Our Blog
20 January, 2021
Lockdown Three, Winter 2021
As I sit here, listening to Storm Christoph raging outside, with obviously not enough to do, my thoughts and inclinations turn to sending you a message. I am sure that Emma would normally join me in some of these thoughts but she is the parent of a young person in Year 9, so we all feel her pain!
Which brings me to my point: Home schooling.
At MM we have been emailing out worksheets to all our children, and you might expect that I am going to encourage you to get your children to complete them assiduously. Not a bit of it. I know full well that many of you cannot hit the delete button quickly enough, and a few of you are thinking, oh good something else to keep them busy until tea-time. My message is, whatever works for you.
When MM regrouped in September 2020, after what turned out to be some kind of giant Summer holiday, ALL the children were shocking. We could not distinguish between the children who had beavered away at their home learning from the ones who had spent the time glued to Fortnite.
In the grand scheme of things, I sincerely believe that Home Schooling is a distraction at best. It is a filler some will find useful, others will find a burden. If you are in the latter category, then don’t worry. The government are sending out the message that the pandemic is damaging the life chances of a generation. Hopefully they are wrong, but no one has raised the idea that Home Schooling might make things worse!
At MM we are planning some catch-up programmes for the Summer but the overwhelming message is not to feel any pressure, either from school or from us.
On a personal note, I would like to add that I am grateful for many things, for example, that my youngest child is now 23 years old, so Home Schooling is no longer my problem, and that Trump is now in the dustbin of history.
What a great start to 2021.
10 July 2020
Emma and I are looking forward to seeing you all again as life slowly returns to a near normal. We hope you are all well and that remote learning for your children has not been too stressful. All being well, we will be opening up our centres to you again in September. In the meantime, there is an opportunity to participate in some Summer Catch up programmes which are delivered via worksheets with digital support as required.
21st August 2018
Hello again, after a long hot Summer. While you are all away sunning yourselves, Emma and I are busy updating you on our news. So have a good read where ever you are.
All our children have now reported back on their SATS results and we have been delighted with the achievements of each and every one of them. We could name one child who had been told that they would not achieve 100, reporting a score of 104; another who only dropped 6 marks across all three papers. Many examples of success but what unites them all is the hard work and determination that they have exhibited since the beginning of their journey.
We are not happy to sit back and congratulate ourselves. We have already started to crack the whip over next year's cohort and amazingly everyone seems to still be enjoying themselves.
Every year at Prize Giving we can't help noticing that more and more children are outstripping the previous year. This year, eight Year 5s had already mastered the Year 6 arithmetic syllabus so that we can spend the next year concentrating on those tricky topics. Bring on Measurement, Algebra and Statistics.
1st August 2017
Gosh, What a long time since our last Blog. 1 out of 10 for effort there! More focus required I think. At last we have had some lovely Summer weather and a quieter time at Maths Masters has given us time to catch our breath and give you an update of how we are doing.
Our three centres are all very vibrant with over 100 children on the roll in Redhill, Lower Kingswood and Stoneleigh. It gives us enormous satisfaction to watch and enable their individual progression. Once a year, the Government decides to get involved too, and our current Year 6 cohort have successfully navigated their SATS. Our students have all done well, some exceptionally. In a year when we supported some special needs students, all of them exceeded our expectations and all of our parents were delighted. Some students managed 39 marks out of 40 in their Arithmetic paper, and the two reasoning papers were very well navigated in spite of some very challenging material. This is an incredible achievement. Well done to them all. We are giving ourselves a bit of a pat on the back too, as this syllabus is still relatively untried.
So now, it’s time to holiday and to bbq (at the time of typing) and enjoy our sunny days. It's lovely to see our Summer classes so well attended and to welcome a few 'holiday clients'. So thanks once again for your support of our Maths Masters enterprise. Thank you also to all our students, particularly those who are leaving us shortly to embark on their university adventures. We look forward to introducing you shortly to the new intake.
28th April 2015
Good luck to all our SATS students for their upcoming tests. You have worked so hard and been a pleasure to teach. You are as well prepared as you possibly can be, so now is the time to sit back and be confident. The most important thing now is to know you have done your best. Well Done.
