Oct. 12, 2025
Ep 142: The Ultimate Guide To Primary Maths: Fluency, Reasoning, Problem Solving & How To Teach It Well!

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Hello everyone and welcome back
to another episode of Teach
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Sleep Repeat.
My name is Dylan and my name's
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Hayden, and this week we're
going to be diving into our
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favourite subject.
You know what it is?
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It's math.
We're going to be talking
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fluency, reasoning and problem
solving, defining them and also
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going over some of the
misconceptions around them.
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We'll take a look at how to
structure a really quality maths
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lesson and sequence of learning,
as well as being able to use
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schemes without them becoming
limiting and frustrating.
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And make sure you stick around,
because we'll be giving some
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sneak peek information about
what we've been up to behind the
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scenes in the Mass world.
Oh, how exciting.
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Let's go.
All right, so I think before we
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dive into this, we should just
give some context.
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Listeners will know how much we
love maths.
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They will know how involved
we'll have maths and a whole
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career.
However, I just want to make
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this really clear for anyone
maybe who's watching or
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listening for the first time or
isn't quite sure about why we
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feel like we can almost be the
experts here talking about
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maths, our careers.
I for me, I think it's defined
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by maths.
Like I loved being a primary
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school teacher because you could
teach all the subjects, but my
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passion and what I was really
interested in and what I thought
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I did really well was teach
maths.
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Same for you.
I was a primary maths teacher,
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Yeah.
And I had to teach some other
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subjects as well.
That's, that's the way I see it.
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My family literally asked like
they got when I was just
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throughout my career.
They're like, Oh yeah, how how's
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the old maths teaching?
I was like, do you do know?
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I do actually teach other stuff
as well, even though I only talk
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about maths.
I do also teach English and
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Geography everything.
Else, yeah.
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And I think when we trained the
university, you know, our main
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focus was maths as well.
Like we literally had maths
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specialist input from Gina
Donaldson.
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And Gina, I don't know if you're
listening to Gina Donaldson, but
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you are genuinely the reason why
I felt like I could become an
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expert in maths and I felt like
I could pass it on to the
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children because she inspired
me.
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Like she was unbelievable as a
tutor.
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It was at Canterbury
Christchurch University, 10 out
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of 10.
And having done her course, I
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felt equipped almost straight
away because again, we trained
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in 2014, 2015, around the time
of this new curriculum.
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So we were in this really odd
position where in university we
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were being taught how to teach
maths in this almost new mastery
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way, but embedded in the new
curriculum from the start.
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So when we went into school, we
almost had a head start in that
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respect, I think big time.
And it was like, no, this is
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just how you teach maths.
And this whole idea of, oh, new
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maths different to what I did
before, we had none of that
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really, because it was just
that's how we were learned and.
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Having now taught for 10 years,
I can't believe how important
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that was.
I also had Gina so big up
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transformational in terms of
changing my just eradicating my
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misconceptions about maths and
how I very much thought of like,
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yeah, it's just you see it
online all the time now.
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People being like, don't teach
the kids multiple methods, just
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do this one way.
It always works and then they
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can get the questions right in
the test.
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There are so many reasons I
could argue against that and
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we'll go into it and we talk
about fluency and all the other
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bits, but Gina really just
immediately from from day one
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was like, Yep, here is a more
holistic way to think about how
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people learn maths really well
and and it just shaped my shaped
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my maths and this.
Is why it's better and This is
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why it's good.
And then when we went into
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school, very quickly you became
maths lead of of the school
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where I worked.
I remember you becoming maths
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lead and I was on the hub, the
team, but you were the leader
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for that.
And then when we ended up in our
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school that we worked in
together, just at the end of our
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teaching journey, we both LED
maths together, kind of Co LED
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it.
You're my assistant to the maths
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lead.
I was the maths lead.
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So you were very much just kind
of below me.
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But yeah, we've LED maths in
school for years and years and
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years and years.
And one of my big passions, and
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This is why we're doing this
episode, is to just help other
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teachers understand maybe some
of the terminology, fluency,
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reasoning, problem solving, what
it means, what it might look
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like in a lesson, why it's
important, which ones we should
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weight more heavily, what it
might look like in a classroom.
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And importantly, what the
misconceptions are as to what
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good maths teaching actually
might look like.
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Which I think embedded in a lot
of schools now for reasons where
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they want to help their children
as much as possible and want to
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meet the national curriculum
aims, they're actually doing
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things that I think are
potentially bad practise when it
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comes to maths in general.
So hopefully we can flesh some
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bits out, talk about what
different words mean literally
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in this in the curriculum, and
then yeah, dive into what a good
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lesson might look like, how it
might structure things and
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basically let our passion shine,
no doubt.
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No doubt that's what you're
saying, because we love maths
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and we could just talk about
this for hours.
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Precisely that.
So let's start off, I think it's
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important that we everything we
do is rooted in the national
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curriculum aims.
So I'm going to talk about the
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aims specifically for the maths
curriculum now in primary
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school.
And it's split up into three
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chunks.
And these three chunks are
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things people will have heard of
at some point in their training
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or just in their delivery of
maths lessons in primary school,
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and that is fluency, reasoning
and problem solving.
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So let's read them through.
Now this is from the national
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curriculum.
The National Curriculum for
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Mathematics aims to ensure that
all pupils, and that's really
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important, all pupils, we'll
come back to that number one,
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become fluent in the
fundamentals of mathematics,
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including through varied and
frequent practise with
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increasingly complex problems
over time so that pupils develop
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a conceptual understanding and
the ability to recall and apply
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knowledge rapidly and
accurately.
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It goes on to then say #2 to
reason mathematically by
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following a line of inquiry,
conjecturing relationships and
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generalisations and developing
an argument, justification or
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proof using mathematical
language.
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And thirdly, can problem solve
by applying their mathematics to
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a variety of routine and non
routine problems with increasing
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sophistication, including
breaking down problems into a
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series of smaller, simpler steps
and persevering in seeking
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solutions.
Excellent.
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Shall we dive in then?
Should we break these down?
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Should we just go into fluency
now and really just talk about
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what fluency is?
Again, some of the
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misconceptions and just yeah,
our top tips and what it looks
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like in a lesson, how to embed
it into lessons.
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Yeah.
Because when people say fluency,
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I think you can sometimes
simplify in your head as do you
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know your timetables.
Yeah.
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Can you add up?
Can you subtract?
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And I think that's part of
fluency.
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I think that's really important.
And one thing we'll be
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referencing throughout this, I
think it's a fantastic blog on
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3rd Space Learning by Neil
Ormond.
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He did a whole blog about
reasoning, problem solving, and
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fluency.
And a lot of what he says
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resonates with the way I think
we think about math as well.
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So we'll be referencing that
too.
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We'll leave a link down in the
description to that whole blog.
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If you wanted to read, I would
recommend it.
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But fluency, to me, fluency it's
being able to understand
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mathematical facts and know them
quickly, to understand concepts
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and know them quickly and
mathematical language and to
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understand what they mean.
And for me, being fluent in
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something means practising doing
the maths, understanding the
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words or knowing the concepts.
So it becomes second nature and
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that's when you become fluent.
So fluency is something you
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should be working towards
becoming.
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Are you fluent in addition and
subtraction at the year 4 level,
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yes or no?
The answer for most children
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will be no.
And we're working towards
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becoming fluent.
So when we say what does fluency
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look like or varied fluency or
mixed fluency in a maths lesson,
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it's ensuring that children are
exposed to ability to practise
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things and not be scared of
practising things over and over
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because you need to be able to
do the maths.
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Do they understand the language
being used in that topic?
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And I would say being exposed to
doing the maths, but in many
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different representations.
So I think a lot of people would
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say, and maybe you can clarify a
bit more about all this, a lot
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of people would say that fluency
equals arithmetic.
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So just going a bit further from
your, you said fluency might be
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just times tables, but I think
you can expand that to a genuine
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misconception, which is that
it's just arithmetic.
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So do you think when it comes
down to things like key stage 1
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to arithmetic papers, or just
generally arithmetic papers in
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your ear group, do you think
that embodies entirely fluency
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because ultimately it's all the
methods you need to know to do
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maths?
So what I'd say to people is
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arithmetic is part of fluency.
It's one string to the bow.
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It's it's really, really, really
important.
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You could even say it's
potentially the most important
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part of fluency in my opinion.
And I think we could argue that.
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And I think you might be right
to say that.
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I think it's the actually being
able to literally manipulate
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number using the four operations
is the most fundamentally
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important part of maths.
And then what I worry about
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sometimes and what I see in
schools is it's kind of brushed,
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brushed aside or rushed through
or sort.
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Yeah, that's important, but we
need to reason and problem
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solve.
No, no, no, you literally cannot
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reason and problem solve if you
can't do the maths.
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So let's talk about arithmetic
in particular.
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I think that is vital and it
very much links to the kind of
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thing we're working on now.
We're building platform to to
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help teachers and children
become fluent and specifically
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to begin with get better at
arithmetic.
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Another sneaky yeah.
Another sneaky is or.
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Basically, it's true because I
kind of want to talk about both,
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because we're obviously
extremely passionate about this
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and I will, I genuinely think
just backing on what you're
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saying, I think arithmetic,
particularly as part of fluency,
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fluency in general, I would say
is absolutely the most
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fundamentally important part of
maths, genuinely.
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And I do feel like because we
can also say the end goal of
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maths is problem solving, I do
think we conflate the importance
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levels of them.
It's like, yeah, the end goal is
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problem solving, but fluency is
the most important bit because
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you can't do it without it.
It's literally the foundation of
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the house you're building.
You have to get it right.
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There's way more to it, you
know, but if you think about the
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classic pyramid example, I think
even first place learning has a
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couple of different examples of
that.
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It kind of is, you know,
crudely, it's the massive bit at
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the bottom, fluency, and that
involves majority of that is
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arithmetic.
Yeah, we've got to get it right.
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And I think that that's really
important and that's the link.
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We're going to be drawing these
links throughout this and you'll
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see why will maybe come back to
it once we've defined, you know,
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reasoning and problem solving.
Why actually this is the most
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important part.
Fluency is the most fundamental
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part of if you're teaching
primary mathematics properly,
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you have to get this right.
And if you are glazing over it
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to go through more quickly to
reasoning and problem solving
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without becoming secure in your
fluency, you're doing your
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children at the service because
who can problem solve if they
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can't once they've figured out
what to do, actually do it.
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It's the most important thing.
And just going back to what you
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00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:03,520
said about fluency and we said
arithmetics part of fluency.
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00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:05,640
So I can imagine people might be
out there thinking, well, what
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00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:06,720
do you mean part?
What's the rest?
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00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:10,040
For example, think of your part
whole models, think of schemes
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00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:13,680
like White Rose learning, White
Rose maths that a lot of a lot
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00:10:13,680 --> 00:10:16,760
of schools use out there and
what questions might look like
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00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:19,600
1-2, three and four.
And I can imagine sometimes as a
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00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:23,280
teacher, I've known teachers who
become frustrated that, oh,
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00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:25,200
they've only done 4 questions
like this, then suddenly they've
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00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:27,080
got a part hole model, then
suddenly they've got a bar
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00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:28,760
model.
Then suddenly they've got an
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00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:30,920
inverse operation and suddenly
the presentation looks different
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00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:32,440
and the missing answer boxes in
a different place.
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00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:36,840
That's down to you as a teacher.
I think good schemes give lots
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of opportunities for fluency
like this.
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00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:42,280
But you as a teacher need to
understand what fluency is and
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00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:45,640
why it's important and almost
hierarchically move through
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00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:48,200
fluency in a way that's still
sensible.
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00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,440
Because I think sometimes with
fluency people here, OK, I kind
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00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:53,600
of get what you're saying now,
Dylan, fluency is this like
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00:10:53,600 --> 00:10:56,800
ability to have lots of
different representations of
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00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:58,840
questions and being able to
apply.
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00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:01,360
Maybe let's just talk about
addition to lots of different
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00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:02,640
ways.
But oh, OK, even though this is
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00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:05,600
a pothole model, I'm adding,
even though this is maybe a bar
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00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:08,800
model, I'm adding, this might be
just literally written as
250
00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:10,840
arithmetic, but I'm adding that
is fluency.
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00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:14,120
But it doesn't mean you have to
just randomly do them off the
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00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:17,280
bat.
Big part of fluency is can you
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00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:19,680
do the maths in the 1st place?
Can you literally add 2 numbers
254
00:11:19,680 --> 00:11:22,560
together?
OK, Then we can expand it to, to
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00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:25,560
some ideas of maybe, OK, look,
maybe not just arithmetic now,
256
00:11:25,560 --> 00:11:27,400
but it might be shown in a
different way.
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00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:28,720
Yeah.
And then there's even another
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00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:31,320
step of fluency, which is do you
know how many sides the square
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00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:33,200
has exactly?
That's not reasoning on problem
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00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:34,600
solving.
Do you, do you know how many
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00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:36,160
centimetres are in a metre?
These are.
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00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:39,000
This is when we talk about the
known facts, the things you just
263
00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:40,680
have to know.
You just have to know the
264
00:11:40,680 --> 00:11:43,000
definition of some words.
You need to know what perimeter
265
00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:44,760
means.
That's not reasoning on problem
266
00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:45,880
solving.
It's not arithmetic either.
267
00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:47,520
Exactly.
It's not arithmetic, but it is
268
00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:50,720
fluency and it comes under that
umbrella and This is why fluency
269
00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:52,520
is vital.
If you don't know what words
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00:11:52,520 --> 00:11:56,320
mean, mathematical vocabulary,
if you can't do the maths and if
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00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:59,200
you don't understand the
concept, you can't do maths.
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00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:03,360
It's like, I can't get across
enough how I feel like fluency
273
00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:06,880
is maths and the reason people
push back and they say, well, no
274
00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:08,880
problem solving is maths,
correct?
275
00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:12,680
It overlaps.
We can't see it as separate
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00:12:12,680 --> 00:12:14,200
things that we just do
separately.
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00:12:14,680 --> 00:12:17,000
It's it's one in the same.
And the way the aims of the
278
00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:19,640
curriculum are written down and
the way sometimes schemes of
279
00:12:19,640 --> 00:12:22,720
work present things and the way
sometimes we're taught how to
280
00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:25,640
teach a maths lesson.
I feel like fluency just gets
281
00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:28,240
lumped in as like, yeah, you do
that for a bit and then we do
282
00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:30,560
some reasoning, problem solving.
What I'm trying to get here is
283
00:12:30,560 --> 00:12:34,400
with the definition of fluency
is it is fundamentally what a
284
00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:38,680
maths lesson should be and then
you work towards so if you're
285
00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:40,160
reasoning and problem solving
which we'll.
286
00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:43,320
Come on to moving through the
the flow chart in my head when
287
00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:46,200
I'm thinking about the three
elements of maths, you know,
288
00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,280
fluency, reason, problem solving
is I think to myself, are the
289
00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:52,040
kids fluent in the maths that
I'm thinking of right now?
290
00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:54,040
Yes or no?
If the answer is yes, then I'll
291
00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:56,520
start thinking, oh cool.
I wonder if I can expose them to
292
00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:59,240
some opportunities to solve some
problems now where they can use
293
00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:01,080
their reasoning skills and they
can apply this fluency.
294
00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:04,920
And if the answer is no, my
genuine thought is either, OK,
295
00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:08,480
cool, can I do some more fluency
with them until they become
296
00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:10,320
fluent?
Maybe it's maybe it is just
297
00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:11,520
straight arithmetic.
If they're really, really
298
00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:13,600
struggling even with the method
at this point, maybe it's just
299
00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:15,200
they're struggling with
different representations.
300
00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:17,720
They're not they've not been
exposed enough yet to different
301
00:13:17,720 --> 00:13:18,800
ways of seeing.
They've got they're really good
302
00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:20,120
at the method.
They're just not very good at
303
00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:22,320
recognising, Oh, that's when I
need to use that method
304
00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:25,080
definitions, definition equally,
stuff like that.
305
00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:27,600
That's outside arithmetic.
And if and, but even still, if
306
00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:30,400
the answer's no, I might still
think, I still, I would like to
307
00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:32,800
expose my children to a bit of
problem solving, but I might use
308
00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:34,960
something that fluent in, in
something else, which we'll come
309
00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:36,640
to, I guess, when we talk more
about problem solving.
310
00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:39,640
But the, the fundamental part of
what I'm saying here is I always
311
00:13:39,640 --> 00:13:41,560
think to myself, are they fluent
or are they not?
312
00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:43,320
You know, that's my first
thought.
313
00:13:43,400 --> 00:13:46,600
It's not just does the lesson
struct to tell me I need to be
314
00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:48,880
doing some reasoning on this
objective today and some problem
315
00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:50,360
solving.
That's not the way to think
316
00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:52,040
about maths because I they need
to be fluent.
317
00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:53,480
That's the point.
If they're not fluent, don't do
318
00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:55,160
it.
It's such a good point and let's
319
00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:57,080
move on to let's move on to
reasoning now.
320
00:13:57,080 --> 00:13:58,520
So we talked about, we talked
about fluency.
321
00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:03,320
Reasoning is, is to me really
bizarre and unique.
322
00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:04,920
Hardest one to define.
I think so.
323
00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:07,880
And I think, I think I can kind
of define it, but I feel like
324
00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:10,720
the old fashioned way of
thinking of these as 3 pillars
325
00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:12,360
of maths.
I don't think it's helpful.
326
00:14:12,680 --> 00:14:14,800
There's I feel like there's a
very old fashioned way we think
327
00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:16,600
of yeah, you've got your
fluency, then you've got your
328
00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:18,360
reasoning questions, then you've
got your problem solving
329
00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:19,080
questions.
Yeah, sure.
330
00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:21,000
And what I'm trying to do is we
go through this, I think we're
331
00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:22,640
trying to just eradicate that
thought process.
332
00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:24,480
Don't think of them as separate
pots.
333
00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:28,360
Because to me, reasoning is the
ultimate version of you reason
334
00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:30,920
all of the time, all of the
time.
335
00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:33,560
So reasoning again, let's think
about what reasoning actually is
336
00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:36,640
to define it.
I'm going to be taking from Neil
337
00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:39,400
Ormond in this in this blog
because I think the way he puts
338
00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:41,280
things down on paper is a
really, really clear way of
339
00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:43,160
thinking about it.
Reasoning and maths is the
340
00:14:43,160 --> 00:14:47,440
process of applying logical
thinking to a situation to
341
00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:50,120
derive the correct problem
solving strategy for a given
342
00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:52,600
question.
Put more simply, mathematical
343
00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,480
reasoning is the bridge between
fluency and problem solving.
344
00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:58,920
It allows pupils to use the
former accurately to carry carry
345
00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:01,360
out the latter.
And I think that's such a nice
346
00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:05,120
way of thinking about it is you
can't just think about reasoning
347
00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:06,760
as have I done reasoning
questions today.
348
00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:09,480
Reasoning is the art of
thinking.
349
00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:13,160
It's the art of of actually
doing maths.
350
00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:15,280
And I'd argue there's an overlap
of fluency.
351
00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:17,880
Clearly there's an overlap here
with problem solving because we
352
00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:20,440
have to reason and think about
what's what we're going to pick
353
00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:22,040
to solve a problem or come on to
problem solving.
354
00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,480
But also, I think with fluency,
I think picking efficient
355
00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:28,680
methods, that's reasoning,
thinking, oh, what if I had to
356
00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:31,080
explain to someone why this
method is more efficient than
357
00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:33,200
that method?
That is definitely reasoning.
