talk of children who are failing in maths getting one to one

[southeastastra]

sounds good doesn't it! i know my ds(8) is lagging behind in maths so this will be great, i just cannot afford the £100 per months that some companies are charging around here for extra tuition.

[MillyMollyMoo]

Well unless the same teachers that are failing him from 9am to 3pm are the ones doing the teaching using the methods that are so complex half the parents and teachers don't understand them, then it's great

More money down the drain if you ask me.

[southeastastra]

i know but until last year our school was useless - we now have a great head who is turning it around. so in my son's case i think it's needed.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I think its actually a really good idea for many schools.

For example, the school I help at - maths is taught to the whole class, then they are split into 3-4 ability groups and given appropriate level work.

It works well if you are a child within the average band but if you are in the lower ability group you may well not have understood a word the teacher was saying to the whole class. At the same time, those at the upper end of ability will have been bored silly by the whole class teaching.

The teacher and (if they are really lucky) a TA go round helping everyone while they are doing the practise work but the reality is that they do not have time to sit down with every child who does not understand it and go through it carefully, whilst at the same time checking that the rest of the class are doing ok.

So children get left behind. Its not poor teaching, its a poor system.

The system that does work well in the school is where children across the year group are banded and split at the whole class teaching point so that each ability group gets whole class teaching at a more appropriate level. It also helps with scheduling TA time when extra TAs can be put into one classroom rather than split across into each class.

[MillyMollyMoo]

I think less TA's and more teachers and small classes are the answer rather than paying the teachers £20 an hour after, plus what ever the agencies charge, normally around £20 an hour to organise it all.
It all so short term, put a plaster on it, why not fix the real problem.
There were 34 in my daughters YR4 class, far too many, she's moved to a class of 15 and is flying.

[mimsum]

why don't more schools set for maths? My dd's bored rigid with the whole class bit of the maths lesson and although she then gets extension work by the time she gets to that she's starting to lose the will to live .... and at the other end of the ability spectrum there are children in the class for whom adding or taking away 1 from a given number is a real challenge

It makes much more sense on the face of it, but hardly any schools round here do, so why not?

[Hulababy]

The infant school I work in do kind of set for Maths, in that there are 4 groups per class, organised by ability. There work is differentiated accordingly.

Just because a child is falling behind in Maths does not necessary mean that her school or class is failing her. It may mean they learn the maths stuff a bit slower than others, and this is where some one to one work can come in very handy. It gives those children extra support and a bit of extra learning time.

I think having extra money in schools to help support childrn who need a bit of extra help in key subjects would be great. Staffing is the key.

[thedolly]

I don't think it sounds good at £2000 per pupil. What it sounds is expensive.

[Feenie]

Where does £2000 come from, the dolly? It was £300 last year.

[thedolly]

I heard it on Radio 4 this morning. Mind you I was half asleep at the time .

[Feenie]

Sounds like the BBC have got their sums wrong. They say that each child will receive 20 hours - in the pilot last year, tutors were paid for 12 hours at £25 an hour (2 of these being planning sessions).

So have no clue where £2500 comes from.

[NorthernNell]

personally don't care where the money's coming from if it means DD (9) will even be able to keep up with the 'lower abilty' set in her year (grin)

[primarymum]

Schools are allocated a number of places ( mine has been given 4) for 10 hours of 1;1 tuition. The school then has to decide which children receive the tuition.