Cameron Setter

Most people use their email inbox incorrectly. It isn't a to do list, it isn't a calendar, it isn't a filing cabinet. Here's how I use my inbox and finish every day with 0 emails! Firstly we need to rethink how we send emails: 1. Ideally speak in person. No email sent, no email to reply to. 2. If you are sending a quick message or asking a small question, especially within your department/team you could make use of instant messaging e.g. Microsoft teams, WhatsApp, Google chats etc I think Adam Boxer uses this in his department. 3. If you have to send an email, make sure you only send it to those who need to see it, no whole school emails or CCing lots of people. 4. Include as much information as possible. Make it so that you shouldn't need to receive a reply or if you do it is only one email. Tell them what they need to do, by when and what finished looks like, be specific. If arranging meetings, give a range of times to meet up and have the other person decide what...

England V Wales: Who teaches Maths better? Times are changing in Wales, there is a new Curriculum focus and in Maths there are 5 proficiencies that the government want to see. Here's my take as a new HOD crossing the border from England. The Welsh government have overhauled the curriculum and not just in Maths. They have identified key statements of what matters and laid out principles for progressing in each subject.  Maths in every country is the same though surely.... Well yes... we still focus on Number, Algebra, Geometry and Statistics. But also no....in Wales it is mandatory to use their 5 proficiencies to progress students in Maths. This isn't an explicit thing in England. The 5 proficiencies are: conceptual understanding, fluency, logical thinking, strategic competence and communication with symbols Lots of big words. But if you dive deeper into the detail that the Welsh government provides on each of them it is no different to what the NCETM in England recommend with t...

Adapted a Don Steward diagram for a Year 8 lesson on the Gradient. Started with this, and asked students to put the staircases in order of steepness. Students were talking in pairs initially (Think-Pair-Share) before coming back to a whole class discussion. We discussed how they were deciding on what steepness is and what the key features were. We came to the conclusion that more information was needed.   I asked students what measurements would they like to have.  Student: "Can you tell us the angles?" Me: "Sorry guys, I don't have my protractor on me!" Instead I added these values and allowed students to discuss further.  The variation in the numbers allowed for comparisons and a 'discovery' of how we can calculate the gradient. This was a really nice 'hook' into the lesson and helped students understand the concept of the gradient better.  Following this we formalised our method for finding the gradient as rise over run. I went through one fu...

There are more and more conversations around the curriculum happening now but are we talking about the right things? I would argue not completely, let me explain: Vertical Progression of a topic Quite often we talk about how we can progress a topic vertically e.g. how percentages develops from finding a percentage, to increasing and decreasing, compound growth and decay, reverse percentages etc. This is often taught and learnt over a number of years and we look at where that fits in our Year 7 SOW and where it leads in Year 8,9,10 and so on. I love this from  @SarahFarrellKS2  about how she progresses times tables in her Primary school over a number of years.  https://mrsfclassroom.wordpress.com/2022/01/19/times-tables-understanding-and-applying-them/ Horizontal Progression of a topic We discuss horizontal progression less than vertically e.g. how percentages links across the curriculum. If we continue with the example of percentages, I am sure lots of maths teachers make...

This week I listened to a really good podcast episode from Greg McKeown called Where am I wrong? In it he talks about a really effective method to have deeper discussions on what is important.  Write down/say the 3-5 issues/priorities you think there are as well as the cost/consequence of them. Then just simply ask where am I wrong? It starts the conversation off with the other person talking and getting their points across. You can then get that shared understanding about what needs to be done and why.  It got me thinking about other areas this could be useful for e.g. dealing with conflicts, leading departments/teams, pitching a new initiative. I am going to start doing this in some of these scenarios as I think we can have more productive conversations from it.  Have a listen to the episode here .  🔊 Listen: Alan Stein Jr on the Modern Wisdom podcast discussing high performance and overcoming stress. He talks about thinking like an athlete with your work and impr...

I've been thinking this week about CPD and more specifically how we deliver it to teachers. As teachers, we are trained on the best ways of explicitly teaching new knowledge to students however quite often we don't use the same techniques when teaching teachers. Why? Most, if not all of the techniques we use with students should also be used with teachers: retrieval of knowledge, teacher led instruction, opportunities for formative assessment. The difficulty with delivering CPD to teachers though is that there group you are delivering to is often very diverse in their understanding but will also be using the knowledge in different subjects and in different ways. It is a difficult task for anyone delivering CPD.  As part of my PD Lead course, I am being trained up to deliver effective CPD to teachers. Within the course we have spoken about having a common starting point, e.g. it could be a Maths question based on the topic I want to deliver to the Maths team, it could be asking ...

It's no wonder students struggle with Trigonometry, Pythagoras, Quadratic Formula etc. We overload them with too much new information all at once. Instead, drip feed these topics into the time before these lessons to reduce cognitive load and give students time to learn to a greater depth. Here's how I have done it: Drip feeding future content is an untapped gold mine that we can exploit further in our teaching. Why drip feed the content when we have dedicated time to teach it? - Reduces cognitive load - Can explore the topic to a greater depth - Ensure students have the relevant prior knowledge to be successful - Reduces the need for constantly reteaching In starters in the lead up to the topic and during lessons on substitution I use the relevant formulae students will use later in their Maths journey. My Yr 10s are about to learn about the Sine Rule and Cosine Rule, last term they were answering questions like this in the starter. They have no previous knowledge of these for...

