London Maths ATM & MA Conference Part 2 : Kate Gladstone Smith

Here is part 2 to the London Maths ATM/MA Conference. Kate Gladstone Smith, and her colleague, both from Langdon Park School talked about their experimental year of setting half of their year 10 cohort and leaving the other half in mixed attainment groups (both higher and foundation were fixed). Below are some box plots of the attainment and progress of the two halves of the year. 

 Whilst it is a small-scale study, it is really interesting to see that the students generally seem to be doing better in mixed ability groups. I have always been fascinated by the idea of not setting students as I do query the idea that students are equally weak in all areas of maths. Some kids may just not get on with algebra at all but with geometry, they can just see it. My middle year 9 set did transformations must quicker than I could because a lot of them could just see it.  I also feel that you are putting a ceiling on those students in the lower ability groups and whether you call the groups (or tables in primary school) 1, 2, 3 or names like alpha, beta, gamma, the students know where they are in the ranking of ability.

Whilst the idea of not setting really appeals to me, I will be honest and say I have absolutely no idea how I could do it higher up the school. I struggle with my year 7s who are very widely spread (and I work in a partially selective school), where in their end of year tests, the marks ranged from 18 - 89 out of 90. It was because of his I was so fascinated by the idea of mixed attainment groups at KS4 which I haven't heard of before.

Kate then spoke a little bit about the how. The maths department has designed and created a lot of their own resources that fit with their curriculum and the needs of their students. The students all have their own booklets and the teachers plan collaboratively to help work out how best to approach mixed attainment teaching.

The one thing that really hit me was what went on before any teaching occurred. Kate talked about how carefully constructed the classes were, to ensure the dynamic worked. At Langdon Park School they believe strongly that group work and collaboration is the key to success when it comes to teaching mixed attainment and this is why group dynamic is crucial. So, whilst ensuring there is a mixed spread of ability, it is important to have a balance of quiet students and loud characters, really hard workers and those that need more encouragement to get started. I've never thought about taking into consideration the personalities of the students and that does seem like something that should be really important to consider. Students are people first and foremost, not a level.

We were then given a task to do as a table (in groups of four). We all had to draw a net and construct a tetrahedron with sides of length 7cm (with the hint to remember to draw tabs). Another reminder was given after a few minutes that a tetrahedron was made up of 4 equilateral triangles. We were given coloured paper, scissors, glue, compasses, rulers, and pencils to complete the task. We were then told to assemble our tetrahedra into shape below (on the right).

Once we had done that, our next task was to create a net for the 3D shape that would fit in the void and construct it. This was quite a challenge and stimulated some really great discussions. As I said before, visualising isn't really my thing so I found this really challenging. Luckily I had some bright sparks on my table to help me out!

Ways that this could further be extended:

• Calculate the surface area of the tetrahedron/shape of void
• Calculate the volume of the tetrahedron/shape of void
• How many other polyhedra are there?
• How can you prove what you've found?

This was so fascinating. By working in groups, it really allows the students to be exposed to some incredible thinking and reasoning. If I had been given this task to do, I don't think I would have got there but having people explain it to me in different ways was amazing to see how students that just couldn't see it could eventually get to the stage where they are engaged in the activity.

Other tips Kate shared about mixed ability groupings

• Planning together with your colleagues and collaborating (this is a bit thing for Kate!)
• Planning open-ended tasks such as the one above (to really allow development and stretch but with scaffolding in place (suggests wildmaths for some ideas)
• Get the students to work in groups (and teach them how to work in groups - it is a skill!!)
• Buy some chalk pens and use them to write on tables and windows (a baby wipe is all you need to remove them apparently) as a way to get your pupils up and about and excited about group work.

This was such a wonderful talk with so much food for thought. Thank you so much, Kate, for sharing with us what you are trying out at your school and will definitely look at incorporating more open-ended tasks and group work with my classes.