358
00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:36,680
And it's the kind of thing I'd
be doing during my fluency part
359
00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:38,280
of my lesson.
I wouldn't be thinking, oh
360
00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:39,920
Christ, no, I can't possibly
reason now.
361
00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:42,080
I mean, my fluency part of my
lesson, we're just practising.
362
00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:46,120
No, no, reasoning is everything.
And I think quality reasoning
363
00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:48,680
happens to all children all of
the time, no matter what they're
364
00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:50,360
doing.
Because at any point as a
365
00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:51,760
teacher, you can be asking
questions.
366
00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:54,360
Why doing that?
What's the benefit of doing
367
00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:56,200
that?
Why have you exchanged there in
368
00:15:56,200 --> 00:15:57,040
that question?
Yeah.
369
00:15:57,240 --> 00:15:58,920
Yeah.
Well, that's weird because on
370
00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:00,200
the other table they did this
method.
371
00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:01,480
Do you think that's better or
worse?
372
00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:03,800
They're still doing.
Why have you used inverse here
373
00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:05,640
Exactly.
You know, even just that you
374
00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:06,480
said.
I agree, by the way.
375
00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:08,440
I think reasoning is very much.
It's the glue.
376
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:09,240
Yeah.
And it does.
377
00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:11,600
It ranges all the way from
fluency all the way into problem
378
00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:12,040
solving.
Yeah.
379
00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:14,200
I can think of the most basic
version of this where you could
380
00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:16,160
just where you could just about
say, yeah, actually there's a
381
00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:17,760
bit of a reasoning going on
here, which is right.
382
00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:19,880
You've taught the kids the
arithmetic of adding two
383
00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:21,280
numbers.
They know the method.
384
00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:23,200
They know how to line it up and
do the addition and when
385
00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:26,120
something says this, add this,
they can do it, right?
386
00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:28,320
And then you present them.
This is all with influence.
387
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:30,680
You still based on all these
definitions when you then
388
00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:33,040
present them an inverse question
where it's blank.
389
00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:36,240
Take away a number equals a
number and you know, as a
390
00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,360
teacher, oh, they've actually,
even though it says the
391
00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:40,600
subtraction symbol in this
question, they've got to add
392
00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:42,560
those two parts together to get
back to that total.
393
00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:44,840
They're still using the exact
same method you taught.
394
00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:47,200
There's nothing different about
the method and the arithmetic
395
00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:48,560
that they've got to use to solve
this.
396
00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:52,000
But technically they've got to
think just a little bit more
397
00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:54,840
than the last ones of oh, wait,
am I supposed to be subtracting
398
00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:56,840
here?
Or oh, wait, it's laid out this
399
00:16:56,840 --> 00:16:58,800
way, which means I need to use
inverse, which means I'm still
400
00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:00,080
using addition.
Great, I can do that.
401
00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:03,640
That to me is like the smallest
increment where I can think of
402
00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:05,599
where it's like you could say
there's a bit of reasoning
403
00:17:05,599 --> 00:17:08,079
happening there now, but that's
very much fluency.
404
00:17:08,079 --> 00:17:09,800
So that kind of just backs up my
idea.
405
00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:11,760
This idea that reasoning really
is the glue.
406
00:17:12,079 --> 00:17:13,560
It happens all the way through
fluency.
407
00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:15,640
It happens all the way up to
just complete problem solving.
408
00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:17,839
It's kind of everywhere.
It's like you said, it's not
409
00:17:17,839 --> 00:17:20,839
really like a, a separate thing
isolated.
410
00:17:20,839 --> 00:17:23,280
You've got your fluency, then
you've got this thing explicitly
411
00:17:23,280 --> 00:17:25,000
called reasoning, and then
you've got this thing explicitly
412
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:26,480
called problem solving.
It doesn't work like that.
413
00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:29,160
I think that the reason why I
think this has happened and
414
00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:32,000
developed over time is because I
do think there are some
415
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,920
questions which are you can't
refute that it's it's a
416
00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:37,880
reasoning question.
They do exist, like they they
417
00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:40,240
can exist in terms of explaining
your method.
418
00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:42,240
You've seen these questions a
million times in all these
419
00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:45,120
schemes where it says, you know,
think, think like Tiny from
420
00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:47,280
White Rose maths, right?
Tiny's done this.
421
00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:49,880
Where has he gone wrong?
Yeah, that's that's fun, that
422
00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:50,360
is.
Reasoning.
423
00:17:50,360 --> 00:17:51,960
Explain your reasoning.
Explain your reasoning.
424
00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:55,640
It is literally reasoning, yeah,
but again, you've literally
425
00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:58,400
can't do that reasoning unless
you understand the process.
426
00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:00,280
Yeah, you've got to be fluent in
the thing he's talking about.
427
00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:02,440
Exactly how can you possibly do
that?
428
00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:05,600
And then that's when good
teaching in the moment of doing
429
00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:09,120
fluency, it is embedding these
reasoning questions as you go.
430
00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:11,440
Because then what the children
can do when it comes to that
431
00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:14,080
reasoning question is they think
back to when they explain to
432
00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:15,800
their teacher or they explain to
their partner.
433
00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:18,720
And the power of talk and the
power of reasoning whilst doing
434
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,040
fluency means they can now
access that question.
435
00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:24,000
They are all interlinked.
It is not a separate thing.
436
00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:26,640
You should not be just getting
kids just to practise maths,
437
00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:28,240
practise maths, practise maths,
practise maths.
438
00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:32,040
Let's do some reasoning.
No, no, no, it's embedded in the
439
00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:34,600
very moment of learning the
process.
440
00:18:35,120 --> 00:18:38,080
You can have reasoning going on
all of the time and the best
441
00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:41,160
teachers do that.
And that's where I think it's
442
00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:42,800
absolutely right that we have
these different names in the
443
00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:45,280
curriculum.
But I just hoping to get through
444
00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,880
to people that you, you don't
have to isolate them.
445
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,560
And if you do, I think it's at
the detriment of your maths
446
00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:53,760
teaching.
So think about the last one,
447
00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:56,880
problem solving.
I'm going to start off by saying
448
00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:59,760
to me, I said about earlier how
fluency is maths, right?
449
00:18:59,960 --> 00:19:01,840
Yeah, I'm going to say some
people might think I'm being
450
00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:03,680
hypocritical here or
contradicting myself.
451
00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:07,560
Problem solving is math
hypocrite, actually, because I,
452
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:13,280
I think to me, if you, if you
think about why we teach
453
00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:15,360
fluency, right, it's not for
fun.
454
00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:18,640
I personally used to love adding
up numbers when I was younger
455
00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:19,720
because I just liked the
patterns.
456
00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:21,320
Yeah.
I enjoy it, feels good to get it
457
00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:22,480
right.
Off it felt good and it's right
458
00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:24,680
or wrong and I quite liked that.
OK, and you could say oh, that's
459
00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:26,040
fluency.
No, no, the point of being
460
00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:29,680
fluent and the point of
reasoning is to apply this and
461
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:32,320
have a bridge to problem
solving.
462
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,600
What is maths if not a way to
understand and solve problems in
463
00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:38,920
the real world?
That, that is literally it.
464
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:42,360
I've got to catch that bus so
that I get to my meeting at this
465
00:19:42,360 --> 00:19:44,320
time.
The bus takes this long, it's
466
00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:46,600
only every 15 minutes.
What time do I have to leave my
467
00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:48,160
home?
That's problem solving.
468
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:50,240
Yeah, I've got this much budget
for the month.
469
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,560
I spend this much on my
outgoings that I can't get rid
470
00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:55,200
of.
There's a grey area of ones that
471
00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:57,240
I can.
What can I get rid of and then
472
00:19:57,240 --> 00:19:59,960
be below and have enough money
to pay my water bill.
473
00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:03,200
This.
This is maths.
474
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:07,320
This is what I think school
should be gearing towards.
475
00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,800
I think there is a place for
logical thinking that maybe
476
00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:12,600
we're not going to use this in
our real life.
477
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:14,640
So why are we doing that?
Because it's a process of
478
00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:17,120
problem solving.
The idea of your brain solving a
479
00:20:17,120 --> 00:20:20,880
problem and being logical is a
transferable skill and even.
480
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,040
Within this moment you might
argue you'll never use this
481
00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,760
again, but you definitely will
use the process of understanding
482
00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:27,960
how to solve this problem.
That's what problem solving is
483
00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,960
for me, and it has to be a
mixture of them and problem
484
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:32,920
solving.
Let's define it.
485
00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:36,760
And I completely agree with what
I read about this, which was
486
00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:40,600
it's easier sometimes to say
what problem solving isn't so,
487
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:44,240
so we've got this here.
So problem solving is not
488
00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:47,840
necessarily just about answering
word problems in maths.
489
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,880
If a child already has had
available method to solve a
490
00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:54,480
problem, problem solving has not
occurred.
491
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:58,520
Problem solving in maths is
finding a way to apply knowledge
492
00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:01,760
for children who are fluent by
the way and skills you have
493
00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:04,320
learnt to answer unfamiliar
types of questions.
494
00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:06,280
That's the main bit, isn't it?
That's the biggest bit.
495
00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:09,240
I want everyone to focus on
unfamiliar questions.
496
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:13,640
It's not technically problem
solving if it's not a unique
497
00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:15,480
situation for you to be solving
this problem.
498
00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:17,600
The question if it's if we're
thinking about questions with
499
00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:21,200
children, the questions that are
being shown should be unfamiliar
500
00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:23,080
to them.
If you've modelled on the board
501
00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:26,360
a particular problem and then
what you've done is you've
502
00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:28,600
changed the numbers and you've
given them the same problem five
503
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:30,320
more times on a worksheet and
said have a go.
504
00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:32,480
But like sometimes what word
problems do, it'll be the same.
505
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:35,520
It'll be the same method, but
just different, different
506
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,600
contexts in the word problems
that and you're saying this is
507
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:39,720
the problem solving part of the
lesson.
508
00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:42,240
It's not, it's not problem
solving at all because you've
509
00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:45,120
solved the problem for them on
the board, which is what do I
510
00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:47,200
do?
How do I get from A to B?
511
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:49,920
How do I get from not knowing
what to do to knowing the method
512
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:51,800
that solves it?
And then you're just giving them
513
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:54,440
more arithmetic practise at that
point because they know, they
514
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:56,000
know they know what to do
because you've solved the
515
00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,320
problem for them.
So yeah, problem solving is A is
516
00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:03,360
A, I'd say is the most like
people get it wrong the most.
517
00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:05,720
I think, I think I've spoke over
my career, I've spoken to
518
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:08,120
teachers about maths and problem
solving is the one where I find
519
00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:11,160
myself being that guy that
corrects people the most about
520
00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:12,640
because they're like, Oh yeah,
I've done some.
521
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:14,280
Problem solving Friday.
Yeah, I've done problem solving
522
00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:16,000
Friday.
We do it every week, we do.
523
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:18,720
What I'll do is I'll have maybe
5 different problems, I'll model
524
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:20,320
just one of each one on the
board for them and then they
525
00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:21,560
crack on.
So that's not problem solving.
526
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:23,240
Yeah, problem solving needs to
be unique.
527
00:22:23,360 --> 00:22:25,920
It's fundamentally part of what
what it is, and you can't
528
00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:27,640
problem solve unless you're
fluent in the maths that
529
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:29,400
underpins it.
I'm just going to add to what
530
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:30,920
you said there because it's so
interesting.
531
00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:32,640
I completely agree with what
you're saying about problem
532
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:34,240
solving.
Has to be new, has to be unique.
533
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:38,000
But realistically, there are
points, certainly in problem
534
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,840
solving lessons, where things
can't be completely unique all
535
00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:42,840
of the time, right?
If you are literally doing a
536
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,160
small step on additional
subtraction, the kids may well
537
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:48,240
it's gonna be addition.
Right, they know what?
538
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:52,480
I mean, so I don't necessarily
think that in their situations
539
00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,800
problem solving can't happen.
I think it's harder and I think
540
00:22:55,800 --> 00:23:00,080
there's still a place for
modelling the steps in the
541
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,800
process of problem solving.
So we talk about there like what
542
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:04,400
if you're at the front of the
board and you model how to
543
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:05,840
answer this question, the kids
go and do it.
544
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:08,720
It's not problem solving.
Yeah, I slightly push back at
545
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:12,920
that a little bit in terms of, I
think the way you model it with
546
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:16,240
everyone involved asking
questions, reasoning, getting
547
00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:18,640
the kids to explain themselves,
thinking why we might try this
548
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:21,920
method or we might try that
method that is vital in teaching
549
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:24,360
problem solving.
So I think there is a huge place
550
00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:26,400
for that.
And you can absolutely say even
551
00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:28,600
though my children didn't get 5
unique questions they'd never
552
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,040
seen before, therefore they
didn't problem solve, I'd be
553
00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:33,480
saying no, no, no, no, no.
Because I think really good
554
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:36,600
problem solving teaching comes
from really good modelling of
555
00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:39,600
what problem solving is,
involving your class in that and
556
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:43,160
then letting them have a go.
And it might be that you model
557
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:45,240
them halfway there and you say
right, you'd, what do you think
558
00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:47,440
the last thing might be then?
That's definitely problem
559
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:49,040
solving.
But they don't necessarily have
560
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:51,760
to do everything from the start,
all of the time off the cuff for
561
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:53,800
it to be good problem solving.
I completely agree and I hope
562
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:55,920
that that I don't think you
think that's a contradiction at
563
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:57,160
all, by the way.
I think that's just an extra
564
00:23:57,160 --> 00:23:59,360
point and that the easiest
analogy I can make is honestly
565
00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:00,920
to writing.
Think of modelling writing.
566
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:04,280
It's exactly the same when you
model writing to children, when
567
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:06,520
you expect children to do
writing, by the way, you don't
568
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,920
just say off you go.
Them modelling writing is
569
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:10,680
essential to them becoming good
at writing.
570
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,000
But when you model that first
paragraph or those first few
571
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,440
sentences on the board and
they're all copying those
572
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:18,000
sentences or doing extremely
similar sentences in their book,
573
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,480
because you've heavily modelled
it, you don't count that.
574
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:22,240
But it's independent write,
independent writing.
575
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:25,400
But the rest of it, you've shown
them some skills that they can
576
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:27,760
transfer now and then when
they're applying it to unique
577
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:30,040
situations, which is the rest of
their writing or in math
578
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:31,880
situation, it might just be
other problems now.
579
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:33,000
Yeah, that are equally.
Yeah.
580
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:33,960
OK.
It's all within addition,
581
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:35,000
subtraction.
They know they're going to
582
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:36,840
probably be doing some adding
and subtracting, but it's.
583
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:38,480
Got to work out what.
The problems are still unique,
584
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:38,960
Yeah.
How?
585
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:40,520
How much they're adding, How
many times they're adding,
586
00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:42,640
Whether they're subtracting,
Whether there's going to be?
587
00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:45,120
And context can be important.
Different words, different
588
00:24:45,120 --> 00:24:46,160
language.
Exactly right.
589
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,720
Less than sold.
Yeah, they they all mean
590
00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:49,960
subtract.
But this is still different
591
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:51,840
problem solving, because you're
still accessing what words might
592
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:53,920
mean, because you're.
Exactly right.
593
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:57,000
So I absolutely fundamentally
agree you should still be
594
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,640
modelling two children how to
solve different types of
595
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:03,280
problems, but also giving them a
chance to independently solve
596
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,720
new unique problems.
Even if you know that it's using
597
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:09,760
their the same problem solving
skills but there's still unique
598
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:11,720
problems for them.
Yeah, I want to, I want to.
599
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:12,920
We're going to, we're going to
talk in a second.
600
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:15,840
I think more about how what that
can look like.
601
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,520
If you're worried that your kids
aren't fluent yet, can we talk
602
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:19,720
about that?
Maybe we'll do some scaffolding,
603
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:22,760
but I really want to push on
because I think it's something
604
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:26,280
that our listeners who maybe
don't quite understand problem
605
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:29,280
solving completely in this way
can really grasp onto.
606
00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:31,840
And it's your comparison with
independent writing.
607
00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:35,840
I think that is such a good
comparison because for a couple
608
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:37,840
of reasons.
First reason I think about, I
609
00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:40,640
think about what's the hardest
thing for children to do in in
610
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:43,880
school, in primary school,
because fundamentally adding 2
611
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:46,520
digit numbers together is quite
easy and we can show that in
612
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:48,480
five to 10 minutes and children
can practise it and they might
613
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:49,560
not get it straight away, but
most.
614
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:51,400
Arithmetic is fairly
straightforward.
615
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:52,920
Exactly that where and
everything.
616
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:54,640
What's the hardest thing kids do
in school?
617
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:57,360
It's solving problems in maths
and it's doing independent
618
00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:00,560
writing and I think we are so
much further along on
619
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:05,280
independent writing in terms of
it being more understood that of
620
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:07,760
course I'm not going to get my
kids to write 2 paragraphs of
621
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:09,120
writing if they can't even do a
sentence.
622
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:11,920
Of course I'm not going to ask
my children to apply what a
623
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:14,800
front front of the verb you're
writing in their work if I don't
624
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:16,880
already know they can do it and
I've not introduced the idea of
625
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:20,840
adding information to them.
This in independent writing,
626
00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:23,040
it's so common that you're like,
of course I'm going to model.
627
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,800
How can I possibly expect the
children to have some really
628
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,760
good independent writing if I as
the expert has not modelled to
629
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:31,680
them what it looks like.
This is what problem solving is.
630
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:35,640
You don't just in your English
lessons just say, ohh, by the
631
00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:38,520
way, kids, we're just gonna do
of independent writing now where
632
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:40,360
you need to workout what to do
here.
633
00:26:40,360 --> 00:26:42,400
And I'm, I'm going to be judging
you based on whether you put
634
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,520
some, some independent clauses
in here or not, or I'm going to
635
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:47,440
be looking for the this type of
determiner.
636
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:51,040
No, it's very structured.
You as the teacher are leading
637
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:52,720
them there and you let them have
a go.
638
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:54,120
And if they get it wrong, it
doesn't matter.
639
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,200
We're going to do it again.
If they get it wrong, it doesn't
640
00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:56,840
matter.
We're going.
641
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:58,920
To put in opportunities to
become fluent in those
642
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:00,960
fundamental writing strategies
first.
643
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:02,560
But you've done a lesson.
You've done lessons on
644
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:03,960
determinism.
Whatever you said front of the
645
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:05,440
verbals.
Yeah, that because you'll think,
646
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:06,360
right, They're fluent in these
now.
647
00:27:06,360 --> 00:27:08,360
And now hopefully they can apply
it to this problem solving.
648
00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:10,400
I mean, independent writing
situation.
649
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:12,640
Yeah, it's so true.
Isn't how English I think does
650
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:16,080
understand the process a bit
more of fluency to the end goal
651
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:18,120
which is independent writing
more than maths?
652
00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:21,240
In understands fluency to the
end goal which is problem
653
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:22,640
solving.
I think they're a bit more
654
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:24,680
confused in maths.
It can be, I think they can be.
655
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:26,200
I think, I think it's easier to
understand.
656
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:27,800
I still think schools don't
always get it right of
657
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:30,400
independent writing, but I do
think sometimes it can be A tag
658
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:31,680
on a bit like problem solving
is.
659
00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:34,040
So we do a few weeks of learning
and then we do an independent
660
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,360
writing every few weeks.
I think both of them have to be
661
00:27:36,360 --> 00:27:39,760
interweaved a lot more.
And let's move on to now
662
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,600
something you said there, which
which I thought was fascinating
663
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:48,200
about when to problem solve,
because I think we can speak now
664
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:49,600
about we've got these three
pillars.