It's been a bit of a mad first week back this term. Stress levels are high with the year 11s and 13s very close to their exams. For them lessons have been revising the advance information topics.  One of the issues I've found with the A level Maths is that students are often unsure what the questions are actually asking them to do.  A strategy I have been using is goal free problems. If you're unsure what they are take a look at the following website . The basic idea is that I'm giving students just the description and perhaps a diagram and ask them to just work stuff out. I find it particularly effective for topics within Mechanics especially.  Initially students struggled with what to do as to they wanted a target to aim for. After doing it for a little while now they are finding it really useful and are often calculating values to hat is beyond what the question actually was. They are making generalities with topics and styles of questions and have massively improved...

I have stopped using a Prime factor tree when teaching Prime Factor Decomposition and so should you! Here's why: 1. Students mix up Frequency trees and Prime Factor trees.  2. Students don't always realise that the prime numbers are the 'building blocks' of the number and they just need to complete the tree to get the mark. 3. Incorrectly writing their final answer. What I now do: It still looks very similar but I have a big focus on rewriting the original number each time and using a line for each step of their workings. For some students I have used little arrows to show which numbers need to be split further and underlined the prime numbers so they can more clearly identify what their next step is. I explicitly teach about using the numbers to 'go backwards' and find other factors e.g. 3 x 2 x 2 = 12 which is a factor of 72. I show students how no matter the starting point, we still end up with the same building blocks e.g. if we started with 2 x 36 we would...

What if I said you could teach your students one thing and they could answer everything to do with Percentages? Don't believe me? Let me show you: Finding a percentage of an amount Q: Find 20% of 925 Increasing/Decreasing by a percentage Q: Decrease 45 by 16% Expressing as a percentage Q: A cereal bar weighs 24g. The cereal bar contains 3.6g of protein. Work out what percentage of the cereal bar is protein Percentage Change Q: Rebecca bought a dress for £80.  She later sold it for £116. Find the percentage profit. Reverse Percentages Q: A car increases in value by 35% to £2500. What was its original price? Ratio tables can be used for it all. There is obviously going to need to be some further teaching about what an increase/decrease is, how to work out the multiplier etc, but it is a great tool we should all be using more often You may have worked out by now that I like using Ratio tables. 

I've been spending the first week of Easter holidays completely switching off from work and focusing on the time I spend with my family. A highlight has been visiting the different museums nearby. My 2 year old son has loved seeing all of the dinosaurs, animals, ships, cars and even the Egyptian mummy!  He's telling me all about them and, even though he says he's seen lots of mouses, he understands so much and is constantly amazing me with his communication! Next week I'm already planning more adventures and don't intend to look at any work until Sunday night at the earliest. I want a complete switch off and to be present with my family.    📚 Read: James Clears blog post about how measurement can help to raise our awareness of things that can be improved. Read it here . 📚 Read: Colin Fosters first post as MA president about 'introducing and outroducing'. We need to get students over the hump of learning the new skill so they can reap the benefits in the lo...

Want to improve literacy in your Maths department? These 4 links will show you how: 1. From the education hub in New Zealand. It outlines some ways in which secondary school teachers may develop and enhance learning through a disciplinary literacy approach https://theeducationhub.org.nz/literacy-across-the-curriculum-at-secondary-school/ 2. Fantastic blog post giving concrete examples of how literacy could be improved in Maths https://clarefeeneyuk.com/?p=69 3. EEF produced this guidance to help improve literacy. There are some great questions to use both in your own teaching but also with your department. https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/eef-guidance-reports/literacy-ks3-ks4/EEF_KS3_KS4_LITERACY_GUIDANCE.pdf?v=1635355220 4. Also check out my own blog post on improving Literacy in Maths. I am hoping to add further examples and support over time.  https://cameronsetter.blogspot.com/2022/04/literacy-in-maths.html

Pressure and Density (like Speed) is not taught very well! Pressure and Density have a proportional relationship that can be modelled effectively using a Ratio table, just like Speed. Below are some examples: Density Q: A cylinder has a mass of 270g. It has a density of 3g/cm^3. Find the volume of the cylinder Pressure  Q: An object is placed on the ground and exerts a force of 3000N on an area of 4m². Work out its pressure on the ground. Ratio tables become more effective when combining compound measure . It can help give students a frame for their workings. My class were able to answer questions similar to this with no mention of a triangle or even a formula! Compound Measures are a great example of an area of Maths that is often taught at a surface level using formula triangles. For students to gain a greater understanding of the relationships between mass-volume, distance-time and force-area use a ratio table. 

