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.