Next month we will be moving our current Year 5s on to our SATS preparation course. We look forward to welcoming them. A few places still remain. Tutoring is restricted to groups of 4.
In other news we have two new students joining our Redhill class this month. We wish them a good start, work hard and have fun! The number of students on the roll who have achieved their times tables awards continues to grow, so keep practising Maths Masters.
28th March 2015
Happy Easter Holidays Maths Masters and Mums and Dads!
Let’s hope the weather is kind to us and we can all enjoy the parks and the countryside that is springing into life. Some of you in Redhill and Lower Kingswood will be thinking of Year 2 SATS, and some Year 6 SATS, and of course every stepping stone in our children’s lives seems momentous at the time, but let’s keep in mind that these primary school children are still much too young to be concerned about Maths exams. There will be plenty of time to worry when they reach the grand old age of 16 and 18. For the moment, your Maths SATS revision should be confined to asking them to count out change in shops, read the time on those old fashioned clocks, and helping to measure and weigh at every opportunity.
Have fun, and to those of you who are staying home in the next two weeks, see you in Redhill or Lower Kingswood!
Emma and Louise
11/02/2015
Hello Maths Masters, here’s an idea for a Happy Half Term! Celebrate Shrove Tuesday by mixing up some home made pancake batter this year.
Here’s a simple recipe to follow with Mum or Dad’s help.
300ml of semi skimmed milk
2 eggs
100 grams of plain flour.
Mix it altogether, let it stand a while then pour into a very hot pan. Yummy and good measuring practice. When you do your year 6 SATS you will be expected to be able to read scales and to estimate approximate measures. Have fun!
31/10/2014
Happy Halloween Maths Masters!
We hope you will all enjoy your Halloween worksheets and come back full of spooky stories to share with us after the weekend. After our first month together we are delighted with your positive feedback. It is lovely for us to hear that the children are enjoying themselves and the parents are happy with our approach. There is just time for us to direct your attention to our Autumn newsletter which can be accessed by clicking the link below:
04/08/2014
Hello Maths Masters!
First of all how lovely to meet a few of you at Kingswood Village School, and thank you to the school for inviting us! Hello to those new Maths Masters members who have joined recently, we are looking forward to working with you all in the new term.
So now the Summer Holidays are nearly upon us. Weeks of sun, play parks, swimming and Barbeques, but hopefully just time for me to tell you about the Maths Masters Summer Times Tables Challenge. I am asking mums and dads to get hold of those times tables flashcards, and get you all practicing! How about waiting for the after dinner ice cream until you get ten right answers in a row! How about putting that favourite track on the iPod and finding out how many right answers you can achieve before the song ends. This is a good three minute drill. How about ten questions before bedtime story.
So Maths Masters members, send your name and age to emma@maths-masters.co.uk and your name will be added to our least of entrants. We will be testing all times tables from 1 times up to 10 times, in an age appropriate way. Have fun!
18/07/2014
Hi Maths Masters Mums and Dads. We thought you might want to follow this link to the press release from the Government. It sets out some guidelines for the new more demanding Mathematics curriculum which will be first taught in September 2014, and first tested in May 2016.
There is an arithmetic paper for both 7 Year olds and 11 Year olds which endorses our emphasis on core computation skills. The guidelines also reference the learning methods of the Asian countries, so there will be more emphasis on rote learning, and it's back to basics with column addition and subtraction, long multiplication and long division, which will please some of us oldies!
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-primary-school-tests-will-help-eradicate-illiteracy-and-
innumeracy
14/07/2014
Hello Maths Masters!
Emma and Louise, as your two lead coaches are really excited to meet you all. You can follow this blog to keep up to date with all our news, and to hear about our special events. So just to get you all started.....
The first to email in with the answer to our Maths Puzzle number one, wins a free pick from the prizes bag on the first day of our new sessions.
ADD, The number of people who should be on a football pitch during a game TO the number of minutes in three hours, and TAKE AWAY the number of dwarfs in the Snow White Story.
louise@maths-masters.co.uk