Maths News

High Growth Scores

Congratulations to the following students who have received high growth scores for the last fortnight.

Maths student of the week

Marcus Keirl

Marcus is a quiet achiever in the classroom. He always has his materials ready and is focused during class. He takes ownership for his learning, always completing seven or more modules a cycle. Marcus participates in mini lessons with a positive attitude and a growth mindset. He always listens to teacher directions, his peers and shares his own solving strategies. Marcus works at his own pace, ensuring he understands a concept before moving onto a new one. Marcus is currently extending his knowledge and skills on Algebraic Expressions. 

Well done Marcus!

Interviews with hard working Year 8 and 9 students

Mr Leslie asked the Junior Maths teachers to nominate some hard working and successful students for interviews for this newsletter. Olivia Gemmill and Jules Elliott were identified as two students who met these criteria.  

Olivia Gemmill

Olivia, tell me a little about your maths journey?

I found maths challenging in primary school. I got as much help as I could and also did some tutoring which helped. When I started at St Joes I began to feel more positive about maths. I like being able to work at own pace in Maths Pathway. I also like to work independently and feel I get a better understanding of the content by figuring it out myself rather than being shown one way to do it. Year 9 has definitely been a harder year as the learning tasks are becoming more challenging. However, I feel I am handling it well. I do revision every week.

What does revision look like for you?

Well I involve my parents actually. My Dad is a Fitter and Turner and knows about maths. Dad gives me questions, testing me on the modules I have done. This helps me work out what I do and don’t know.

I can then ask Mr Williams, my teacher, for help with anything I am still unsure of. Mr Williams checks in with me every lesson and I feel very comfortable asking him for help.

Which aspects of Maths do you enjoy?

I like the time we spend in mini-lessons and working independently on modules. I don’t get as much out of the decoding and problem-solving lessons.

Jules Elliott

Jules, tell me a little about your Maths journey.

I have always enjoyed maths and found the work interesting. Maths is one of my strong areas. 

What is your experience like in maths at the moment?

At the moment, I really like the ability to choose different areas of maths to work on each lesson. However, I would like to have a bit more interaction with my teachers and peers though. I get really good feedback from my teacher about what I have and haven’t done well. The mini-lessons are really helpful to, but I would like more of them. I enjoy the decoding lessons as they give me the opportunity to problem solve. I feel like I have improved in my problem solving ability through these lessons.

What do you do when you find something hard?

As a starting point, I use the answers to help. I also seek help from my teacher. My older brothers both like maths too, so I ask them sometimes.

Rhys Leslie

Learning Leader - School of Reason