665
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:53,080
And, and it very much felt like
at the start of my career when
666
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:55,640
this was first being introduced
because fluency and problem
667
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:58,480
solving, this idea of mastery
and everyone doing like really
668
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,240
pushing themselves.
I want to start by saying I
669
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:03,840
think it's vital.
Every child problem solves,
670
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:06,960
every child reasons and every
child becomes fluent in maths.
671
00:28:07,120 --> 00:28:10,880
I think that's vital.
But we're thinking about of
672
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:14,280
these three pillars, I don't
think it should look like a 33%
673
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:17,360
split absolutely in your lesson,
and I think that's bad practise
674
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:21,280
and dive into that and then
we'll talk about what good
675
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:23,080
problems on my.
Level Well, I even say that in
676
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,840
that split analogy, whatever the
split is that you think is
677
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:27,760
optimal for your class, even
that doesn't work on the
678
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:29,400
individual level.
Different children have
679
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:31,880
different splits, genuinely,
because different children will
680
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:35,640
require some children require a
lot more time at the fluency
681
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:38,400
stage to become fluent.
And if we, if we accept the
682
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:42,000
idea, this flow diagram of when
you're fluent in something, you,
683
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:44,040
you can then start applying it
to problem solving.
684
00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:47,160
Then by definition, obviously
some children take, it takes
685
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:48,440
them longer to become fluent in
something.
686
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:50,400
So by definition, they're
getting problem solving
687
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:52,320
opportunities at different
points on that objective.
688
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:54,920
But there's another layer to
this, because it doesn't mean,
689
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:55,920
which is the point you're
getting at.
690
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,680
It doesn't mean then that those
kids that take a lot longer to
691
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:00,960
become fluent, you can't just
say, Oh, we've run out of time
692
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:02,840
again and no problem.
They never get any problem
693
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:04,480
solving because we never get
that fluency.
694
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:06,400
Finished yeah and didn't hate on
the podcast.
695
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:07,960
Said I can't just give them
problem solving.
696
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,240
They're just not getting there
ever with the fluency is not
697
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:12,000
true.
How do we solve?
698
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:14,560
What you can do is problems You
can.
699
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:18,080
You can give them problem
solving opportunities with
700
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:20,640
objectives that are not
necessarily the exact unit
701
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:22,160
you're doing right now at the
exact level.
702
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,760
It could be something from
before you find something they
703
00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:27,640
are fluent on.
I've seen examples where
704
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:31,120
children are just maybe
significantly behind their age
705
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:33,080
expected standard in maths.
It doesn't.
706
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:34,400
They can't do any problem
solving.
707
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,120
It just means you might need to
drop back a year group or even 2
708
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,280
year groups and find something
they are fluent in and provide
709
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:42,880
them problems that allow them to
utilise that fluency.
710
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,840
So that's everyone gets a chance
to problem solve.
711
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:48,960
It just might not be at the same
level or the same level of
712
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:50,680
fluency underpinning that
problem solving.
713
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:52,120
So you've got to find the
balance.
714
00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:54,280
It sounds almost slightly
contradictory.
715
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:55,960
I get it because it's, I'm in
one breath.
716
00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:58,560
I'm saying keep going with the
fluency until they're until
717
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:00,120
they're definitely fluent
because then you can problem
718
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,560
solve on it.
But I'm also saying, but do also
719
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:04,360
building opportunities to
problem solve.
720
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:06,760
So there's got to be sometimes
where you think, OK, we've done
721
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:08,920
a lot of fluency, but I am going
to now build in, I'm going to
722
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:11,520
dedicate some time to do a
little bit of problem solving
723
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:14,720
because I want them to be, I
can't not do problem solving at
724
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:16,400
all ever.
So I need to build in some time,
725
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,080
time and what that ends up
transcending to sometimes in a
726
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:20,880
lot of schools, we've seen this
over our whole careers.
727
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,440
People then go to the final
version of this and they go, OK,
728
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:25,400
cool.
So we'll put a policy in place
729
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:29,480
where everyone does a bit of
fluency in their lesson and then
730
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:31,200
they do a bit of reasoning and a
bit of problem solving.
731
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:32,480
If we do that and every lesson,
don't worry.
732
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:34,960
Teachers, I know that children
are at different paces, so I'll
733
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:36,360
let you do different amounts of
them.
734
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:39,040
But everyone has to have
fluency, reasoning and problem
735
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,080
solving in their lesson.
Teacher A you can do 50%
736
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:44,360
relevancy, 15 reason problem
solving, TGB.
737
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:45,840
You've got class find a bit
tricky.
738
00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:49,080
You can do 60% fluency and then
just 40% reason problem solving,
739
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:50,640
but everyone's got to do it.
Yeah, it.
740
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:53,920
Doesn't work, No.
I think this is hopefully if we
741
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:56,480
are really establishing these
definitions at the start, it
742
00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:59,800
just becomes common sense that
this can't happen and it doesn't
743
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:01,920
have to happen.
And I remember as we were
744
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:04,600
preparing for Ofsted as maths
leads master came in, we had a
745
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,040
very successful maths Ofsted and
we get very successful data in
746
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:09,400
maths and all the schools that
we've ran.
747
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,320
So we know this works and we
were, we were looking up things
748
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:16,560
and it said like, it can
actually be seen as bad practise
749
00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:19,840
for problem solving to be
shoehorned into every single
750
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:22,320
lesson.
Because if you're doing that,
751
00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,080
you're not doing problem solving
for the right reasons.
752
00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:28,520
You're doing it for coverage
because you're worried it needs
753
00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:31,960
to be seen.
Problem solving can happen twice
754
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,360
a week.
Problem solving can be can be a
755
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:37,320
whole lesson.
It can be half a lesson once a
756
00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:39,440
week.
It can be every day.
757
00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:42,800
It can be okay.
It's not hard and fast raw.
758
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:45,240
And if you're thinking about
what problem solving has to look
759
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,880
like and what fluency looks like
and what we might see is like a
760
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:51,760
generic split.
I think for me, the vast
761
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:54,640
majority of your maths teaching
should be around fluency.
762
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:58,480
You have to get that right.
You have to, it's as simple as
763
00:31:58,480 --> 00:31:59,440
that.
You have to teach the
764
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:02,120
curriculum, you have to get
through things and children need
765
00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:03,800
to be able to do maths.
They were thinking about
766
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:06,560
reasoning as being able to
understand concepts, procedures
767
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:09,280
and language.
That is by far if you just think
768
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:13,120
about it for a second, you can't
do the rest unless you have
769
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:14,920
that.
So the vast majority of your
770
00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:17,240
time in your lessons should be
on fluency.
771
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:18,840
The reasoning happens all the
time.
772
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:21,840
I wouldn't even, I honestly
wouldn't even be saying to
773
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:24,160
someone, oh, you need to have a
reasoning chunk in your lesson.
774
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:27,600
It would just be so built into
my planning, to my questioning,
775
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:31,200
to my, to my fluency and to my
teaching that fluency is
776
00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:33,360
happening all the time in
whether I'm I'm sorry, that
777
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:35,200
reasoning is happening all the
time, whether I'm doing fluency
778
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:38,800
or problem solving.
Reasoning is thinking like it
779
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:40,000
doesn't even need to be a
separate thing.
780
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:44,800
And then I could either think to
myself, OK, my children aren't
781
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:46,040
quite fluent in this.
I'm going to carry on.
782
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:49,520
You might think, oh, my children
are getting fluent in this, but
783
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:52,400
there's something else I want to
recap and do and and keep them
784
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:54,200
fluent in that.
And you might even think to
785
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:55,720
yourself, I think it's time for
some problem solving.
786
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,440
And that might be my kids are
fluent in this year for stuff
787
00:32:58,440 --> 00:32:59,800
I'm doing.
Oh, rub my hands again.
788
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:02,920
But let's try a problem where I
know the cognitive load won't be
789
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:04,320
on the processes and the
understanding.
790
00:33:04,320 --> 00:33:05,240
So you're going to do it at your
full?
791
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:06,240
Level.
So I'm going to do at your full
792
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:07,760
level.
However, I might well have a
793
00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:10,080
class or even a group of
children where I think, do you
794
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:13,200
know what you guys are fluent in
Year 4, you're going to do it at
795
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:15,440
this year 4 level.
You guys aren't.
796
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:18,120
But there's no way I can deprive
your problem solving because
797
00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:19,840
that's what maths is.
It's that your name in the
798
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:22,080
curriculum.
Let's just dip back a little
799
00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:26,840
bit, but the art of problem
solving, the ability to look at
800
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:29,160
and try and use your reasoning
to know what to do.
801
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:33,920
The techniques involved, the
types of question, whether it's
802
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:37,760
missing number, word, problem,
finding all possibilities, trial
803
00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:39,960
and improvement.
Whatever the strategies might
804
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,200
be, everyone can use those
strategies.
805
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,640
Everyone in any class can do
trial and improvement.
806
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:48,000
It might be that ones in the
context of something much more
807
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,680
simple for them to understand.
It might be another one is much
808
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:52,480
trickier to know.
That's what you've got to do.
809
00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:54,680
But part of the problem solving
is figuring out you got to do
810
00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:57,720
that and then doing it.
But you can fundamentally have
811
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,320
any amount of children with any
level doing problem solving a
812
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:03,440
mass, and it's vital.
And it doesn't have to be
813
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:04,920
shoehorned in.
It doesn't have to be the same
814
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:07,280
amount of time every day.
It just needs to be a whole
815
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,800
picture.
And I think that's where you can
816
00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:11,560
fall into that trap of tick box,
tick box, tick box.
817
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:13,199
Because I want to just see that
everyone's doing the right
818
00:34:13,199 --> 00:34:14,040
thing.
I want to make sure it's all
819
00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:15,560
right.
Yeah, it's got to be holistic,
820
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,600
because actually tick boxes by
definition can force you to do
821
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:20,280
it wrong.
Exactly what what happens a lot
822
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:22,719
in that situation, just to be
extremely clear, is when you are
823
00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:25,320
doing the tick box situation,
you are then in a position
824
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:28,000
possibly where you're showing
kids problem solving
825
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,560
opportunities and they're simply
just not fluent in the maths
826
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:31,840
yet.
And and therefore is it's a
827
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:33,360
complete waste of time.
Because what you end up doing is
828
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:35,400
you end up modelling it all on
the board, taking away the
829
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:37,880
problem solving element and end
up inadvertently doing more
830
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,080
fluency, which probably
realistically is not the worst
831
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:41,760
thing in the world because they
clearly need more of that.
832
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:43,760
But it would be maybe more
effective to have just been
833
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:45,280
carrying on with the way you're
doing fluency.
834
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:47,880
A really good idea very quickly
on problem solving, because I
835
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:52,520
love this as like a function is
to to take the numbers out of
836
00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:54,520
the question.
Because sometimes by taking
837
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:56,639
numbers out of the question,
you're kind of getting rid of
838
00:34:56,639 --> 00:34:59,080
that difference there of like,
oh, are you working at you 2
839
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:01,320
level, your four level, your
five level of addition, let's
840
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:03,480
say?
Because no, what that then
841
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:06,720
becomes is then the children are
simply solving the problem.
842
00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:09,920
And the question is simply just
what do I have to do here?
843
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:12,520
What what is the, what is the
like?
844
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:15,440
What do these words mean?
Are you fluent in the vocabulary
845
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:17,560
we've learnt?
Oh, you are brilliant.
846
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:19,640
That means you've been exposed
to a bunch of vocabulary.
847
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,360
What do you think it might mean
for a delivery to be shipped
848
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:24,920
somewhere?
That is not, that is not the
849
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:26,840
word ad.
That is not the symbol ad.
850
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:30,160
That is you think I'm really
thinking to tell, OK, I kind of,
851
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:31,560
I can use my phone, become
fluent in this.
852
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:34,360
I understand these words mean, I
think we need to add, we don't
853
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:37,320
even have the number, but but
the act of that and that this
854
00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:38,880
can be reasoning and problem
solving.
855
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:40,960
This is where it overlaps.
You can explain to stuff.
856
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:42,960
I think it means add because the
shop would have more of it.
857
00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:43,960
Yeah.
Oh, interesting.
858
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:45,200
What does the question say at
the end?
859
00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:47,600
The question says how much does
the shop at the end of the week?
860
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:49,040
Oh, interesting.
So is there something else in
861
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:50,200
the question that might happen
in the week?
862
00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:53,240
This is like as close as it gets
to actually extracting pure like
863
00:35:53,240 --> 00:35:55,240
problem solving and reason
because you're almost taking out
864
00:35:55,240 --> 00:35:56,360
the bit where they actually do
the maths.
865
00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:57,600
At this point.
You can take my numbers.
866
00:35:57,760 --> 00:35:59,400
I actually learned that.
Hilariously, if we're begging up
867
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:01,920
people like Gina Donaldson, I
actually learned that from
868
00:36:02,080 --> 00:36:03,680
originally right at the
beginning of my career, Gareth
869
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:06,520
Metcalf, who we had on this
podcast two years ago now.
870
00:36:06,520 --> 00:36:08,400
It's crazy to think that one of
our earlier episodes, go and
871
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:10,960
find it.
He's an unbelievably talented
872
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:13,800
mathematics teacher.
He creates incredible resources
873
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:16,640
that I see reasoning, I see.
I see problem solving as well.
874
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:18,720
Really, really good.
But I first picked that up from
875
00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:19,880
him.
I went to one of his training at
876
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:21,080
many years ago.
I was like, Oh my God, yeah,
877
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:23,200
just another, It's just another
string to your bow, isn't it?
878
00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:25,520
There's so many little things
and tools and tricks and ways
879
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:29,440
you can expose children to
isolated skills, as well as just
880
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:31,440
opportunities to just straight
up problem solve, as well as
881
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:33,880
opportunities to just practise a
method and arithmetic, as well
882
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:36,080
as opportunities for them to
become fluent by showing them
883
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:38,880
five different ways of looking
at an arithmetic question.
884
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:40,040
That's just ever so slightly
different.
885
00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:42,400
There's a bit of very fluency in
there where they're using slight
886
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,280
elements of reasoning, but it's
not problem solving because
887
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:46,520
ultimately it's just two numbers
and you're either adding or
888
00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:48,720
subtracting them or multiplying
and dividing them.
889
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:52,080
You've got all these little
levels and I just think you have
890
00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:54,600
to genuinely to be a really good
maths teacher, I think you just
891
00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,280
have to be aware of all of
these, these layers and elements
892
00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:01,480
and aware of differences between
reasoning, problem solving and
893
00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:04,160
fluency and how they are, like
you said, they are both pillars
894
00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:06,880
in terms of the way we account
for them and we, we, they're
895
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:09,640
three separate aims, but they're
also not pillars in the idea
896
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:12,360
that they're completely separate
things all the time, that they
897
00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:15,240
flow for each other.
Reasoning flows through fluency
898
00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:17,320
and problem solving.
And just having this grand
899
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:19,720
awareness of all these things in
maths is what makes you a really
900
00:37:19,720 --> 00:37:21,240
good maths teacher.
And I think without these
901
00:37:21,240 --> 00:37:24,560
things, what can sometimes
happen is if you, it's the
902
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:27,160
classic, what I think a lot of
people say that when I was at
903
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:30,400
school, this is what we did.
We got wrote, taught a method
904
00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:33,160
that works.
When I see this number times
905
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:35,840
this number written like that,
this is the method that works.
906
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:37,600
Just do that.
Why are we bothering teaching
907
00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:39,800
kids different methods?
Is that what we're teaching kids
908
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:41,520
different methods?
Because when the problem isn't
909
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:45,280
shown exactly like that, they
then don't know what to do
910
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:47,880
because they were never really
taught to think about it.
911
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,000
They were just taught.
If you see this, do you can
912
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:52,400
teach a computer to do that.
If you see this, apply this
913
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:53,840
method.
It doesn't always work.
914
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,480
And to to just jump on that and
finish off that's still
915
00:37:57,480 --> 00:38:00,160
important to do exactly.
It's still, well, not even
916
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:01,760
people who are saying why don't
you just do that?
917
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:03,320
I was like, mate, I do.
Yeah, that's what.
918
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,120
Fluency and arithmetic is yeah,
that's really, really important.
919
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:08,280
You're not wrong.
You are not wrong.
920
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:10,240
That is really important.
But you know what I'm also going
921
00:38:10,240 --> 00:38:12,200
to do?
Just expose them to a different.
922
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:13,560
Way show them a different way.
Exactly.
923
00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:15,080
The most simple one I always
think of right.
924
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:18,440
And this is something we're
building into our, our best
925
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:20,800
software for maths that we're
passionately building right now,
926
00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,120
which is really, really focused
at the moment on arithmetic.
927
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:25,280
And it will expand wider into
fluency and more.
928
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:27,200
Yeah.
One of the easiest things that
929
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:29,880
we've we've done is can you move
the equal sign to the other
930
00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:31,000
side?
Because I can tell you in my
931
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,960
career how many times where
especially earlier on where I
932
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:37,440
maybe didn't consider this, I'd
show every single question as A
933
00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:41,560
* B equals or A+B equals.
And it'll always be arithmetic
934
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:44,120
and then equals at the end.
And the kids genuinely thought
935
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:48,520
equals meant this is the answer.
They thought it meant the symbol
936
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:49,640
where you put your answer next
to it.
937
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:51,920
And they didn't really
understand what equals actually
938
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:53,240
meant.
And as soon as you then took the
939
00:38:53,240 --> 00:38:56,800
exact same question, A * B
equals and you put blank equals
940
00:38:56,800 --> 00:39:00,040
a * B, they were like, oh, have
I got Oh my God, what do I do?
941
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:01,760
Have I got to use?
Have I got to use inverse?
942
00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:05,080
Because because they don't know,
they haven't been exposed to the
943
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:09,720
variety of fluency enough.
They know the method and I will
944
00:39:09,720 --> 00:39:11,760
practise that method.
I'll make sure they are fluent
945
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:15,000
in the method itself, but I'll
also make sure they're fluent in
946
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:18,320
a wider sense in this is some
different ways to even represent
947
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:20,160
this arithmetic, Yeah.
Yeah, like.
948
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:23,000
Precisely.
And that is just fundamental to
949
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:26,560
the way we're building this app.
This software that we're
950
00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:29,360
building is like, it's not just
methods, even though it's
951
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:31,520
unbelievably important.
It's also here's some different
952
00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:35,120
ways you might see the same
arithmetic question, but still
953
00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:37,120
applying the same method.
And it's important kids are
954
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:38,920
exposed to it, by the way.
So yeah, use this.
955
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:41,920
And, and the great thing is with
this and fluency in general, I
956
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:44,640
think the, the really important
thing about knowing facts, for
957
00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:47,040
example, and becoming fluent at
something is you are doing it
958
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:49,240
quite frequently as well.
You're doing quite frequently,
959
00:39:49,240 --> 00:39:51,240
not necessarily for ages and
ages in terms of obviously you
960
00:39:51,240 --> 00:39:52,960
need to teach a lesson and have
varied fluency in there.
961
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:55,160
But then when when like I've
maybe I've taught additional
962
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:58,760
subtraction and this kind of
links in to be to be fair with
963
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:01,720
schemes and stuff in general.
Which is, you know, it's very
964
00:40:01,720 --> 00:40:04,040
common now to block things.
Maybe we can talk about that a
965
00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:05,920
little bit where you might block
your learning.
966
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:08,560
And what we mean by blocks is
there are essentially two ways
967
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:11,360
traditionally that you might
teach maths. 1 is a spiral
968
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:13,160
curriculum and 1 is a block
curriculum.
