The tables are turned as I attempt to break the US with an appearance on the excellent Bedley Brothers podcast. I try my very best to argue the case for direct instruction versus inquiry basedContinue reading
Category: My Blog Posts and Articles
Secrets and Mince Pies
Yes, it is once again this time of year where I shamelessly plug my festive novel, Secrets and Mince Pies. It is the story of a family in the four days leading up to Christmas,Continue reading
Something in Common: my latest maths rich task obsession
Last year, maths teacher John Burke contacted me to offer to share his amazing collection of 30 Something in Common maths rich tasks with me. Over the last 12 months I’ve used them with pretty muchContinue reading
AQA Free GCSE Maths Support
As Mr Barton Maths Podcast listeners may know, we currently do Edexcel GCSE at our school. However, I wanted to bring your attention to a set of top-quality, free resources from AQA that we willContinue reading
Diagnositc Questions GCSE Maths Exam Papers
The first GCSE Maths exam is drawing ever nearer. If your students are anything like ours, they will be more than a little fed up of doing past exam papers. And if you are anythingContinue reading
My Novel: Secrets and Mince Pies
It is this time of year where I shamelessly plug my festive novel, Secrets and Mince Pies. It is the story of a family in the four days leading up to Christmas, all of whomContinue reading
Guest Blog: Pinpoint Learning by Tom Quilter
It is my pleasure to introduce the following guest blog post by Tom Quilter. He is an incredibly passionate maths teacher from Mossbourne Community Academy, and he has created a wonderful, free maths website calledContinue reading
Guest post: Number Rumbler
The following blog post has been written by the Maths Charity, “Maths on Toast” about their lovely Number Rumbler campaign. I hope you can support it. Craig Let’s make times tables family fun! “TimesContinue reading
Free Resources for New Maths GCSE Content
I have decided to keep a track of all the best, free maths resources I come across that cover topics brand new to the 2017 GCSE Maths specification including: Functions Venn Diagrams Frequency Trees Iteration SystematicContinue reading
GCSE Results Day
So, last night the student forums were buzzing with news that the 2015 Edexcel GCSE Maths Grade boundaries had been released. As students started speculating whether or not they had done enough, many teachers will haveContinue reading
Year 7 Baseline Maths Tests – Assessing without levels
Recently, I have been doing a lot of thinking about assessment – as you can imagine, my wife has been delighted. In my series of blog posts about writing our new maths scheme of work, IContinue reading
555words – my (non maths!) blog
Just in case you feel the need for a break from the wonderful world of mathematics over the summer, then you may be interested in my latest, non-mathematical, venture. Myself and two of my friendsContinue reading
Arithmagons – my second favourite type of rich task
Myself and my colleague, Erica Richards, have created a series of Arithmagon activities covering 14 different maths topics. Okay, so they are no Venn Diagrams, but I believe they are a very worthwhile activity forContinue reading
Writing a new Scheme of Work – Part 19: One Year On
You can view all the posts in the epic “Writing a Maths Scheme of Work” series on this page. It’s kind of like Game of Thrones, only with slightly less nudity and dragons. So, we haveContinue reading
Writing a new Maths Scheme of Work – Part 18: Feedback, Dialogue and Redrafting
You can view all the posts in the epic “Writing a Maths Scheme of Work” series on this page. It’s kind of like Game of Thrones, only with slightly less nudity and dragons. A whole schoolContinue reading
Writing a new Maths Scheme of Work – Part 17: Assessments
You can view all the posts in the epic “Writing a Maths Scheme of Work” series on this page. It’s kind of like Game of Thrones, only with slightly less nudity and dragons. Okay, so assessments.Continue reading
Writing a new Maths Scheme of Work – Part 16: Homeworks
You can view all the posts in the epic “Writing a Maths Scheme of Work” series on this page. It’s kind of like Game of Thrones, only with slightly less nudity and dragons. It has beenContinue reading
The art of teaching anti-functional maths
I have started writing for a new TES blog. Below is my first article on what I see are the dangers of an over-emphasis on so-called functional or real life maths. You can view theContinue reading
Venn Diagram Activities
I have created and uploaded to TES 24 Venn Diagram activities, covering a whole host of mathematical topics, from straight line graphs to probability, calling in at properties of 3D shapes and sequences along theContinue reading
The 5 most interesting misconceptions in mathematics – my Edexcel Maths Conference Talk, July 2015
On Saturday 4th July, I was kindly invited to give the opening address at the wonderful Edexcel Maths Conference in Warwick. The title of my talk was “The 5 most interesting misconceptions in mathematics”. QuiteContinue reading