Senior School Maths

One of our biggest focuses in senior school maths over the next couple of years is getting students to understand that success for every student is different. We want students to learn about themselves; we want them to come to understand what is required to be the best version of themselves.

Year 10

Year 10 students in term 1 managed to outperform the usual beginning of senior school trend with nearly 90% receiving a C grade or better. It is now time for students to consolidate and be ready for a challenging Term 2 with Quadratics and Trigonometry being the main content areas. To ensure success our teaching team will be focusing on Simple Familiar questions as they are the fundamentals and take up 60% of the exam. These are the questions students will practice most and are accessible to every level of maths student.

Year 11

Essential Maths – Students will be doing their first exam in the coming weeks and their study for this should be well underway. They will be covering Unit 1 topics: Percentages, Data and Graphs. Students are reminded that they will need to have a calculator, writing equipment and a ruler for the exam as there will be no borrowing of equipment during the exam due to being unprepared.

Mathematical Methods – The end of Unit 1 exam is also approaching and students have really lifted in their study habits and many are taking advantage of the resources available to them.

Resources:

• Educreations.com
• Mathspace.co
• Practice exams
• Online textbook resources
• Subject Onenote

Students should speak with their teacher if they have any questions about these resources. Students are strongly encouraged to try new strategic study habits to figure out how they could reach their full potential. Year 11 is a learning year; students should be learning both content and what habits work best for them.

General Mathematics – Students are deep in their Problem Solving and Modelling Task (PSMT) and drafts should have been submitted. The PSMT is a guided practice run for the 20% task they will do at the beginning of next year and the most important thing students need to take from doing the task is a better understanding of the criteria sheet.

An example challenging criteria point can be seen below:

Criteria – Solve

Accurate translation of all aspects of the problem by identifying concepts and techniques.

 It is important to explain the concept, but particularly how it is going to be used to answer the task. (can organise into tables)

• "All" refers to concepts/techniques used to solve, evaluate and technology.

Example 1: (N.B. this is an excerpt from a Mathematical Methods student’s work. Content is not important for General Maths)

Example 2: Students may benefit from strategically organising their concepts to explain and show how.

Trent Hage
HOD Maths

Middle School Maths

Assessment - This term Year 7, 8 and 9 mainstream mathematics assessment will consist of an end of term exam. A more detailed breakdown of assessment is available on the PBC website (click here for more assessment information as well as the PBC assessment policy and application for extension or change of date form). Please see below for assessment due dates:

Middle School Term 3 Mainstream Mathematics Assessment

Being prepared for learning in Mathematics - The start of term is a timely reminder about the importance of being prepared to learn in every Math lesson. Math preparedness is bringing a textbook and calculator to every lesson. If students have a BYOD and are finding that bringing their laptop and textbook is too cumbersome a digital version of the textbook is available. Students can check if they have access to the digital version of the textbook by checking the sticker inside the front cover of their textbook. If the sticker looks like the image below they can access the digital textbook using the details provided. If not please direct your child to speak to their Math teacher or if they have any issues accessing the digital version.

A note about calculators.  Students are expected to have their own scientific calculator for all Maths lessons.  Casio is the preferred model (see image below) at PBC but any scientific calculator is acceptable.  Students are not permitted to use their mobile phones as a calculator. Please make sure that your son or daughter is prepared for every Maths lesson by bringing a calculator to school every day. Thank you for your support with this.

Problem Solving using Polya

The Polya problem solving method gives students a process for attacking those difficult Math problems. The process involves:

• See – Understanding what the problem is asking
• PLAN - Making a plan to solve the problem
• Do – carrying out their plan
• CHECK – checking that their answer is reasonable and works

Please encourage your child to use these as guidelines if they are ‘stuck’ on their Maths homework.

Bianca Deague
HOD MS Maths