969
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:16,160
In a spiral curriculum, let's
take additional subtraction.
970
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:18,160
Let's say you've got six weeks
of that you need to do in year
971
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:20,320
4.
In a spiral curriculum.
972
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:22,960
You do it for two weeks before
Christmas, you do it for two
973
00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:24,960
weeks before Easter, and then
you do it for two weeks before
974
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:26,800
summer.
And the idea being you come back
975
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:28,080
and maybe you get deeper each
time.
976
00:40:28,720 --> 00:40:31,480
The block curriculum would be
you do all six weeks before
977
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:34,480
Christmas in a row because
you're really diving deep into
978
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:36,960
it and getting those
opportunities where for the
979
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,040
first week and a half I didn't
really get a chance to problem
980
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:40,960
solve too much.
But my goodness me, because I'm
981
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:42,840
doing it for six weeks, we're
going to dive in.
982
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:44,600
They're going to become really
fluent and get those
983
00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:47,520
opportunities.
I think block curriculum really
984
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:50,960
lends itself to be able to apply
what we've talked about today
985
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:52,600
better.
I think it's a good thing.
986
00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:55,840
Truly mastering maths?
To truly master it, I do think
987
00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:59,080
it has a massive drawback, which
again goes against is one thing
988
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:01,160
we've said which is fluency
needs to be done all the time.
989
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:02,920
You need to be revisiting it all
the time.
990
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,960
And that's where a block
curriculum loses its power if
991
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:09,960
you don't do something about it.
Because then those children
992
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:12,880
doing six weeks of additional
subtraction might get really
993
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:15,720
deep and by November they are
unbelievable, but they're not
994
00:41:15,720 --> 00:41:17,760
going to do additional
subtraction until next November
995
00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:19,320
when they come back to it for
the next year group.
996
00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:22,160
So maybe you could talk talk a
little bit about this as like,
997
00:41:22,520 --> 00:41:25,400
why is it still important, even
though maybe we have this idea
998
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,600
of mastery to become fluent in
something and thinking about our
999
00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:31,960
platform, even about arithmetic
testing every week and becoming
1000
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:34,400
really good at doing your maths.
Why?
1001
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:37,760
How can we square that with what
schemes do now, which is?
1002
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:40,040
Block so there's something
really important that we need to
1003
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:42,640
understand about block
curriculums, which is they are
1004
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:45,680
mapping coverage of your main
lesson objective.
1005
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:49,880
And I think sometimes it's easy
to forget that that might not be
1006
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,080
the be all and end all of the
entirety of your maths lesson.
1007
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,560
A really good maths lesson, and
this is to, in my opinion, is
1008
00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:59,200
the best practise, is that there
is a significant different chunk
1009
00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:01,680
of the allocated time that you
have to teach maps that is
1010
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:04,520
dedicated to your lesson
objective and that very much be
1011
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:07,200
following your, your curriculum
map.
1012
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:10,720
OK, your your block curriculum,
but there should be a, another
1013
00:42:10,720 --> 00:42:13,400
significant part of your lesson,
maybe smaller than the main bit,
1014
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:17,920
which is dedicated to not that
main lesson objective, but other
1015
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:19,720
things.
So mostly fluency.
1016
00:42:19,720 --> 00:42:21,240
It could even be problems.
We'll come to that later.
1017
00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:25,600
But a part of your lesson is
dedicated to recapping parts of
1018
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:27,800
fluency that you've looked at in
the past so that you're not
1019
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,680
leaving at a year, year.
It's we should never be in a
1020
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:33,840
situation where you're actually
leaving an objective an entire
1021
00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:36,920
year before it's remotely talked
about or touched on again.
1022
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,760
That is bad practise.
And I, and I hate the idea that
1023
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:42,520
anyone looks at block curriculum
and says, well, that encourages
1024
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:45,320
this, therefore it's bad.
It doesn't actually encourage
1025
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:46,280
it.
It's really just mapping out
1026
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:48,280
your main lesson objectives.
You should be building as a
1027
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:50,440
school, you should be building
in time.
1028
00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:53,320
I think what do we have about 20
to 25 minutes.
1029
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:57,040
We had this dedicated section,
which is is nothing to do with
1030
00:42:57,040 --> 00:42:59,800
the main lesson objective.
It could be, if you want it to
1031
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,160
be, it could be, it could be
linked, it could be we're pre
1032
00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:04,680
teaching a skill that we think
that's going to be useful.
1033
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:07,240
And by pre teaching, I'm
literally talking about, let's
1034
00:43:07,240 --> 00:43:09,800
say you're doing rounding.
And you know, if you, I would
1035
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:12,320
say the same example, it's the
easiest one to think of because
1036
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:14,840
it's so like tangible when
you're teaching rounding, like
1037
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:16,960
obviously you need kids to know
multiples of 10 or if you're
1038
00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:19,320
rounding the nearest 10, they
they intrinsically need to know
1039
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:21,000
what multiples of 10 are when
you're teaching rounding.
1040
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:24,080
So you might be doing a pre
teaching in starters leading up
1041
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:26,000
to this rounding unit where
you're reminding them of
1042
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:27,280
multiples of 10.
If you feel that's what they
1043
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:29,760
need, that's what I'd call as
pre teaching teaching, but and
1044
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:31,440
you've also got reteaching in
that time.
1045
00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:34,680
It could be that you know what
we finished this unit on
1046
00:43:34,720 --> 00:43:36,320
addition, subtraction.
We use that example a lot.
1047
00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:41,040
And a month later, I just, I
just wasn't satisfied fully that
1048
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:42,760
they were fluent, as fluent as
I'd like them to be.
1049
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:45,120
And you know what, I'm going to
use some of this time outside of
1050
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:48,000
my main listing objective in
later blocks across the year to
1051
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:51,360
reteach some smaller parts of,
of, of those of those small
1052
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:53,600
steps, those elements of those
lessons I'm going to reteach.
1053
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:56,200
And the big one, the thing we do
the most is, is just genuinely
1054
00:43:56,240 --> 00:43:58,120
just recapping.
It's been a bit of time.
1055
00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:01,480
I want to make sure I'm covering
and I'm going over and making
1056
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,520
sure because fluency has to be
done all the time and they're
1057
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:05,120
building on it.
I'm going to go back to old
1058
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:07,000
objectives and I'm going to and
I'm going to recap this.
1059
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:10,880
Why is it difference to reteach?
Reteach is I guess is from
1060
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:12,640
mindset, right?
So reteaching is specifically, I
1061
00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:14,320
feel like they weren't fluent,
they weren't there, they weren't
1062
00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:15,800
quite there.
And I and I want to make sure
1063
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:18,000
I'm getting them to this a
certain standard recapping.
1064
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,800
They could be absolutely there,
but it's very important that
1065
00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:22,440
it's still, yeah, refreshing
their mind.
1066
00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:25,600
In that recap, obviously you're
saying that they're still
1067
00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:28,520
fluent.
Do you think in this, in this
1068
00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:30,480
like chunk?
Because I used it a lot to be
1069
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:32,400
like, cool, well, I can reason
in problem Solver now as well,
1070
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:34,520
yeah.
Would that come into recapping
1071
00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:35,880
for you or like going over
stuff?
1072
00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:38,880
Again, it would do yeah.
So, so for me that is down to
1073
00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:41,160
all honesty like the the make up
of your class as well.
1074
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:44,320
So I've had classes before where
genuinely, because we are
1075
00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:47,680
struggling with the fluency so
much and yeah, I was building a
1076
00:44:47,680 --> 00:44:49,960
problem solving opportunities in
the class, but fluency was a
1077
00:44:49,960 --> 00:44:51,400
much bigger issue than maybe
other times.
1078
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:56,160
That time for me became almost
exclusively more time to recap
1079
00:44:56,160 --> 00:44:58,960
and reteach and preteach fluency
things.
1080
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:01,520
And very, very rarely, whereas
I've had other classes where
1081
00:45:01,680 --> 00:45:04,240
because they're so fluent, it
doesn't take me long to recap
1082
00:45:04,240 --> 00:45:05,640
things to make sure they're
still up there.
1083
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:07,720
It's like bouncing off the
limiter of like, they're right
1084
00:45:07,720 --> 00:45:09,600
up there really, really
understanding, really super
1085
00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:11,120
fluent.
So I'd be like, cool, I've got
1086
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:14,480
some opportunities here to to
now recap or reteach some
1087
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:16,120
opportunities from to problem
solve as well.
1088
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:17,960
Because actually that is always
that is the end goal.
1089
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,400
And I can and that's like, I can
make that infinitely hard.
1090
00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:21,760
You can't complete problem
solving.
1091
00:45:22,200 --> 00:45:24,600
It just goes on forever.
So yeah, lots of different
1092
00:45:24,600 --> 00:45:26,520
things you can do.
But my main point here, maybe
1093
00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:29,640
you can dive into it more, is
you've got your main lesson
1094
00:45:29,640 --> 00:45:31,080
objective and you've got your
coverage.
1095
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:35,160
And as part of your lesson,
you've got exclusively a special
1096
00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:37,520
part of your lesson that is
designed for recapping, re
1097
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:39,840
teaching, pre teaching, whatever
else you need to do.
1098
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:41,680
Yeah, I think it's vital.
I think it's the way to make
1099
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:43,520
schemes work like this.
I don't think they work
1100
00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:45,160
otherwise.
And I think I'm going to
1101
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:47,200
slightly change what you said.
I don't think it necessarily has
1102
00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:50,440
to be part of your lesson.
I quite, I quite like thinking
1103
00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:52,160
of them as literally separate
things.
1104
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:54,120
I can think of my maths lesson
when I'm going through the
1105
00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:57,600
curriculum that has the majority
of that is fluency and it has to
1106
00:45:57,600 --> 00:45:59,320
because I'm teaching them how to
do the maths.
1107
00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:02,280
I've had people message us
saying I'm really frustrated.
1108
00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:04,840
My head teacher says every
single lesson needs to have this
1109
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:06,200
much reasoning and this much
problem solving.
1110
00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:07,920
It's annoying me.
I'm like, I I get why that's
1111
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:10,200
annoying because it would annoy
me because when I'm teaching the
1112
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:13,480
curriculum, I have to teach you
how to do the thing.
1113
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:15,760
And part of that is going to be
reasoning, problem solving.
1114
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:17,640
Reasoning comes for everything.
Part of it will be problem
1115
00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:19,360
solving.
But the majority of my lesson is
1116
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:21,280
fluency because I'm teaching you
how to do the maths.
1117
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:25,560
This separate thing here, the
reason I love it so much and I,
1118
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:28,200
I thought it was the best thing
we ever did for maths in our
1119
00:46:28,200 --> 00:46:31,600
school was introducing this as a
hard, hard separate thing.
1120
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:33,480
Protected time.
It's protected time.
1121
00:46:33,480 --> 00:46:37,040
It is literally protected time
where you get 20 to 25 minutes.
1122
00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:40,760
And I used it for times tables
because I was in year 4 big
1123
00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:42,800
focus on times tables.
I did a lot of times tables in
1124
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,120
there.
I did a lot of recapping stuff
1125
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:48,440
if I finished my block and I was
like, I, I had a set that maybe
1126
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:49,800
needed more support in maths,
let's say.
1127
00:46:50,240 --> 00:46:52,320
And I finished my block and I
thought, do you know what?
1128
00:46:53,240 --> 00:46:55,720
OK, I might sometimes choose to
just do it for another week or
1129
00:46:55,720 --> 00:46:57,200
two.
And that's also fine.
1130
00:46:57,200 --> 00:46:59,320
You've got to be flexible.
But I might think, you know, I
1131
00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:00,640
really just need to move on
actually.
1132
00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:02,600
So I'm going to move on.
Lots of them got it, but some of
1133
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:04,520
them didn't.
Then I'd use that time to go
1134
00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:06,400
over that, become more fluent.
Reteach some bits.
1135
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:09,920
Literally, I would use a lot of
that time to do some problem
1136
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:12,320
solving because I found myself
with my class who needed more
1137
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:15,000
fluency.
I really started to resent the
1138
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:17,000
fact that I felt like I wasn't
doing enough problem solving
1139
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:18,560
with them in those lessons.
So I thought, you know what I'm
1140
00:47:18,560 --> 00:47:20,080
going to, I'm going to make sure
I do this in this time.
1141
00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:21,760
You nail the fluency in the
lesson and.
1142
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:23,880
Nail it.
Yeah, I'm reacting to the kids.
1143
00:47:23,880 --> 00:47:25,360
Like there might be some
lessons, like you said, where
1144
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:27,360
I'm doing it all the time in my
lessons because the kids are
1145
00:47:27,360 --> 00:47:28,880
fluent.
My kids weren't quite fluent.
1146
00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:30,480
So I thought, you know what, I
can do my extra time.
1147
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:32,600
I'm going through the curriculum
with them and I need to do that
1148
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:35,400
in this time.
I absolutely went on to the year
1149
00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:37,800
2 curriculum, downloaded
PowerPoints of reasoning,
1150
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:39,960
problem solving questions that
based on what they, what they're
1151
00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:41,280
called.
And I went, you know what?
1152
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:44,520
Yeah, my kids absolutely can
count that.
1153
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:45,600
They can do that.
That's fine.
1154
00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:47,440
They're struggling the year for
objectives, but they can count
1155
00:47:47,440 --> 00:47:48,960
in twos.
Let's look at some problem
1156
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:51,160
solving questions that use
counting in twos.
1157
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:55,160
So my kids are no longer
thinking, oh God, I don't know,
1158
00:47:55,160 --> 00:47:57,520
because I don't know how to do
the maths and I'm already
1159
00:47:57,560 --> 00:47:59,600
thinking about these numbers are
too big.
1160
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:02,280
I don't really understand.
No, no, the, the maths itself is
1161
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:03,960
fine.
They can put all of their effort
1162
00:48:03,960 --> 00:48:06,640
into thinking, what do I have to
do to solve this problem?
1163
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:09,360
And I, I found that chunk of
time invaluable.
1164
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:11,280
And we had to make it really
clear to everyone.
1165
00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:15,240
That's 20 to 25 minutes a day.
And a chunk of that would always
1166
00:48:15,240 --> 00:48:17,240
be practising known facts
because you have to know, you
1167
00:48:17,240 --> 00:48:19,200
know, facts and that's fluency.
And the chunk would be
1168
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:21,160
reasoning, problem solving or
preteaching like you just said.
1169
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:24,920
But what was really powerful I
found because it's what I would
1170
00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:26,760
have wanted, which is why we
introduced it in our school.
1171
00:48:27,080 --> 00:48:29,360
It was all power to the teacher.
Yeah, it was not.
1172
00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:32,400
I was not coming around and
saying have you done your 10
1173
00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:34,560
minutes reason problem solving
in this little section?
1174
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:37,120
I couldn't care less.
I said to the professional, as
1175
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:40,760
the teacher, you are their
teacher and you teach them 50
1176
00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:42,080
minutes every single day of
maths.
1177
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:43,960
What are you not giving them
enough of?
1178
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:46,560
What do they need more of?
What do you decide?
1179
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:49,360
If you had another 20 minutes,
what would you do with the kids?
1180
00:48:49,360 --> 00:48:51,440
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's interesting.
1181
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:53,880
Do that.
And that is your.
1182
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:58,120
And my kids made so much more
progress because I could be so
1183
00:48:58,120 --> 00:49:00,840
targeted in that time.
And just just flipping that a
1184
00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:03,880
bit, people thinking, well, my
maths lesson's shorter.
1185
00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:05,440
You just said your maths lesson
was 50 minutes.
1186
00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:07,560
Yeah, because I wasn't obsessed
with getting through reasoning,
1187
00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:10,360
problem solving and and doing my
fluency all in one lesson.
1188
00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:12,760
It can be shorter.
It's a very small step.
1189
00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:16,120
The curriculum can be condensed.
50 minutes is genuinely A
1190
00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:17,600
suitable amount of time.
It is.
1191
00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:20,280
I remember thinking so short,
remember going for an hour to 50
1192
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:21,880
minutes once and I was like, Oh
my God, is it possible?
1193
00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:23,880
How can I possibly teach maths?
And it's because I was locked in
1194
00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:26,520
that mindset of I have to do
XYZI, have to get all these
1195
00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:28,000
elements in.
It's not a good maths lesson.
1196
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:30,400
It's just not true.
Just take them on the journey.
1197
00:49:30,600 --> 00:49:33,920
The whole lesson can be fluency.
And I know there's multiple
1198
00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:37,360
years of my career where I felt
like I would look terrible if
1199
00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:39,520
someone looked at my lesson.
I looked at the book afterwards
1200
00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:41,680
and I'd only been working on
fluency in that lesson.
1201
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:45,160
And I wish I could go back and
be like, no, if, if that's what
1202
00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:47,440
they needed because they were
not ready.
1203
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:50,040
And you felt like it wasn't
appropriate to do problem
1204
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:51,800
solving in this lesson yet.
And you didn't want to go back
1205
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:53,320
to the previous year because
you're like right in the middle
1206
00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:56,440
of this little journey and you
just wanted to finish off making
1207
00:49:56,440 --> 00:49:59,520
sure they're really fluent.
Then that's what you need to do.
1208
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:01,560
And that is OK.
You didn't need to do that
1209
00:50:01,560 --> 00:50:03,600
reasoning, problem solving that
you planned because you got told
1210
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:06,120
to push it into a starter in
another week.
1211
00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:08,440
Maybe you don't even use it or
maybe use it in tomorrow's
1212
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:10,080
season, whatever.
But that's, that was the right
1213
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:11,280
choice.
You adapted on the spot and they
1214
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:13,120
needed to become fluent.
And there's one thing I will
1215
00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:14,880
just say, and we'll clarify this
right now because it sounds like
1216
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:16,600
we're being, I feel like we're,
don't people think we're being a
1217
00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:18,520
bit wishy wishy of like, Hey,
you just do everything ever,
1218
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:21,920
ever, all the time.
One thing I absolutely did just
1219
00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:25,200
nail and hammer all the time in
my status was at the end of the
1220
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:27,920
day, arithmetic.
I would say at at minimum,
1221
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:32,720
minimum once per week, my extra
2025 minutes was dedicated to
1222
00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:36,000
recapping or reteaching very
specifically at the fluency
1223
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:38,040
level, some arithmetic.
And that yeah, that might
1224
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:40,840
include, I've presented it in,
in its inverse format or I've
1225
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:42,720
put the equal sign on the other
side just to give them that bit
1226
00:50:42,720 --> 00:50:45,360
of variety.
But ultimately it was, I need us
1227
00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:47,080
to re practise this method
because I taught this to you a
1228
00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:49,040
month ago.
We haven't divided decimals by
1229
00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:51,360
numbers in a while because
realistically that's one of 19
1230
00:50:51,360 --> 00:50:54,600
objectives by the by year 6.
Here's here's 5 questions
1231
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:56,080
dividing decimals.
Can we remember it?
1232
00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:58,720
You've forgotten it.
Cool. 22nd recap.
1233
00:50:58,720 --> 00:51:00,960
Because you were fluent.
You were here before you were
1234
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:02,960
super fluent.
You've just dropped down a tiny
1235
00:51:02,960 --> 00:51:03,840
bit.
I'm just getting you back up
1236
00:51:03,840 --> 00:51:04,560
there.
Do you remember that?
1237
00:51:04,560 --> 00:51:05,640
Oh yeah, I remember that now.
Brilliant.
1238
00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:06,800
We've practised it for 10
minutes.
1239
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:11,600
Move on.
