ticks you can download the worksheets from your User Area.

If you haven't signed up to 10ticks before, it is completely free. Not only will you gain access to our free Easter Maths worksheets but you will also gain access to lot's of other free Maths Worksheets as well. It only takes two minutes to sign up, just click on the link below to get started.

http://www.10ticks.co.uk/login/user_register.aspx

Happy Easter,

The 10ticks Team

Shortage of primary school spaces in the UK, a ticking time Bomb!

In recent years you may have heard in the news that there is a shortage of primary school places in many parts of the UK. A lot of people thought this would be a just a short term blip (including the government!) and that we would revert to the long term trend of a decreasing number of primary students year on year from as far back as the 1970's. This however is no longer the case! The UK’s population is expanding at it fastest pace in decades due to a higher birth rate and higher immigration. This means there are going to be an additional 799000 pupils in primary education by 2020, bringing us back to a similar level as in peak the 1970’s.

Although this rise in the primary student population may sound scarily high, there is actually a lot of spare capacity in UK Primary schools, with only 20% saying they were oversubscribed. The rest have over 440000 spare places so at least in the short to medium turn we will have enough spaces. The only problem is the spare capacity is in the wrong places. There is a clear shortage of spaces in London and the south east where the population is growing at a rapid pace. There is also a shortage of spaces in other major cities like Manchester and Bristol as well, which also have rising populations. You can’t just transfer spare capacity from area to another though, so the UK will need to build more schools where the capacity is needed.

What’s the plan for the future then you may be asking. Well the current government cut the school capital budget by 60% over the course of the 5 year parliament. This money was meant for expanding and upgrading schools, so in a time when pupil numbers are expanding rapidly the government is cutting back on much needed infrastructure expansion, this was all part of the deficit reduction plan. However the government last year recognised that more needed to be done and made an extra £500 million available from efficiency savings elsewhere, for new building projects with a focus on primary schools.

In the short term we are likely to see an increase in bigger schools, with 300+ pupils and bigger classes with 30+ becoming the norm. There will also be an increase in the number of schools having to use temporary classrooms to cope with the immediate influx of primary aged students. These issues will take time to address, as new schools are not normally built over night and need to go through a lot of planning and approval before they can even start to be built.

Tour of the 10ticks Online Maths Home Learning System

Can you solve this brain teaser?

For parents who struggle with maths

In a recent study of more than 2000 mothers and fathers, found that more than half lacked the confidence to help children with the simple sums in the home. Not only that, but just one in twenty correctly answered a full list of questions suitable for pupils aged 11 and under. One of the biggest concerns is that parents wear this inability to do maths as a badge of honour. At 10Ticks we have mentioned this before as a key area that can affect your child’s attitude towards maths. The reason for this is that if your child see’s that you don’t like maths and never did it immediately gives them an excuse to not like it as well. This means they will drag their feet when it comes to homework especially when they can say to the parent “you never liked maths so why should I”. It also means in class they may not pay as much attention and won’t mind not doing as well as they could.

Positive reinforcement for all education is really important. Looking specifically at maths, if you emphasise the positive aspects like how it is used in nearly every aspect of life, how problem solving can be fun and that doing well in maths can lead to better jobs. Your children will see maths as an opportunity rather than a hindrance on their lives. This is something we always try and emphasis to parent because it is really important, as a positive attitude towards anything is always going to produce better results than a negative one. This is especially true with children as they look up to their parents for advice and guidance.

In the 10Ticks Online Maths System we try and incorporate as much positive reinforcement as possible. That is why we created our built in Merit System which rewards students where ever possible. These merits then lead to printable certificates which they can print out and take home and display them with pride. Not only that, parents and teachers can also award merits where they see fit along with a message of encouragement as well.

So if you are a parent who doesn't like maths don’t worry you don’t have to be an expert, just have a positive attitude towards maths and your kids will be none the wiser.

Hints and tips on how to boost your child's maths with our new White Paper Report

We have created a brand new White Paper Report containing loads of hints and tips on how to boost your child's maths. From activities that can be incorporated into your everyday lives to tips on how to motivate your children to do there homework. We also look at the science behind so called brain foods and why exercise is a great way to de-stress and refocus during revision.

Just click on the link here for full access to the report and let us know what you think.

http://issuu.com/tenticks/docs/help_your_child_excel_in_maths

The 10Ticks Team

Try out 10ticks brand new maths game

Hello,

At 10ticks we have been working hard creating new and fun ways of practicing maths. With our brand new maths game you can test your maths skills against the clock and see how many right answers you can get in 30 seconds. Currently the 10ticks office high score stands at 12. Have ago for yourself and see if you can beat our efforts.

http://goo.gl/qKH0pd

Let us know what your high score is and what you think of the new game.

Many thanks,

The 10ticks Team J

What a primary school teacher thinks of the new National Curriculum

The new national curriculum arrived with us all in September where did you look first? I looked at year 5 and 6, the year groups where I teach maths. What had changed? What were the raised expectations? Thinking of the least able pupils how would they cope with the new demands? After that I looked at the beginning, at what I now think are the three key points of the new curriculum, mathematical fluency, reasoning and problem solving.

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately…

What does fluency mean? The Oxford Dictionary defines it as the ‘ability to express oneself easily and articulately’. Google’s definition includes the synonyms, ‘fluidity, effortlessness, ease, rhythm’. Wikipedia’s definition is ‘Fluency (also called volubility and loquaciousness) is the property of a person or of a system that delivers information quickly and with expertise.’ The latter definition is the one I believe fits best with fluency in a mathematical context. I want my pupils to be able to deliver the answers to complex problems demonstrating their expertise and understanding, to be able to do this quickly they need to have the facts at their fingertips, rather than counting all the time. So often I feel that they fail to see the connections between the different things that I teach, they see them as isolated from each other rather than integrated as I see them.

I've done the investigation when you add two odd numbers is the answer even or odd? Pupils have correctly established that the answer is even and yet they will calculate 53 + 51 and give the answer as 93 and fail to realise that cannot be correct for many reasons, odd + odd is even, the units needs to be 4, slightly more than 50 plus slightly more than 50 must make slightly more than 100.

Having identified the problem what strategies could I employ to support pupils?  I will be having a fact slot at the start of every lesson, drilling children in the number facts not only to 10 but also to 9, 8, and so on so that they know that 3 + 4 is 7 rather than calculating it. It’s not 1950’s education where drilling without understanding was the norm I want children to investigate to find the solutions but then practice to get the knowledge at their fingertips. I’ll be really emphasizing the even plus odd must be odd much more. Once 3 + 4 = 7 is firmly established I’ll be expanding it to 30 + 70 and 300 + 700 then to decimals 0.3 +0.4 and to fractions 3 ninths add 4 ninths, then to algebra 3a + 4a =.

In this way I hope that their ‘mathematical fluency’ will develop and they can answer increasingly complex problems with conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.

Julie Gallimore, Primary School Teacher