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