So arithmetic embedded in in my
1240
00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:14,080
starters all the time.
I did it every single day in
1241
00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:16,160
year 4, like every single day.
It was, it was not even a
1242
00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:18,000
question.
Like my kids got to the point
1243
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:19,880
where they're like, oh, here it
is the five questions again.
1244
00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:21,600
Because I do 5 arithmetic
questions every day.
1245
00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:24,120
Some days it might just be
addition.
1246
00:51:24,480 --> 00:51:27,120
Some days it might just be
addition with different digits
1247
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:29,080
because I know for a fact it's a
misconception.
1248
00:51:29,080 --> 00:51:30,320
They can't learn at their
numbers properly.
1249
00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:33,880
Some days it might be a mixture
where I've said, actually, you
1250
00:51:33,880 --> 00:51:35,200
know what?
We've done so much work over the
1251
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:37,320
last couple weeks.
Here are 5 questions with five
1252
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:40,560
different question types.
It's still arithmetic, but now
1253
00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:43,960
you're showing me your fluency
and your reasoning because you
1254
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:45,080
need to work out what to do each
time.
1255
00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:47,600
It's not just doing the process
to process, not reading it,
1256
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:50,040
understanding the symbols.
It's still a part of reasoning.
1257
00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:54,000
It's still fluency, but it's
that really important skill that
1258
00:51:54,000 --> 00:51:56,600
children need to be able to do
math quickly and accurately.
1259
00:51:56,720 --> 00:51:59,240
They have to be fluent.
And arithmetic is the perfect
1260
00:51:59,240 --> 00:52:02,520
example of that.
You have to be accurate.
1261
00:52:02,520 --> 00:52:05,280
And I'd say it to my children
and I'd, I'd be saying it in a
1262
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:08,080
way where like it's a really
nice supportive thing where I'd
1263
00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:11,840
say to them, I know for a fact
when we finish year 4, every
1264
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:15,280
single person in this room
would, will be able to, I say,
1265
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:18,440
will will be able to answer
every single question on your
1266
00:52:18,440 --> 00:52:20,720
repeated paper.
You might make a mistake, that's
1267
00:52:20,720 --> 00:52:23,480
fine.
You might get there and rush
1268
00:52:23,480 --> 00:52:26,120
through something or miss an
exchange, That's OK.
1269
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:29,560
But I know through my coverage
and my daily practise and my
1270
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:33,320
fluency that I know everyone in
the room can answer that
1271
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:34,880
question.
And that's all I want to get to
1272
00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:36,280
guys.
And then we'd be doing a
1273
00:52:36,280 --> 00:52:38,520
repetite at the end of the year,
it's out of 40 and my class
1274
00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:41,720
would be averaging 35 and the
odd mistake.
1275
00:52:41,880 --> 00:52:44,360
But there wouldn't be anything
that a child goes, yeah, I've
1276
00:52:44,360 --> 00:52:46,320
never seen that before because I
do it every day.
1277
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:48,120
I'm not remember at all.
Exactly.
1278
00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:50,680
And that's where this, this idea
of our maths platform has kind
1279
00:52:50,680 --> 00:52:52,880
of come from.
It's like, OK, how can we make
1280
00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:55,680
it easy for teachers to do this?
Because I know the power of
1281
00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:58,680
doing arithmetic every single
day and getting fluent in being
1282
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:01,400
able to actually do the maths.
But a teacher might not quite
1283
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:02,960
get the nuances of the different
questions.
1284
00:53:03,080 --> 00:53:05,640
They might not quite understand
maybe why there's, you know, 2
1285
00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:07,960
exchanging in this question or
going past the bridging past the
1286
00:53:07,960 --> 00:53:10,840
zero makes it harder, etcetera.
And even if there are teachers
1287
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:13,560
who get that, it can be time
consuming and frustrating to
1288
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:16,320
make sure you get coverage.
And it can be time consuming and
1289
00:53:16,320 --> 00:53:19,600
annoying to get every individual
child's data and be like, well,
1290
00:53:19,600 --> 00:53:20,920
that child can't do this, this
and this.
1291
00:53:21,040 --> 00:53:22,160
This child can't do that and
that.
1292
00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:23,120
But it's a different one as
well.
1293
00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:25,840
They can't do.
Our platform is going to be
1294
00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:29,160
something where you can really
easily harvest this information
1295
00:53:29,160 --> 00:53:30,600
from the children.
They can practise it.
1296
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:33,000
They can do it every day.
They get what they need.
1297
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:36,320
It's adaptive to them.
And it's going to be so powerful
1298
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:38,800
to get children better
arithmetic.
1299
00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:40,400
And it's something they don't
have to do for an hour a day.
1300
00:53:40,400 --> 00:53:42,120
They can do it for 10 minutes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1301
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:45,120
They can do a test, they can do
a bit of practise on what they
1302
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:46,920
need.
And the teachers can go in and
1303
00:53:46,920 --> 00:53:48,520
say, actually I want this, this
and this question.
1304
00:53:48,680 --> 00:53:51,360
Generate me 10 done.
Yeah, it's it's going to be.
1305
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:55,640
So I'm so gassed about it
because anyone listening to this
1306
00:53:55,640 --> 00:53:57,800
who kind of gets what we're
saying here about arithmetic, a
1307
00:53:57,800 --> 00:53:59,200
lot of people already message
about it.
1308
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:01,720
Message us and just let us know
if it's something that interests
1309
00:54:01,720 --> 00:54:04,400
you because it's going to be so
powerful.
1310
00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:08,920
And the reason we're doing it is
not because we're saying teach
1311
00:54:08,920 --> 00:54:10,760
to a test.
You just got to be able to do
1312
00:54:10,760 --> 00:54:13,000
arithmetic.
Hayden, I'm hoping for what
1313
00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:15,480
we've said today.
You can really understand that
1314
00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:18,640
unless you've nailed that, the
true goal is pointless.
1315
00:54:18,720 --> 00:54:21,600
Yeah, You can't build on top of
broken foundations.
1316
00:54:21,960 --> 00:54:23,400
You need to have the foundations
in place.
1317
00:54:23,560 --> 00:54:26,480
We are trying to target the
thing that matters the most,
1318
00:54:26,640 --> 00:54:29,840
which is the foundation.
And we know one of the side
1319
00:54:29,840 --> 00:54:33,080
effects of mass mastery is the
misconception of having to do.
1320
00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:35,080
We just need to put in loads
more reasoning and problem
1321
00:54:35,080 --> 00:54:36,440
solving.
And the horrible side effect of
1322
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:39,640
that is in some places, in some
schools, in some classrooms,
1323
00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:41,880
arithmetic and fluency is
actually getting a little bit
1324
00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:44,160
weaker because what they would
have been doing way more of that
1325
00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:45,800
before, they're now not doing as
much because they think they
1326
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:46,720
have to.
I've got to do reasonable
1327
00:54:46,720 --> 00:54:49,000
problem solving every lesson.
And now they're not as fluent.
1328
00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:50,080
And it's like, oh, man, we need
it.
1329
00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:51,480
We.
Yeah, we're trying to tackle the
1330
00:54:51,480 --> 00:54:52,640
problem from every angle.
Yeah.
1331
00:54:53,120 --> 00:54:55,080
Yeah.
I I had a conversation with
1332
00:54:55,080 --> 00:54:58,280
someone the other day who said
they're in year 6.
1333
00:54:58,280 --> 00:55:00,800
They messaged us and they said
our school is thinking of
1334
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:04,600
starting to do arithmetic every
week and I was like, sure what?
1335
00:55:06,040 --> 00:55:08,920
They were doing excuse.
Me and it's like people go so
1336
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:11,680
far down this road of schemes
and I suppose just wanted to get
1337
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:14,640
your quick thought on schemes
because I am not anti scheme.
1338
00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:19,080
I think schemes are really good.
However, when implemented really
1339
00:55:19,080 --> 00:55:22,720
robustly and strictly and
stringently and, and badly, they
1340
00:55:22,720 --> 00:55:24,840
can be awful.
And I think this is a symptom of
1341
00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:28,040
this where schools might buy
into schemes or say, yeah, we've
1342
00:55:28,040 --> 00:55:29,760
got this.
It's, it's rooted in evidence,
1343
00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:33,360
It's a good scheme and it has
lots of chances, fluency and
1344
00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:35,040
reasoning and problem solving,
all that kind of stuff.
1345
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:39,560
But maybe it's missing just
enough to just practise and
1346
00:55:39,560 --> 00:55:42,120
become really fluent in actually
doing the maths and then a
1347
00:55:42,120 --> 00:55:45,280
school doesn't do it because
they're so wedded to the scheme
1348
00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:47,560
so very quickly.
If you could just summarise our
1349
00:55:47,560 --> 00:55:49,120
thoughts on schemes.
So now we're on the same page
1350
00:55:49,120 --> 00:55:52,080
here.
Is that a reason to bin schemes
1351
00:55:52,080 --> 00:55:53,440
or do you just think, look, come
on.
1352
00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:56,000
Absolutely not scheme.
I'm going to say what I said
1353
00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:57,360
earlier.
Schemes are really good for
1354
00:55:57,360 --> 00:55:59,560
mapping coverage of lesson
objectives that you're teaching
1355
00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:01,600
the main bit of your lesson.
Schemes are very good at that.
1356
00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:03,840
What I feel like schemes lack a
lot of, and which is another
1357
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:06,200
reason we're doing this, is
because we feel like it's not
1358
00:56:06,200 --> 00:56:08,040
there.
What schemes aren't so good at
1359
00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:11,320
is taking something like just
arithmetic and providing loads
1360
00:56:11,320 --> 00:56:14,120
of resources and loads of
fluency tools and ways for you
1361
00:56:14,120 --> 00:56:16,880
to just practise that bit and
saying like, oh hey, in your 20
1362
00:56:16,880 --> 00:56:18,720
minute segment that you do in
the afternoon or in your 20
1363
00:56:18,720 --> 00:56:20,320
minute segment that you do at
the beginning of your lesson.
1364
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:22,760
However, your school allocates
this bit of extra time that
1365
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:24,000
we're talking about.
Like Dylan said earlier, it
1366
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:25,240
doesn't need to be within your
maths lesson.
1367
00:56:25,240 --> 00:56:26,440
It could be another part of the
day.
1368
00:56:27,120 --> 00:56:28,480
Here's the resources and map for
that.
1369
00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:29,840
And this is how this is some
great.
1370
00:56:29,920 --> 00:56:33,440
It doesn't exist, I don't think
not not to a not to a level that
1371
00:56:33,440 --> 00:56:36,040
I think is good enough, which is
why we are building this
1372
00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:38,640
arithmetic tour.
That is going to be I, I, I'm
1373
00:56:38,640 --> 00:56:40,680
getting too, I get too excited
about have to calm myself down.
1374
00:56:40,680 --> 00:56:42,880
But I genuinely think it's going
to be transformational because I
1375
00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:46,080
think if you get those
foundations right with a really,
1376
00:56:46,080 --> 00:56:50,440
really good adaptive tool that
works at the exact nuances of,
1377
00:56:50,600 --> 00:56:52,920
you gave an example.
When you've got a tool that
1378
00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:55,640
knows the difference between a
four digit number, add a three
1379
00:56:55,640 --> 00:56:58,520
digit number with exchange with
exchange or exchange and the
1380
00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:00,440
different and all of the
combinations of that and
1381
00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:03,440
understands those nuances.
And if I want, if I want more of
1382
00:57:03,440 --> 00:57:04,960
these questions, it's like,
yeah, you can have more of these
1383
00:57:04,960 --> 00:57:06,400
questions because that's what
you want to practise.
1384
00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:08,560
Like you said in your starter,
you might practise one day.
1385
00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:10,960
A very specific misconception
that your kids are making.
1386
00:57:10,960 --> 00:57:13,960
Give them five more of those A.
Misconception, which literally
1387
00:57:13,960 --> 00:57:16,320
couldn't be taught if you just
did random numbers exactly
1388
00:57:16,320 --> 00:57:18,120
because if you're doing random
numbers, you might not get
1389
00:57:18,120 --> 00:57:20,440
exchanging, you might not get
the same number of digits,
1390
00:57:20,440 --> 00:57:21,840
etcetera.
You're so right.
1391
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:23,920
And it has it.
This is where it's going to be
1392
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:26,960
transformative because you can
create 100 questions
1393
00:57:27,200 --> 00:57:29,480
regenerating the same thing.
And do you know why I think it's
1394
00:57:29,480 --> 00:57:32,360
going to be such a good tool?
Because it it puts together 2
1395
00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:35,120
things that we're really
passionate about. 1 is quality
1396
00:57:35,120 --> 00:57:38,480
maths teaching and whether you
are adept to it or not.
1397
00:57:38,480 --> 00:57:40,800
I'm not judging you as an
individual because some people
1398
00:57:40,800 --> 00:57:42,480
are much more adept, like we
know it inside out.
1399
00:57:42,720 --> 00:57:44,040
Other people won't and that's
fine.
1400
00:57:44,040 --> 00:57:45,640
Their passion might be English,
but they've got to teach maths
1401
00:57:45,640 --> 00:57:46,760
and they're really good at
teaching maths.
1402
00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:50,240
Whether or not you're, you're
really, really like to clued on
1403
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:54,120
this can do it for you.
And what it does is then allows
1404
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:57,360
you to teach, this isn't going
to be the thing that like
1405
00:57:57,360 --> 00:58:00,520
suddenly just takes over your
class and teaches children how
1406
00:58:00,520 --> 00:58:03,080
to do it more than you know.
What this is going to do is give
1407
00:58:03,080 --> 00:58:06,720
you the tools to be able to
teach it so well and save you
1408
00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:10,440
time and give you exact things
that the children need and do
1409
00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:13,320
gap analysis for you and give
them targeted intervention.
1410
00:58:13,520 --> 00:58:15,560
It's going to do that.
And then you as the teacher can
1411
00:58:15,560 --> 00:58:18,480
go around and say, right, you're
struggling with this 5 minutes
1412
00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:20,520
with the white board, let's go.
And you can teach them it.
1413
00:58:20,520 --> 00:58:22,200
It's so powerful.
Can I fix because now we're
1414
00:58:22,200 --> 00:58:24,200
getting super excited.
Can I finish by telling that
1415
00:58:24,200 --> 00:58:26,600
there's a, there's a moment that
I can think of where I was like,
1416
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:29,120
this tool just doesn't exist.
This doesn't exist and I need
1417
00:58:29,120 --> 00:58:30,960
it.
Which was it was it was a SATS
1418
00:58:30,960 --> 00:58:32,960
question that I was looking at.
It was I can't the exact one.
1419
00:58:32,960 --> 00:58:35,480
It was something along the lines
of like 2 1/2, lots of 57.
1420
00:58:35,560 --> 00:58:37,720
It was a really horrible.
It was like the last question in
1421
00:58:37,720 --> 00:58:39,680
the SATS paper once.
And I was like, that's rancid in
1422
00:58:39,680 --> 00:58:42,760
terms of giving the kids that
and I wanted to have more.
1423
00:58:42,760 --> 00:58:44,440
I just, I was like, I want to
practise these questions because
1424
00:58:44,440 --> 00:58:46,280
that's actually really hard.
I've got a high mass set on a on
1425
00:58:46,280 --> 00:58:48,960
a practise mixed numbers times
like really horrible numbers
1426
00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:50,720
where you can't even divide by
the denomination.
1427
00:58:50,720 --> 00:58:53,240
Like 50 doesn't divide by two
without going to decimals.
1428
00:58:53,400 --> 00:58:55,360
It's horrible.
And when I used a random number
1429
00:58:55,360 --> 00:58:58,240
generator to just like generate
more, they just, they didn't
1430
00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:01,000
get, they didn't get the nuance.
It gave me stuff like 2 1/2,
1431
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:02,560
lots of 20.
And I was like, no, this isn't
1432
00:59:02,560 --> 00:59:05,920
what I want.
I want it to understand so why
1433
00:59:05,920 --> 00:59:07,880
this is hard.
So we're building this all that
1434
00:59:07,880 --> 00:59:10,000
does that and that's it.
That's it for me.
1435
00:59:10,000 --> 00:59:12,120
I was like, I need to that needs
to exist and that needs to exist
1436
00:59:12,120 --> 00:59:13,880
and it needs to get every single
level of nuance on every
1437
00:59:13,880 --> 00:59:16,600
question and be able to just
give me 10 more like that, you
1438
00:59:16,600 --> 00:59:18,840
know, anyways, but.
You're right, you're right.
1439
00:59:18,840 --> 00:59:20,440
And I think this is it's built
in.
1440
00:59:20,680 --> 00:59:23,080
Hopefully again from this whole
episode, you get how much we
1441
00:59:23,080 --> 00:59:24,640
love maths.
We're obsessed with maths.
1442
00:59:24,920 --> 00:59:27,000
We get good results for our
children.
1443
00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:29,680
We literally, it's what our
passion is.
1444
00:59:30,160 --> 00:59:35,640
And the ability to have been
building this makes me so happy
1445
00:59:35,800 --> 00:59:39,320
because I'm not building this.
And then, oh, yeah, it's
1446
00:59:39,320 --> 00:59:40,920
important because I've built
this thing.
1447
00:59:41,040 --> 00:59:43,640
No, I, I, I believe everything
I've said in this whole episode.
1448
00:59:43,720 --> 00:59:44,960
Yeah.
And that's why I think this is
1449
00:59:44,960 --> 00:59:47,360
such a thing that I've thought
for years would be so powerful
1450
00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:49,680
and good to build.
It's happening like it's going
1451
00:59:49,680 --> 00:59:52,280
to be so, so, so useful.
Watch this space, guys.
1452
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:54,200
Yeah, keep asking us, because
every time you ask us questions
1453
00:59:54,200 --> 00:59:55,760
about it, we get really giddy
and excited.
1454
00:59:56,160 --> 00:59:58,720
So excited we're going to wrap
it up, but there's just one last
1455
00:59:58,720 --> 01:00:00,680
thing I wanted to mention.
And I don't think we need to go
1456
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:02,480
into detail about it because
we've gone into so much detail
1457
01:00:02,480 --> 01:00:04,480
already.
But I think part of the problem
1458
01:00:04,920 --> 01:00:07,280
if we're going back full circle
is obviously preparing for the
1459
01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:08,240
test, right?
Yeah.
1460
01:00:08,240 --> 01:00:10,520
So think about SAT at the end
and we're thinking, oh, well,
1461
01:00:10,520 --> 01:00:12,280
yeah, you're just creating a
thing that helps you prepare for
1462
01:00:12,280 --> 01:00:13,560
the SAT.
Yeah, it does.
1463
01:00:13,560 --> 01:00:14,840
It does help you prepare for the
SAT.
1464
01:00:15,320 --> 01:00:16,640
It also makes kids better at
maths.
1465
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:19,120
But the Venn diagram can
overlap, right?
1466
01:00:19,680 --> 01:00:21,640
Just because you're preparing
for the test doesn't necessarily
1467
01:00:21,640 --> 01:00:23,600
mean everything you're doing is
bad for the kids.
1468
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:26,640
Fundamentally, knowing how to do
maths and practising and getting
1469
01:00:26,640 --> 01:00:29,200
quicker and more accurate makes
you a better mathematician.
1470
01:00:29,320 --> 01:00:31,240
Does it also mean you're going
to boost your arithmetic scores
1471
01:00:31,240 --> 01:00:32,760
in your Sats?
Yeah, Yeah, it does.
1472
01:00:32,880 --> 01:00:35,080
And and that's good as well,
because you're better at maths.
