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