Finally at the end of what seems like the longest term so far! With staff absence, job interviews, mock exams it just seems like things have been non-stop!  I will definitely be using the 2 weeks off at Easter to rest up, not think about work at all and put myself in the right frame of mind ready for another tough term with GCSE exams right around the corner. In the build up to the GCSE's we have provided students with lots of resources to help them to revise e.g. past papers, websites etc but one thing struck me that I hadn't thought about. A number of students aren't clear on the best ways to revise. I even had one student tell me that he just highlights the revision guide! I spent part of my lesson this week going through exactly how I would like my Year 11s to revise. We spoke about retrieval practice, spacing the topics they are doing and ensuring thy are interleaving topics in the revision they are doing.  Hopefully now they have concrete strategies that they can use ...

I'm a Maths teacher, I teach numbers. Why is Literacy so important for me? Well….here's why: "Literacy is fundamental for success in school and later life. Students who cannot read, write and communicate effectively are highly unlikely to access the challenging academic curriculum in secondary school and are more likely to have poor educational outcomes across all subjects." (Link 3)  Unfortunately there are a lot of Maths teachers who believe (wrongly) that literacy is a thing that the English department do. They see it as a tick box for observations. Rather than being an essential component of students being able to learn maths.  -  So what does it look like in Maths? Answer the question: Blindle 4x + 6 Are you able to do it?  This is the challenge a lot of students face in Mathematics. Subject specific vocabulary can seem really confusing to a lot of students. Understanding what a keyword is asking of students is often the hardest part of a question and can hold s...

I got the job! It's been a stressful couple of weeks for me trying to get a job. My family and I are moving across the border to Wales and obviously it is a big change for me teaching wise. Fortunately I have got a job at a great school in a role I have always wanted to be, Lead Practitioner. I know I have loads to learn about doing the job really well but am looking forward to the journey.  If you have any tips on being a great Lead Practitioner please let me know.  📚 Read:  My most recent post on how I teach equivalent fractions using Ratio tables. This is the second post in a larger series illustrating how useful Ratio tables are. Have a read here .  🔊 Listen: Dylan William on the Tips for Teachers podcast. Lots of great tips to takeaway, in particular I liked his idea about not asking questions but instead just saying statements. Have a listen here . 

The following is a slide taken from NCETM Checkpoints. I was happy with the fraction pair on the right but the left stumped me! Then I had that 'aha' moment!  What I used to do I never used to teach equivalent fractions like the one on the left to my classes. I would just use arrows to multiply both numerator and denominator to find an equivalent fraction, very similar to the fractions on the right.  The issue with this though is, like me, students don't necessarily see all of the multiplicative relationships between the fractions as well as within the fraction. They are missing that key knowledge to support them answering the first pair of fractions.   What I do now Ratio tables allow students to see those multiplicative links. By doing this it makes questions like the checkpoints task much easier for students to do.  Disclaimer: this isn't the only way I teach equivalent fractions. I also show students how prime factors can also help us. There will be a future...

One of our department focusses for this year has been around encouraging students to talk like Mathematicians. Previously there was an issue with too much talk happening and not enough students engaged in the work. As a school we went the opposite way and pushed for silence during the time students were working. Now we are at a stage where behaviour and off task talking is no longer an issue so we want to look at the next step. We initially focussed on our questioning and ensuring students are giving full answers and using correct mathematical terminology. (We have had a real drive on literacy and ensuring students clearly understand what different words mean and how they can be used etc.) However we have noticed that this means only a select minority actually get the chance to use these words and talk about the maths that they are doing.  This week we spoke about introducing some of the Kagan structures in lessons, when appropriate, to encourage that discussion. I used some of the...

How would you answer the question above? How would you teach students to answer it? What I used to do When introducing Speed, I previously used a formula triangle much like the one below. Explained what S, D and T stand for. Completed a few examples on the board before setting some questions for students to complete themselves. As I wander around the room, I notice lots of students have done 72 x 20 (this is incorrect). I pause the class and go through this particular question showing students that minutes and hours are different and how they should have done 72 x 1/3 = 24 miles. Very quickly, I have hands up. Students haven't fully understood what to do. Where did 1/3 come from Sir? - Not understanding converting time Why is it multiply when they are next to each other? What does it mean with the D on top of S? - remembering how to use the triangle effectively Where does the S go? - forgetting the formula Teaching using a formula triangle is ineffective. Students aren't being ...

As part of my NCETM course we had the opportunity to watch some videos of teachers from Shanghai teaching some concepts.  It struck me the language they were using even for topics such as introducing what an angle is. New words would be introduced early on, clearly defined, backed up with examples and reinforced with students applying the word in context. Consistent high level language that is built on as the topic deepens can then be used to avoid misconceptions and gives students and teachers a common language to be able to communicate effectively.  🔊 Listen:  Becoming educated speaking to Michael Child's about his book The Sweet Spot. In the podcast the underlying focus was on optimizing teaching whether through improving your classroom layout or ensuring time is better spent on improving explanations than peeling displays for your classroom. Listen here .  📚 Read: My blog on the benefits of using Ratio tables in the classroom. Over the next few weeks I will be ...