1473
01:00:35,080 --> 01:00:37,600
Because you're better at maths,
not because you're just knowing
1474
01:00:37,600 --> 01:00:40,280
how to get around a test or
fudge your way through.
1475
01:00:40,360 --> 01:00:42,520
No, you can do maths more
quickly and more accurately.
1476
01:00:42,920 --> 01:00:46,160
And one thing I was going to put
over to you about the sats, you,
1477
01:00:46,160 --> 01:00:47,360
you're in your 6 for a long
time.
1478
01:00:48,000 --> 01:00:49,960
I've never liked the naming of
the sats.
1479
01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:52,640
Sounds ridiculous.
There's arithmetic paper and a
1480
01:00:52,640 --> 01:00:54,400
reasoning paper.
And I'm like, oh, what?
1481
01:00:54,560 --> 01:00:56,680
Like what?
Like, OK, there are reasoning
1482
01:00:56,680 --> 01:00:59,520
questions, I suppose.
Like explain this in the thought
1483
01:00:59,520 --> 01:01:01,280
bubble.
Of course that's a reasoning
1484
01:01:01,280 --> 01:01:04,040
question.
Fine, but the reasoning paper
1485
01:01:04,160 --> 01:01:05,400
has fluency in it.
Yep.
1486
01:01:05,560 --> 01:01:07,680
It's not reasoning.
It has just straight up fluency
1487
01:01:07,680 --> 01:01:09,040
questions like order these
numbers.
1488
01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:12,160
Like it just has like how you
know, how many sides does a
1489
01:01:12,160 --> 01:01:13,760
square have kind of thing.
Like it has those kind of
1490
01:01:13,760 --> 01:01:15,560
fluency questions.
It has some reasoning and it's
1491
01:01:15,560 --> 01:01:16,880
filled with problem solving,
yeah as well.
1492
01:01:17,320 --> 01:01:20,320
It's, it has always annoyed me
because I feel like it
1493
01:01:20,320 --> 01:01:22,200
contributes to the problem of
like people getting confused
1494
01:01:22,200 --> 01:01:24,680
between the problem.
Because realistically what's
1495
01:01:24,680 --> 01:01:27,440
happening is, yeah, you've kind
of summarised it, the two
1496
01:01:27,440 --> 01:01:29,280
papers.
It, it feels like it's supposed
1497
01:01:29,280 --> 01:01:32,000
to say we have a fluency paper
and then we have a reasoning
1498
01:01:32,000 --> 01:01:33,600
problem solving paper.
I feel like that's how people
1499
01:01:33,760 --> 01:01:35,760
interpret that when they see
arithmetic and reasoning.
1500
01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:37,840
They're like, OK, that's the
split they make in their mind.
1501
01:01:37,840 --> 01:01:40,960
But really the split is, yeah,
we have this really a subset of
1502
01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:43,200
of fluency, which is arithmetic
as one paper.
1503
01:01:43,480 --> 01:01:46,400
And then we have all of the rest
of fluency, all of problem
1504
01:01:46,400 --> 01:01:48,520
solving, and all of reasoning
that comes in between that,
1505
01:01:48,520 --> 01:01:49,720
because reasoning is just
everything.
1506
01:01:49,720 --> 01:01:52,120
Because I I think I think
there's some reasoning in
1507
01:01:52,120 --> 01:01:53,560
arithmetic.
Some some people might tell me
1508
01:01:53,560 --> 01:01:54,920
I'm wrong here.
What is the example I gave
1509
01:01:54,920 --> 01:01:56,840
earlier?
Exactly like the the idea of in
1510
01:01:56,840 --> 01:02:00,400
arithmetic, the, you know, yeah,
OK, being fluent includes the
1511
01:02:00,400 --> 01:02:02,680
ability to know which method to
go for and why etcetera.
1512
01:02:02,880 --> 01:02:06,080
But but that is reasoning.
Like it inherently is the
1513
01:02:06,080 --> 01:02:07,640
thought process of do you know
what?
1514
01:02:07,640 --> 01:02:09,800
I'm in this test.
I've got a method here that'll
1515
01:02:09,800 --> 01:02:13,120
take me 10 seconds or a method
that'll take me a minute knowing
1516
01:02:13,120 --> 01:02:14,760
to go for the 10 second one.
That's reasoning.
1517
01:02:14,760 --> 01:02:15,520
You're thinking it's.
True.
1518
01:02:15,520 --> 01:02:17,200
I've got a really good example
of that which I'll say really
1519
01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:18,600
quickly.
Long division always happens,
1520
01:02:18,600 --> 01:02:20,640
right?
If you, if you give a child A4
1521
01:02:20,640 --> 01:02:23,320
digit number divided by 45 and
another question, it's a four
1522
01:02:23,320 --> 01:02:27,040
digit number divided by 47.
A child that hasn't been taught
1523
01:02:27,040 --> 01:02:29,480
fluency properly with very
fluency might just have one
1524
01:02:29,480 --> 01:02:31,040
method they use that works.
And do you know what they could
1525
01:02:31,040 --> 01:02:32,000
get it right?
And that's fine.
1526
01:02:32,160 --> 01:02:34,640
But the reason comes into play
when you go, oh, some children
1527
01:02:34,720 --> 01:02:37,600
will look at 45 and think, I can
factorise that into two short
1528
01:02:37,600 --> 01:02:39,080
divisions.
I can divide by 9, get an
1529
01:02:39,080 --> 01:02:41,960
answer, divide that by 5, making
it on the whole a lot easier
1530
01:02:41,960 --> 01:02:43,920
because I don't have to think
about the 45 times tables and
1531
01:02:43,920 --> 01:02:46,080
finding huge remainders.
That's way quicker to me.
1532
01:02:46,080 --> 01:02:48,360
And another child when you look
at 47, they'll go, oh, that's a
1533
01:02:48,360 --> 01:02:50,480
prime.
I can't, I can't factorise this
1534
01:02:50,480 --> 01:02:52,120
into into two times tables that
I know.
1535
01:02:52,120 --> 01:02:54,160
So I'm going to have to just do
this, my long division method.
1536
01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:56,240
And in the first one, they save
loads of time, and the second
1537
01:02:56,240 --> 01:02:57,280
one, they're using the proper
method.
1538
01:02:57,280 --> 01:02:58,600
And you're telling me they
haven't done reasoning?
1539
01:02:59,040 --> 01:03:00,360
Yeah, that's what I mean.
Like that.
1540
01:03:00,360 --> 01:03:01,680
Then that's in the arithmetic
paper.
1541
01:03:01,680 --> 01:03:03,160
Exactly.
So reasoning kind of is
1542
01:03:03,160 --> 01:03:05,200
everywhere, yet we call one of
the papers reasoning.
1543
01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:07,560
I get it because it's more
reasoning.
1544
01:03:07,560 --> 01:03:11,040
Arithmetic is more stripped.
But it's not reasoning to just
1545
01:03:11,040 --> 01:03:14,320
be able to do a number that's
adding ten.
1546
01:03:14,560 --> 01:03:16,000
But how often does that come up
in the reasoning?
1547
01:03:16,000 --> 01:03:17,880
What's 10 more?
What they do is to make it look
1548
01:03:17,880 --> 01:03:19,800
different though, is they'll put
three of them in one question.
1549
01:03:19,800 --> 01:03:22,720
It'll be like this 1 + 10, this
1 + 10, this 1 + 10, this one
1550
01:03:22,720 --> 01:03:24,280
plus what equals this.
You have to get all three to get
1551
01:03:24,280 --> 01:03:26,760
one mark and it's.
Like each one of those questions
1552
01:03:26,760 --> 01:03:28,680
could have in the paper.
Yeah, if it was just one of
1553
01:03:28,680 --> 01:03:31,400
them.
So yeah, that's all I would say.
1554
01:03:31,400 --> 01:03:33,160
It's slightly confusing.
I don't think it's an issue.
1555
01:03:33,240 --> 01:03:35,040
Like I said, I think reasoning
permeates everything.
1556
01:03:35,040 --> 01:03:37,480
I don't think you can say it's
not reasoning.
1557
01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:40,440
It's annoying, but I just think
it just helps to push the
1558
01:03:40,440 --> 01:03:42,640
narrative of a bit of misunder.
I mean, on the upside as well,
1559
01:03:42,640 --> 01:03:44,880
it does also just kind of
reinforce the idea that
1560
01:03:45,320 --> 01:03:47,280
arithmetic is unbelievably
important because they felt the
1561
01:03:47,280 --> 01:03:49,520
need to put an entire paper to
that part of fluency.
1562
01:03:49,520 --> 01:03:50,800
Yes.
And then call them, you know,
1563
01:03:50,800 --> 01:03:52,000
the naming we can, we can
disagree with.
1564
01:03:52,000 --> 01:03:54,480
But yeah, ultimately arithmetic
is like, yeah, it's essential.
1565
01:03:54,640 --> 01:03:56,520
It's an essential underpinning
part of maths.
1566
01:03:56,520 --> 01:03:58,920
And we should be looking at can
the kids do the maths and then
1567
01:03:58,920 --> 01:04:01,440
also looking at can the kids
apply in any context, you know?
1568
01:04:01,640 --> 01:04:05,320
Absolutely got I, that is
probably my favourite chat I've
1569
01:04:05,320 --> 01:04:06,280
had in a long time.
There's.
1570
01:04:06,280 --> 01:04:08,600
So much more we could.
Say, I know like somebody don't
1571
01:04:08,600 --> 01:04:10,160
see it, maybe this this one in
the future.
1572
01:04:10,160 --> 01:04:13,360
But guys, if you enjoyed that,
please do leave us a review
1573
01:04:13,360 --> 01:04:15,240
wherever you get it.
And most importantly, honestly,
1574
01:04:15,320 --> 01:04:18,120
for this one, just share it
around a little bit, especially,
1575
01:04:18,120 --> 01:04:20,000
you know, if you're a newer
teacher, if you're training,
1576
01:04:20,000 --> 01:04:23,000
just send it around to people
because it is really important
1577
01:04:23,000 --> 01:04:25,200
information to know.
And if you're more experienced
1578
01:04:25,200 --> 01:04:27,920
staff, what I would say to you
is what we've all said here,
1579
01:04:27,920 --> 01:04:30,560
it's rooted in, it's rooted in
fact, it's rooted in research is
1580
01:04:30,560 --> 01:04:33,640
what it's what it is.
So if you kind of are noticing
1581
01:04:33,640 --> 01:04:36,720
in your school, maybe the
balance is a bit often and you
1582
01:04:36,720 --> 01:04:39,400
as a professional kind of have
this idea of like it's not been
1583
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:41,400
done properly.
Push back a bit.
1584
01:04:41,400 --> 01:04:44,360
Like just just ask about it.
Just say like look OK you might
1585
01:04:44,360 --> 01:04:46,880
get shot down fine but you might
not and you might be able to
1586
01:04:46,880 --> 01:04:49,320
change stuff.
And also talk to us because if
1587
01:04:49,320 --> 01:04:51,200
there's anything else more you
want to, you want us to talk
1588
01:04:51,200 --> 01:04:52,960
about about Mouse, you know, we
love it.
1589
01:04:52,960 --> 01:04:54,560
So if there's ever, if there's
elements you thought, I wonder
1590
01:04:54,560 --> 01:04:56,080
if they're going to talk about
this in this episode.
1591
01:04:56,080 --> 01:04:58,400
And we didn't please write in
because there's almost
1592
01:04:58,400 --> 01:05:00,280
definitely another episode we'll
do in the future where we can
1593
01:05:00,280 --> 01:05:02,560
talk about these other elements.
Of maths, but we're going to be
1594
01:05:02,560 --> 01:05:04,160
building our maths platform
every.
1595
01:05:04,320 --> 01:05:07,920
Episode from next week will
exclusively be about maths this.
1596
01:05:08,000 --> 01:05:09,800
Is a maths, but it's not that
we're going to change it.
1597
01:05:09,920 --> 01:05:12,640
Welcome back to MONEY.
That toxic school soon fine.
1598
01:05:12,840 --> 01:05:14,360
Only if they're doing maths
incorrectly.
1599
01:05:14,640 --> 01:05:15,480
See you next week.
See.
1600
01:05:15,720 --> 01:05:15,960
You guys.
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,360
Hello everyone and welcome back
to another episode of Teach
2
00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:04,160
Sleep Repeat.
My name is Dylan and my name's
3
00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:05,880
Hayden, and this week we're
going to be diving into our
4
00:00:05,880 --> 00:00:07,400
favourite subject.
You know what it is?
5
00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:09,200
It's math.
We're going to be talking
6
00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:12,440
fluency, reasoning and problem
solving, defining them and also
7
00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:14,160
going over some of the
misconceptions around them.
8
00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:16,560
We'll take a look at how to
structure a really quality maths
9
00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:19,400
lesson and sequence of learning,
as well as being able to use
10
00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:22,200
schemes without them becoming
limiting and frustrating.
11
00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:24,080
And make sure you stick around,
because we'll be giving some
12
00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:26,880
sneak peek information about
what we've been up to behind the
13
00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:29,040
scenes in the Mass world.
Oh, how exciting.
14
00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:32,920
Let's go.
All right, so I think before we
15
00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:34,800
dive into this, we should just
give some context.
16
00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:36,480
Listeners will know how much we
love maths.
17
00:00:36,480 --> 00:00:38,080
They will know how involved
we'll have maths and a whole
18
00:00:38,080 --> 00:00:40,840
career.
However, I just want to make
19
00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:42,840
this really clear for anyone
maybe who's watching or
20
00:00:42,840 --> 00:00:46,160
listening for the first time or
isn't quite sure about why we
21
00:00:46,160 --> 00:00:48,960
feel like we can almost be the
experts here talking about
22
00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:52,960
maths, our careers.
I for me, I think it's defined
23
00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:54,800
by maths.
Like I loved being a primary
24
00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:57,000
school teacher because you could
teach all the subjects, but my
25
00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,560
passion and what I was really
interested in and what I thought
26
00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:01,480
I did really well was teach
maths.
27
00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:03,840
Same for you.
I was a primary maths teacher,
28
00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:05,120
Yeah.
And I had to teach some other
29
00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:07,280
subjects as well.
That's, that's the way I see it.
30
00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:09,760
My family literally asked like
they got when I was just
31
00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:11,200
throughout my career.
They're like, Oh yeah, how how's
32
00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:13,280
the old maths teaching?
I was like, do you do know?
33
00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:15,440
I do actually teach other stuff
as well, even though I only talk
34
00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:17,760
about maths.
I do also teach English and
35
00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:19,040
Geography everything.
Else, yeah.
36
00:01:19,040 --> 00:01:21,320
And I think when we trained the
university, you know, our main
37
00:01:21,320 --> 00:01:24,080
focus was maths as well.
Like we literally had maths
38
00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,160
specialist input from Gina
Donaldson.
39
00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:29,720
And Gina, I don't know if you're
listening to Gina Donaldson, but
40
00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:33,720
you are genuinely the reason why
I felt like I could become an
41
00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:36,600
expert in maths and I felt like
I could pass it on to the
42
00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:38,000
children because she inspired
me.
43
00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:39,680
Like she was unbelievable as a
tutor.
44
00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:42,920
It was at Canterbury
Christchurch University, 10 out
45
00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:46,040
of 10.
And having done her course, I
46
00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:49,520
felt equipped almost straight
away because again, we trained
47
00:01:49,520 --> 00:01:52,640
in 2014, 2015, around the time
of this new curriculum.
48
00:01:52,880 --> 00:01:55,640
So we were in this really odd
position where in university we
49
00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:58,400
were being taught how to teach
maths in this almost new mastery
50
00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:01,840
way, but embedded in the new
curriculum from the start.
51
00:02:01,840 --> 00:02:04,800
So when we went into school, we
almost had a head start in that
52
00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:07,480
respect, I think big time.
And it was like, no, this is
53
00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:10,280
just how you teach maths.
And this whole idea of, oh, new
54
00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:13,000
maths different to what I did
before, we had none of that
55
00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,560
really, because it was just
that's how we were learned and.
56
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:18,800
Having now taught for 10 years,
I can't believe how important
57
00:02:18,800 --> 00:02:20,720
that was.
I also had Gina so big up
58
00:02:22,200 --> 00:02:25,920
transformational in terms of
changing my just eradicating my
59
00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:28,480
misconceptions about maths and
how I very much thought of like,
60
00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:30,840
yeah, it's just you see it
online all the time now.
61
00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:33,040
People being like, don't teach
the kids multiple methods, just
62
00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:35,000
do this one way.
It always works and then they
63
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:36,400
can get the questions right in
the test.
64
00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:38,440
There are so many reasons I
could argue against that and
65
00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:40,480
we'll go into it and we talk
about fluency and all the other
66
00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:44,440
bits, but Gina really just
immediately from from day one
67
00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:47,720
was like, Yep, here is a more
holistic way to think about how
68
00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:51,200
people learn maths really well
and and it just shaped my shaped
69
00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:53,080
my maths and this.
Is why it's better and This is
70
00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:55,000
why it's good.
And then when we went into
71
00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,640
school, very quickly you became
maths lead of of the school
72
00:02:57,640 --> 00:02:59,400
where I worked.
I remember you becoming maths
73
00:02:59,400 --> 00:03:01,640
lead and I was on the hub, the
team, but you were the leader
74
00:03:01,640 --> 00:03:03,880
for that.
And then when we ended up in our
75
00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:07,000
school that we worked in
together, just at the end of our
76
00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:12,360
teaching journey, we both LED
maths together, kind of Co LED
77
00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:13,920
it.
You're my assistant to the maths
78
00:03:13,920 --> 00:03:15,320
lead.
I was the maths lead.
79
00:03:15,320 --> 00:03:17,080
So you were very much just kind
of below me.
80
00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:19,920
But yeah, we've LED maths in
school for years and years and
81
00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:22,960
years and years.
And one of my big passions, and
82
00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:26,680
This is why we're doing this
episode, is to just help other
83
00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:30,080
teachers understand maybe some
of the terminology, fluency,
84
00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:32,840
reasoning, problem solving, what
it means, what it might look
85
00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:35,760
like in a lesson, why it's
important, which ones we should
86
00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:38,120
weight more heavily, what it
might look like in a classroom.
87
00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:40,680
And importantly, what the
misconceptions are as to what
88
00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:42,640
good maths teaching actually
might look like.
89
00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:47,080
Which I think embedded in a lot
of schools now for reasons where
90
00:03:47,080 --> 00:03:49,280
they want to help their children
as much as possible and want to
91
00:03:49,280 --> 00:03:52,120
meet the national curriculum
aims, they're actually doing
92
00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:55,040
things that I think are
potentially bad practise when it
93
00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:58,040
comes to maths in general.
So hopefully we can flesh some
94
00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,480
bits out, talk about what
different words mean literally
95
00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:04,520
in this in the curriculum, and
then yeah, dive into what a good
96
00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:07,360
lesson might look like, how it
might structure things and
97
00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:09,440
basically let our passion shine,
no doubt.
98
00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:11,440
No doubt that's what you're
saying, because we love maths
99
00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:13,240
and we could just talk about
this for hours.
100
00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:15,440
Precisely that.
So let's start off, I think it's
101
00:04:15,440 --> 00:04:18,800
important that we everything we
do is rooted in the national
102
00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:20,240
curriculum aims.
So I'm going to talk about the
103
00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:22,560
aims specifically for the maths
curriculum now in primary
104
00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:24,960
school.
And it's split up into three
105
00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:26,120
chunks.
And these three chunks are
106
00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:29,160
things people will have heard of
at some point in their training
107
00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:31,640
or just in their delivery of
maths lessons in primary school,
108
00:04:31,640 --> 00:04:34,640
and that is fluency, reasoning
and problem solving.
109
00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:36,800
So let's read them through.
Now this is from the national
110
00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:38,600
curriculum.
The National Curriculum for
111
00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:42,080
Mathematics aims to ensure that
all pupils, and that's really
112
00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,480
important, all pupils, we'll
come back to that number one,
113
00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:48,240
become fluent in the
fundamentals of mathematics,
114
00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:50,440
including through varied and
frequent practise with
115
00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:54,280
increasingly complex problems
over time so that pupils develop
116
00:04:54,280 --> 00:04:58,000
a conceptual understanding and
the ability to recall and apply
117
00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:01,000
knowledge rapidly and
accurately.
118
00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:05,280
It goes on to then say #2 to
reason mathematically by
119
00:05:05,280 --> 00:05:08,520
following a line of inquiry,
conjecturing relationships and
120
00:05:08,520 --> 00:05:12,280
generalisations and developing
an argument, justification or
121
00:05:12,280 --> 00:05:14,760
proof using mathematical
language.
122
00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:19,120
And thirdly, can problem solve
by applying their mathematics to
123
00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:23,280
a variety of routine and non
routine problems with increasing
124
00:05:23,280 --> 00:05:26,400
sophistication, including
breaking down problems into a
125
00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:31,120
series of smaller, simpler steps
and persevering in seeking
126
00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:32,600
solutions.
Excellent.
127
00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:34,920
Shall we dive in then?
Should we break these down?
128
00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:39,240
Should we just go into fluency
now and really just talk about
129
00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:40,920
what fluency is?
Again, some of the
130
00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:44,920
misconceptions and just yeah,
our top tips and what it looks
131
00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:46,840
like in a lesson, how to embed
it into lessons.
132
00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:48,600
Yeah.
Because when people say fluency,
133
00:05:48,640 --> 00:05:51,880
I think you can sometimes
simplify in your head as do you
134
00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:52,880
know your timetables.
Yeah.
135
00:05:53,640 --> 00:05:55,680
Can you add up?
Can you subtract?
136
00:05:55,680 --> 00:05:56,760
And I think that's part of
fluency.
137
00:05:56,760 --> 00:05:58,840
I think that's really important.
And one thing we'll be
138
00:05:58,840 --> 00:06:01,560
referencing throughout this, I
think it's a fantastic blog on
139
00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:03,120
3rd Space Learning by Neil
Ormond.
140
00:06:03,360 --> 00:06:06,600
He did a whole blog about
reasoning, problem solving, and
141
00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:08,360
fluency.
And a lot of what he says
142
00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:10,800
resonates with the way I think
we think about math as well.
143
00:06:10,800 --> 00:06:12,440
So we'll be referencing that
too.
144
00:06:12,440 --> 00:06:14,880
We'll leave a link down in the
description to that whole blog.
145
00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:16,280
If you wanted to read, I would
recommend it.
146
00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:24,640
But fluency, to me, fluency it's
being able to understand
147
00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:28,640
mathematical facts and know them
quickly, to understand concepts
148
00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:32,520
and know them quickly and
mathematical language and to
149
00:06:32,520 --> 00:06:35,200
understand what they mean.
And for me, being fluent in
150
00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:40,040
something means practising doing
the maths, understanding the
151
00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:44,200
words or knowing the concepts.
So it becomes second nature and
152
00:06:44,200 --> 00:06:47,320
that's when you become fluent.
So fluency is something you
153
00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:49,040
should be working towards
becoming.
154
00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:52,480
Are you fluent in addition and
subtraction at the year 4 level,
155
00:06:52,800 --> 00:06:54,960
yes or no?
The answer for most children
156
00:06:54,960 --> 00:06:56,640
will be no.
And we're working towards
157
00:06:56,640 --> 00:06:58,960
becoming fluent.
So when we say what does fluency
158
00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:02,440
look like or varied fluency or
mixed fluency in a maths lesson,
159
00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:07,720
it's ensuring that children are
exposed to ability to practise
160
00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:10,400
things and not be scared of
practising things over and over
161
00:07:10,400 --> 00:07:11,640
because you need to be able to
do the maths.
162
00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:14,240
Do they understand the language
being used in that topic?
163
00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:20,360
And I would say being exposed to
doing the maths, but in many
164
00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:22,440
different representations.
So I think a lot of people would
165
00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:25,760
say, and maybe you can clarify a
bit more about all this, a lot
166
00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:28,400
of people would say that fluency
equals arithmetic.
167
00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:31,080
So just going a bit further from
your, you said fluency might be
168
00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:33,600
just times tables, but I think
you can expand that to a genuine
169
00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:35,680
misconception, which is that
it's just arithmetic.
170
00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:38,160
So do you think when it comes
down to things like key stage 1
171
00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:41,160
to arithmetic papers, or just
generally arithmetic papers in
172
00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:44,720
your ear group, do you think
that embodies entirely fluency
173
00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,120
because ultimately it's all the
methods you need to know to do
174
00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:49,480
maths?
So what I'd say to people is
175
00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:53,080
arithmetic is part of fluency.
It's one string to the bow.
176
00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:56,080
It's it's really, really, really
important.
177
00:07:56,240 --> 00:07:58,920
You could even say it's
potentially the most important
178
00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:01,480
part of fluency in my opinion.
And I think we could argue that.
179
00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:03,000
And I think you might be right
to say that.
180
00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:06,360
I think it's the actually being
able to literally manipulate
181
00:08:06,360 --> 00:08:09,480
number using the four operations
is the most fundamentally
182
00:08:09,480 --> 00:08:12,440
important part of maths.
And then what I worry about
183
00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:15,400
sometimes and what I see in
schools is it's kind of brushed,
184
00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:18,160
brushed aside or rushed through
or sort.
185
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Yeah, that's important, but we
need to reason and problem
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solve.
No, no, no, you literally cannot
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00:08:22,360 --> 00:08:24,520
reason and problem solve if you
can't do the maths.
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So let's talk about arithmetic
in particular.
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I think that is vital and it
very much links to the kind of
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thing we're working on now.
We're building platform to to
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help teachers and children
become fluent and specifically
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to begin with get better at
arithmetic.
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00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:40,720
Another sneaky yeah.
Another sneaky is or.
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00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:43,000
Basically, it's true because I
kind of want to talk about both,
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because we're obviously
extremely passionate about this
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and I will, I genuinely think
just backing on what you're
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saying, I think arithmetic,
particularly as part of fluency,
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00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:54,720
fluency in general, I would say
is absolutely the most
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fundamentally important part of
maths, genuinely.
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00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:01,160
And I do feel like because we
can also say the end goal of
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maths is problem solving, I do
think we conflate the importance
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00:09:04,280 --> 00:09:06,040
levels of them.
It's like, yeah, the end goal is
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00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:09,080
problem solving, but fluency is
the most important bit because
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you can't do it without it.
It's literally the foundation of
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00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:13,440
the house you're building.
You have to get it right.
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00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:16,320
There's way more to it, you
know, but if you think about the
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00:09:16,400 --> 00:09:19,200
classic pyramid example, I think
even first place learning has a
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couple of different examples of
that.
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It kind of is, you know,
crudely, it's the massive bit at
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00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:26,640
the bottom, fluency, and that
involves majority of that is
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00:09:26,640 --> 00:09:28,440
arithmetic.
Yeah, we've got to get it right.
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00:09:28,560 --> 00:09:30,880
And I think that that's really
important and that's the link.
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00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:33,040
We're going to be drawing these
links throughout this and you'll
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00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:36,760
see why will maybe come back to
it once we've defined, you know,
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00:09:36,760 --> 00:09:39,560
reasoning and problem solving.
Why actually this is the most
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00:09:39,560 --> 00:09:41,720
important part.
Fluency is the most fundamental
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00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:43,960
part of if you're teaching
primary mathematics properly,
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00:09:44,320 --> 00:09:47,800
you have to get this right.
And if you are glazing over it
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00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:50,440
to go through more quickly to
reasoning and problem solving
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00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:52,880
without becoming secure in your
fluency, you're doing your
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00:09:52,880 --> 00:09:55,840
children at the service because
who can problem solve if they
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00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:58,640
can't once they've figured out
what to do, actually do it.
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00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:01,040
It's the most important thing.
And just going back to what you
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00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:03,520
said about fluency and we said
arithmetics part of fluency.
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00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:05,640
So I can imagine people might be
out there thinking, well, what
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00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:06,720
do you mean part?
What's the rest?
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00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:10,040
For example, think of your part
whole models, think of schemes
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00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:13,680
like White Rose learning, White
Rose maths that a lot of a lot
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00:10:13,680 --> 00:10:16,760
of schools use out there and
what questions might look like
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00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:19,600
1-2, three and four.
And I can imagine sometimes as a
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00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:23,280
teacher, I've known teachers who
become frustrated that, oh,
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00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:25,200
they've only done 4 questions
like this, then suddenly they've
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00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:27,080
got a part hole model, then
suddenly they've got a bar
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00:10:27,080 --> 00:10:28,760
model.
Then suddenly they've got an
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00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:30,920
inverse operation and suddenly
the presentation looks different
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00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:32,440
and the missing answer boxes in
a different place.
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00:10:33,120 --> 00:10:36,840
That's down to you as a teacher.
I think good schemes give lots
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00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:38,920
of opportunities for fluency
like this.
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00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:42,280
But you as a teacher need to
understand what fluency is and
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00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:45,640
why it's important and almost
hierarchically move through
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00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:48,200
fluency in a way that's still
sensible.
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00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:51,440
Because I think sometimes with
fluency people here, OK, I kind
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00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:53,600
of get what you're saying now,
Dylan, fluency is this like
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00:10:53,600 --> 00:10:56,800
ability to have lots of
different representations of
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00:10:56,800 --> 00:10:58,840
questions and being able to
apply.
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00:10:58,840 --> 00:11:01,360
Maybe let's just talk about
addition to lots of different
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00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:02,640
ways.
But oh, OK, even though this is
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00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:05,600
a pothole model, I'm adding,
even though this is maybe a bar
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00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:08,800
model, I'm adding, this might be
just literally written as
250
00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:10,840
arithmetic, but I'm adding that
is fluency.
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00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:14,120
But it doesn't mean you have to
just randomly do them off the
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00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:17,280
bat.
Big part of fluency is can you
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00:11:17,280 --> 00:11:19,680
do the maths in the 1st place?
Can you literally add 2 numbers
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00:11:19,680 --> 00:11:22,560
together?
OK, Then we can expand it to, to
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00:11:22,560 --> 00:11:25,560
some ideas of maybe, OK, look,
maybe not just arithmetic now,
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00:11:25,560 --> 00:11:27,400
but it might be shown in a
different way.
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00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:28,720
Yeah.
And then there's even another
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00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:31,320
step of fluency, which is do you
know how many sides the square
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00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:33,200
has exactly?
That's not reasoning on problem
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00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:34,600
solving.
Do you, do you know how many
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00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:36,160
centimetres are in a metre?
These are.
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00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:39,000
This is when we talk about the
known facts, the things you just
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00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:40,680
have to know.
You just have to know the
264
00:11:40,680 --> 00:11:43,000
definition of some words.
You need to know what perimeter
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00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:44,760
means.
That's not reasoning on problem
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00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:45,880
solving.
It's not arithmetic either.
267
00:11:45,880 --> 00:11:47,520
Exactly.
It's not arithmetic, but it is
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00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:50,720
fluency and it comes under that
umbrella and This is why fluency
269
00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:52,520
is vital.
If you don't know what words
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00:11:52,520 --> 00:11:56,320
mean, mathematical vocabulary,
if you can't do the maths and if
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00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:59,200
you don't understand the
concept, you can't do maths.
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00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:03,360
It's like, I can't get across
enough how I feel like fluency
273
00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:06,880
is maths and the reason people
push back and they say, well, no
274
00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:08,880
problem solving is maths,
correct?
275
00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:12,680
It overlaps.
We can't see it as separate
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00:12:12,680 --> 00:12:14,200
things that we just do
separately.
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00:12:14,680 --> 00:12:17,000
It's it's one in the same.
And the way the aims of the
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00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:19,640
curriculum are written down and
the way sometimes schemes of
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00:12:19,640 --> 00:12:22,720
work present things and the way
sometimes we're taught how to
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00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:25,640
teach a maths lesson.
I feel like fluency just gets
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00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:28,240
lumped in as like, yeah, you do
that for a bit and then we do
282
00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:30,560
some reasoning, problem solving.
What I'm trying to get here is
283
00:12:30,560 --> 00:12:34,400
with the definition of fluency
is it is fundamentally what a
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00:12:34,400 --> 00:12:38,680
maths lesson should be and then
you work towards so if you're
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00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:40,160
reasoning and problem solving
which we'll.
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00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:43,320
Come on to moving through the
the flow chart in my head when
287
00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:46,200
I'm thinking about the three
elements of maths, you know,
288
00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:49,280
fluency, reason, problem solving
is I think to myself, are the
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00:12:49,280 --> 00:12:52,040
kids fluent in the maths that
I'm thinking of right now?
290
00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:54,040
Yes or no?
If the answer is yes, then I'll
291
00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:56,520
start thinking, oh cool.
I wonder if I can expose them to
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00:12:56,520 --> 00:12:59,240
some opportunities to solve some
problems now where they can use
293
00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:01,080
their reasoning skills and they
can apply this fluency.
294
00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:04,920
And if the answer is no, my
genuine thought is either, OK,
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00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:08,480
cool, can I do some more fluency
with them until they become
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00:13:08,480 --> 00:13:10,320
fluent?
Maybe it's maybe it is just
297
00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:11,520
straight arithmetic.
If they're really, really
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00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:13,600
struggling even with the method
at this point, maybe it's just
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00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:15,200
they're struggling with
different representations.
300
00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:17,720
They're not they've not been
exposed enough yet to different
301
00:13:17,720 --> 00:13:18,800
ways of seeing.
They've got they're really good
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00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:20,120
at the method.
They're just not very good at
303
00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:22,320
recognising, Oh, that's when I
need to use that method
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00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:25,080
definitions, definition equally,
stuff like that.
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00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:27,600
That's outside arithmetic.
And if and, but even still, if
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00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:30,400
the answer's no, I might still
think, I still, I would like to
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00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:32,800
expose my children to a bit of
problem solving, but I might use
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00:13:32,800 --> 00:13:34,960
something that fluent in, in
something else, which we'll come
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00:13:34,960 --> 00:13:36,640
to, I guess, when we talk more
about problem solving.
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00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:39,640
But the, the fundamental part of
what I'm saying here is I always
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00:13:39,640 --> 00:13:41,560
think to myself, are they fluent
or are they not?
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00:13:41,800 --> 00:13:43,320
You know, that's my first
thought.
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00:13:43,400 --> 00:13:46,600
It's not just does the lesson
struct to tell me I need to be
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00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:48,880
doing some reasoning on this
objective today and some problem
315
00:13:48,880 --> 00:13:50,360
solving.
That's not the way to think
316
00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:52,040
about maths because I they need
to be fluent.
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00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:53,480
That's the point.
If they're not fluent, don't do
318
00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:55,160
it.
It's such a good point and let's
319
00:13:55,160 --> 00:13:57,080
move on to let's move on to
reasoning now.
320
00:13:57,080 --> 00:13:58,520
So we talked about, we talked
about fluency.
321
00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:03,320
Reasoning is, is to me really
bizarre and unique.
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00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:04,920
Hardest one to define.
I think so.
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00:14:04,920 --> 00:14:07,880
And I think, I think I can kind
of define it, but I feel like
324
00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:10,720
the old fashioned way of
thinking of these as 3 pillars
325
00:14:10,720 --> 00:14:12,360
of maths.
I don't think it's helpful.
326
00:14:12,680 --> 00:14:14,800
There's I feel like there's a
very old fashioned way we think
327
00:14:14,800 --> 00:14:16,600
of yeah, you've got your
fluency, then you've got your
328
00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:18,360
reasoning questions, then you've
got your problem solving
329
00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:19,080
questions.
Yeah, sure.
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00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:21,000
And what I'm trying to do is we
go through this, I think we're
331
00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:22,640
trying to just eradicate that
thought process.
332
00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:24,480
Don't think of them as separate
pots.
333
00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:28,360
Because to me, reasoning is the
ultimate version of you reason
334
00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:30,920
all of the time, all of the
time.
335
00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:33,560
So reasoning again, let's think
about what reasoning actually is
336
00:14:33,880 --> 00:14:36,640
to define it.
I'm going to be taking from Neil
337
00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:39,400
Ormond in this in this blog
because I think the way he puts
338
00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:41,280
things down on paper is a
really, really clear way of
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00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:43,160
thinking about it.
Reasoning and maths is the
340
00:14:43,160 --> 00:14:47,440
process of applying logical
thinking to a situation to
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00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:50,120
derive the correct problem
solving strategy for a given
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00:14:50,120 --> 00:14:52,600
question.
Put more simply, mathematical
343
00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:55,480
reasoning is the bridge between
fluency and problem solving.
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00:14:55,800 --> 00:14:58,920
It allows pupils to use the
former accurately to carry carry
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00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:01,360
out the latter.
And I think that's such a nice
346
00:15:01,360 --> 00:15:05,120
way of thinking about it is you
can't just think about reasoning
347
00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:06,760
as have I done reasoning
questions today.
348
00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:09,480
Reasoning is the art of
thinking.
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00:15:10,040 --> 00:15:13,160
It's the art of of actually
doing maths.
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00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:15,280
And I'd argue there's an overlap
of fluency.
351
00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:17,880
Clearly there's an overlap here
with problem solving because we
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00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:20,440
have to reason and think about
what's what we're going to pick
353
00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:22,040
to solve a problem or come on to
problem solving.
354
00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,480
But also, I think with fluency,
I think picking efficient
355
00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:28,680
methods, that's reasoning,
thinking, oh, what if I had to
356
00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:31,080
explain to someone why this
method is more efficient than
357
00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:33,200
that method?
That is definitely reasoning.
358
00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:36,680
And it's the kind of thing I'd
be doing during my fluency part
359
00:15:36,680 --> 00:15:38,280
of my lesson.
I wouldn't be thinking, oh
360
00:15:38,280 --> 00:15:39,920
Christ, no, I can't possibly
reason now.
361
00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:42,080
I mean, my fluency part of my
lesson, we're just practising.
362
00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:46,120
No, no, reasoning is everything.
And I think quality reasoning
363
00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:48,680
happens to all children all of
the time, no matter what they're
364
00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:50,360
doing.
Because at any point as a
365
00:15:50,360 --> 00:15:51,760
teacher, you can be asking
questions.
366
00:15:51,760 --> 00:15:54,360
Why doing that?
What's the benefit of doing
367
00:15:54,360 --> 00:15:56,200
that?
Why have you exchanged there in
368
00:15:56,200 --> 00:15:57,040
that question?
Yeah.
369
00:15:57,240 --> 00:15:58,920
Yeah.
Well, that's weird because on
370
00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:00,200
the other table they did this
method.
371
00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:01,480
Do you think that's better or
worse?
372
00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:03,800
They're still doing.
Why have you used inverse here
373
00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:05,640
Exactly.
You know, even just that you
374
00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:06,480
said.
I agree, by the way.
375
00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:08,440
I think reasoning is very much.
It's the glue.
376
00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:09,240
Yeah.
And it does.
377
00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:11,600
It ranges all the way from
fluency all the way into problem
378
00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:12,040
solving.
Yeah.
379
00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:14,200
I can think of the most basic
version of this where you could
380
00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:16,160
just where you could just about
say, yeah, actually there's a
381
00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:17,760
bit of a reasoning going on
here, which is right.
382
00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:19,880
You've taught the kids the
arithmetic of adding two
383
00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:21,280
numbers.
They know the method.
384
00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:23,200
They know how to line it up and
do the addition and when
385
00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:26,120
something says this, add this,
they can do it, right?
386
00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:28,320
And then you present them.
This is all with influence.
387
00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:30,680
You still based on all these
definitions when you then
388
00:16:30,680 --> 00:16:33,040
present them an inverse question
where it's blank.
389
00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:36,240
Take away a number equals a
number and you know, as a
390
00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:38,360
teacher, oh, they've actually,
even though it says the
391
00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:40,600
subtraction symbol in this
question, they've got to add
392
00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:42,560
those two parts together to get
back to that total.
393
00:16:43,040 --> 00:16:44,840
They're still using the exact
same method you taught.
394
00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:47,200
There's nothing different about
the method and the arithmetic
395
00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:48,560
that they've got to use to solve
this.
396
00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:52,000
But technically they've got to
think just a little bit more
397
00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:54,840
than the last ones of oh, wait,
am I supposed to be subtracting
398
00:16:54,840 --> 00:16:56,840
here?
Or oh, wait, it's laid out this
399
00:16:56,840 --> 00:16:58,800
way, which means I need to use
inverse, which means I'm still
400
00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:00,080
using addition.
Great, I can do that.
401
00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:03,640
That to me is like the smallest
increment where I can think of
402
00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:05,599
where it's like you could say
there's a bit of reasoning
403
00:17:05,599 --> 00:17:08,079
happening there now, but that's
very much fluency.
404
00:17:08,079 --> 00:17:09,800
So that kind of just backs up my
idea.
405
00:17:09,800 --> 00:17:11,760
This idea that reasoning really
is the glue.
406
00:17:12,079 --> 00:17:13,560
It happens all the way through
fluency.
407
00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:15,640
It happens all the way up to
just complete problem solving.
408
00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:17,839
It's kind of everywhere.
It's like you said, it's not
409
00:17:17,839 --> 00:17:20,839
really like a, a separate thing
isolated.
410
00:17:20,839 --> 00:17:23,280
You've got your fluency, then
you've got this thing explicitly
411
00:17:23,280 --> 00:17:25,000
called reasoning, and then
you've got this thing explicitly
412
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:26,480
called problem solving.
It doesn't work like that.
413
00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:29,160
I think that the reason why I
think this has happened and
414
00:17:29,160 --> 00:17:32,000
developed over time is because I
do think there are some
415
00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:34,920
questions which are you can't
refute that it's it's a
416
00:17:34,920 --> 00:17:37,880
reasoning question.
They do exist, like they they
417
00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:40,240
can exist in terms of explaining
your method.
418
00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:42,240
You've seen these questions a
million times in all these
419
00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:45,120
schemes where it says, you know,
think, think like Tiny from
420
00:17:45,120 --> 00:17:47,280
White Rose maths, right?
Tiny's done this.
421
00:17:47,480 --> 00:17:49,880
Where has he gone wrong?
Yeah, that's that's fun, that
422
00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:50,360
is.
Reasoning.
423
00:17:50,360 --> 00:17:51,960
Explain your reasoning.
Explain your reasoning.
424
00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:55,640
It is literally reasoning, yeah,
but again, you've literally
425
00:17:55,640 --> 00:17:58,400
can't do that reasoning unless
you understand the process.
426
00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:00,280
Yeah, you've got to be fluent in
the thing he's talking about.
427
00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:02,440
Exactly how can you possibly do
that?
428
00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:05,600
And then that's when good
teaching in the moment of doing
429
00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:09,120
fluency, it is embedding these
reasoning questions as you go.
430
00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:11,440
Because then what the children
can do when it comes to that
431
00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:14,080
reasoning question is they think
back to when they explain to
432
00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:15,800
their teacher or they explain to
their partner.
433
00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:18,720
And the power of talk and the
power of reasoning whilst doing
434
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:21,040
fluency means they can now
access that question.
435
00:18:21,280 --> 00:18:24,000
They are all interlinked.
It is not a separate thing.
436
00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:26,640
You should not be just getting
kids just to practise maths,
437
00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:28,240
practise maths, practise maths,
practise maths.
438
00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:32,040
Let's do some reasoning.
No, no, no, it's embedded in the
439
00:18:32,040 --> 00:18:34,600
very moment of learning the
process.
440
00:18:35,120 --> 00:18:38,080
You can have reasoning going on
all of the time and the best
441
00:18:38,080 --> 00:18:41,160
teachers do that.
And that's where I think it's
442
00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:42,800
absolutely right that we have
these different names in the
443
00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:45,280
curriculum.
But I just hoping to get through
444
00:18:45,280 --> 00:18:48,880
to people that you, you don't
have to isolate them.
445
00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,560
And if you do, I think it's at
the detriment of your maths
446
00:18:51,560 --> 00:18:53,760
teaching.
So think about the last one,
447
00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:56,880
problem solving.
I'm going to start off by saying
448
00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:59,760
to me, I said about earlier how
fluency is maths, right?
449
00:18:59,960 --> 00:19:01,840
Yeah, I'm going to say some
people might think I'm being
450
00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:03,680
hypocritical here or
contradicting myself.
451
00:19:04,080 --> 00:19:07,560
Problem solving is math
hypocrite, actually, because I,
452
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:13,280
I think to me, if you, if you
think about why we teach
453
00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:15,360
fluency, right, it's not for
fun.
454
00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:18,640
I personally used to love adding
up numbers when I was younger
455
00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:19,720
because I just liked the
patterns.
456
00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:21,320
Yeah.
I enjoy it, feels good to get it
457
00:19:21,320 --> 00:19:22,480
right.
Off it felt good and it's right
458
00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:24,680
or wrong and I quite liked that.
OK, and you could say oh, that's
459
00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:26,040
fluency.
No, no, the point of being
460
00:19:26,040 --> 00:19:29,680
fluent and the point of
reasoning is to apply this and
461
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:32,320
have a bridge to problem
solving.
462
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,600
What is maths if not a way to
understand and solve problems in
463
00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:38,920
the real world?
That, that is literally it.
464
00:19:39,200 --> 00:19:42,360
I've got to catch that bus so
that I get to my meeting at this
465
00:19:42,360 --> 00:19:44,320
time.
The bus takes this long, it's
466
00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:46,600
only every 15 minutes.
What time do I have to leave my
467
00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:48,160
home?
That's problem solving.
468
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:50,240
Yeah, I've got this much budget
for the month.
469
00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:53,560
I spend this much on my
outgoings that I can't get rid
470
00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:55,200
of.
There's a grey area of ones that
471
00:19:55,200 --> 00:19:57,240
I can.
What can I get rid of and then
472
00:19:57,240 --> 00:19:59,960
be below and have enough money
to pay my water bill.
473
00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:03,200
This.
This is maths.
474
00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:07,320
This is what I think school
should be gearing towards.
475
00:20:07,440 --> 00:20:10,800
I think there is a place for
logical thinking that maybe
476
00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:12,600
we're not going to use this in
our real life.
477
00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:14,640
So why are we doing that?
Because it's a process of
478
00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:17,120
problem solving.
The idea of your brain solving a
479
00:20:17,120 --> 00:20:20,880
problem and being logical is a
transferable skill and even.
480
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,040
Within this moment you might
argue you'll never use this
481
00:20:23,040 --> 00:20:25,760
again, but you definitely will
use the process of understanding
482
00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:27,960
how to solve this problem.
That's what problem solving is
483
00:20:27,960 --> 00:20:30,960
for me, and it has to be a
mixture of them and problem
484
00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:32,920
solving.
Let's define it.
485
00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:36,760
And I completely agree with what
I read about this, which was
486
00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:40,600
it's easier sometimes to say
what problem solving isn't so,
487
00:20:40,640 --> 00:20:44,240
so we've got this here.
So problem solving is not
488
00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:47,840
necessarily just about answering
word problems in maths.
489
00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:51,880
If a child already has had
available method to solve a
490
00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:54,480
problem, problem solving has not
occurred.
491
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:58,520
Problem solving in maths is
finding a way to apply knowledge
492
00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:01,760
for children who are fluent by
the way and skills you have
493
00:21:01,760 --> 00:21:04,320
learnt to answer unfamiliar
types of questions.
494
00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:06,280
That's the main bit, isn't it?
That's the biggest bit.
495
00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:09,240
I want everyone to focus on
unfamiliar questions.
496
00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:13,640
It's not technically problem
solving if it's not a unique
497
00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:15,480
situation for you to be solving
this problem.
498
00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:17,600
The question if it's if we're
thinking about questions with
499
00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:21,200
children, the questions that are
being shown should be unfamiliar
500
00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:23,080
to them.
If you've modelled on the board
501
00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:26,360
a particular problem and then
what you've done is you've
502
00:21:26,360 --> 00:21:28,600
changed the numbers and you've
given them the same problem five
503
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:30,320
more times on a worksheet and
said have a go.
504
00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:32,480
But like sometimes what word
problems do, it'll be the same.
505
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:35,520
It'll be the same method, but
just different, different
506
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:38,600
contexts in the word problems
that and you're saying this is
507
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:39,720
the problem solving part of the
lesson.
508
00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:42,240
It's not, it's not problem
solving at all because you've
509
00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:45,120
solved the problem for them on
the board, which is what do I
510
00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:47,200
do?
How do I get from A to B?
511
00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:49,920
How do I get from not knowing
what to do to knowing the method
512
00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:51,800
that solves it?
And then you're just giving them
513
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:54,440
more arithmetic practise at that
point because they know, they
514
00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:56,000
know they know what to do
because you've solved the
515
00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,320
problem for them.
So yeah, problem solving is A is
516
00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:03,360
A, I'd say is the most like
people get it wrong the most.
517
00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:05,720
I think, I think I've spoke over
my career, I've spoken to
518
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:08,120
teachers about maths and problem
solving is the one where I find
519
00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:11,160
myself being that guy that
corrects people the most about
520
00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:12,640
because they're like, Oh yeah,
I've done some.
521
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:14,280
Problem solving Friday.
Yeah, I've done problem solving
522
00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:16,000
Friday.
We do it every week, we do.
523
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:18,720
What I'll do is I'll have maybe
5 different problems, I'll model
524
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:20,320
just one of each one on the
board for them and then they
525
00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:21,560
crack on.
So that's not problem solving.
526
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:23,240
Yeah, problem solving needs to
be unique.
527
00:22:23,360 --> 00:22:25,920
It's fundamentally part of what
what it is, and you can't
528
00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:27,640
problem solve unless you're
fluent in the maths that
529
00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:29,400
underpins it.
I'm just going to add to what
530
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:30,920
you said there because it's so
interesting.
531
00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:32,640
I completely agree with what
you're saying about problem
532
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:34,240
solving.
Has to be new, has to be unique.
533
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:38,000
But realistically, there are
points, certainly in problem
534
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,840
solving lessons, where things
can't be completely unique all
535
00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:42,840
of the time, right?
If you are literally doing a
536
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:46,160
small step on additional
subtraction, the kids may well
537
00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:48,240
it's gonna be addition.
Right, they know what?
538
00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:52,480
I mean, so I don't necessarily
think that in their situations
539
00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,800
problem solving can't happen.
I think it's harder and I think
540
00:22:55,800 --> 00:23:00,080
there's still a place for
modelling the steps in the
541
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:02,800
process of problem solving.
So we talk about there like what
542
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:04,400
if you're at the front of the
board and you model how to
543
00:23:04,400 --> 00:23:05,840
answer this question, the kids
go and do it.
544
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:08,720
It's not problem solving.
Yeah, I slightly push back at
545
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:12,920
that a little bit in terms of, I
think the way you model it with
546
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:16,240
everyone involved asking
questions, reasoning, getting
547
00:23:16,240 --> 00:23:18,640
the kids to explain themselves,
thinking why we might try this
548
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:21,920
method or we might try that
method that is vital in teaching
549
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:24,360
problem solving.
So I think there is a huge place
550
00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:26,400
for that.
And you can absolutely say even
551
00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:28,600
though my children didn't get 5
unique questions they'd never
552
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,040
seen before, therefore they
didn't problem solve, I'd be
553
00:23:31,040 --> 00:23:33,480
saying no, no, no, no, no.
Because I think really good
554
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:36,600
problem solving teaching comes
from really good modelling of
555
00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:39,600
what problem solving is,
involving your class in that and
556
00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:43,160
then letting them have a go.
And it might be that you model
557
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:45,240
them halfway there and you say
right, you'd, what do you think
558
00:23:45,240 --> 00:23:47,440
the last thing might be then?
That's definitely problem
559
00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:49,040
solving.
But they don't necessarily have
560
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:51,760
to do everything from the start,
all of the time off the cuff for
561
00:23:51,760 --> 00:23:53,800
it to be good problem solving.
I completely agree and I hope
562
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:55,920
that that I don't think you
think that's a contradiction at
563
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:57,160
all, by the way.
I think that's just an extra
564
00:23:57,160 --> 00:23:59,360
point and that the easiest
analogy I can make is honestly
565
00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:00,920
to writing.
Think of modelling writing.
566
00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:04,280
It's exactly the same when you
model writing to children, when
567
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:06,520
you expect children to do
writing, by the way, you don't
568
00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:08,920
just say off you go.
Them modelling writing is
569
00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:10,680
essential to them becoming good
at writing.
570
00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:13,000
But when you model that first
paragraph or those first few
571
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,440
sentences on the board and
they're all copying those
572
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:18,000
sentences or doing extremely
similar sentences in their book,
573
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,480
because you've heavily modelled
it, you don't count that.
574
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:22,240
But it's independent write,
independent writing.
575
00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:25,400
But the rest of it, you've shown
them some skills that they can
576
00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:27,760
transfer now and then when
they're applying it to unique
577
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:30,040
situations, which is the rest of
their writing or in math
578
00:24:30,040 --> 00:24:31,880
situation, it might just be
other problems now.
579
00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:33,000
Yeah, that are equally.
Yeah.
580
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:33,960
OK.
It's all within addition,
581
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:35,000
subtraction.
They know they're going to
582
00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:36,840
probably be doing some adding
and subtracting, but it's.
583
00:24:36,840 --> 00:24:38,480
Got to work out what.
The problems are still unique,
584
00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:38,960
Yeah.
How?
585
00:24:38,960 --> 00:24:40,520
How much they're adding, How
many times they're adding,
586
00:24:40,520 --> 00:24:42,640
Whether they're subtracting,
Whether there's going to be?
587
00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:45,120
And context can be important.
Different words, different
588
00:24:45,120 --> 00:24:46,160
language.
Exactly right.
589
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,720
Less than sold.
Yeah, they they all mean
590
00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:49,960
subtract.
But this is still different
591
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:51,840
problem solving, because you're
still accessing what words might
592
00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:53,920
mean, because you're.
Exactly right.
593
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:57,000
So I absolutely fundamentally
agree you should still be
594
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,640
modelling two children how to
solve different types of
595
00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:03,280
problems, but also giving them a
chance to independently solve
596
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,720
new unique problems.
Even if you know that it's using
597
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:09,760
their the same problem solving
skills but there's still unique
598
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:11,720
problems for them.
Yeah, I want to, I want to.
599
00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:12,920
We're going to, we're going to
talk in a second.
600
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:15,840
I think more about how what that
can look like.
601
00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,520
If you're worried that your kids
aren't fluent yet, can we talk
602
00:25:18,520 --> 00:25:19,720
about that?
Maybe we'll do some scaffolding,
603
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:22,760
but I really want to push on
because I think it's something
604
00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:26,280
that our listeners who maybe
don't quite understand problem
605
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:29,280
solving completely in this way
can really grasp onto.
606
00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:31,840
And it's your comparison with
independent writing.
607
00:25:31,920 --> 00:25:35,840
I think that is such a good
comparison because for a couple
608
00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:37,840
of reasons.
First reason I think about, I
609
00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:40,640
think about what's the hardest
thing for children to do in in
610
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:43,880
school, in primary school,
because fundamentally adding 2
611
00:25:43,880 --> 00:25:46,520
digit numbers together is quite
easy and we can show that in
612
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:48,480
five to 10 minutes and children
can practise it and they might
613
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:49,560
not get it straight away, but
most.
614
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:51,400
Arithmetic is fairly
straightforward.
615
00:25:51,400 --> 00:25:52,920
Exactly that where and
everything.
616
00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:54,640
What's the hardest thing kids do
in school?
617
00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:57,360
It's solving problems in maths
and it's doing independent
618
00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:00,560
writing and I think we are so
much further along on
619
00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:05,280
independent writing in terms of
it being more understood that of
620
00:26:05,280 --> 00:26:07,760
course I'm not going to get my
kids to write 2 paragraphs of
621
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:09,120
writing if they can't even do a
sentence.
622
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:11,920
Of course I'm not going to ask
my children to apply what a
623
00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:14,800
front front of the verb you're
writing in their work if I don't
624
00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:16,880
already know they can do it and
I've not introduced the idea of
625
00:26:16,880 --> 00:26:20,840
adding information to them.
This in independent writing,
626
00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:23,040
it's so common that you're like,
of course I'm going to model.
627
00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:25,800
How can I possibly expect the
children to have some really
628
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,760
good independent writing if I as
the expert has not modelled to
629
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:31,680
them what it looks like.
This is what problem solving is.
630
00:26:31,840 --> 00:26:35,640
You don't just in your English
lessons just say, ohh, by the
631
00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:38,520
way, kids, we're just gonna do
of independent writing now where
632
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:40,360
you need to workout what to do
here.
633
00:26:40,360 --> 00:26:42,400
And I'm, I'm going to be judging
you based on whether you put
634
00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:45,520
some, some independent clauses
in here or not, or I'm going to
635
00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:47,440
be looking for the this type of
determiner.
636
00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:51,040
No, it's very structured.
You as the teacher are leading
637
00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:52,720
them there and you let them have
a go.
638
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:54,120
And if they get it wrong, it
doesn't matter.
639
00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,200
We're going to do it again.
If they get it wrong, it doesn't
640
00:26:56,200 --> 00:26:56,840
matter.
We're going.
641
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:58,920
To put in opportunities to
become fluent in those
642
00:26:58,920 --> 00:27:00,960
fundamental writing strategies
first.
643
00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:02,560
But you've done a lesson.
You've done lessons on
644
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:03,960
determinism.
Whatever you said front of the
645
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:05,440
verbals.
Yeah, that because you'll think,
646
00:27:05,440 --> 00:27:06,360
right, They're fluent in these
now.
647
00:27:06,360 --> 00:27:08,360
And now hopefully they can apply
it to this problem solving.
648
00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:10,400
I mean, independent writing
situation.
649
00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:12,640
Yeah, it's so true.
Isn't how English I think does
650
00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:16,080
understand the process a bit
more of fluency to the end goal
651
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:18,120
which is independent writing
more than maths?
652
00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:21,240
In understands fluency to the
end goal which is problem
653
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:22,640
solving.
I think they're a bit more
654
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:24,680
confused in maths.
It can be, I think they can be.
655
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:26,200
I think, I think it's easier to
understand.
656
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:27,800
I still think schools don't
always get it right of
657
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:30,400
independent writing, but I do
think sometimes it can be A tag
658
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:31,680
on a bit like problem solving
is.
659
00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:34,040
So we do a few weeks of learning
and then we do an independent
660
00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:36,360
writing every few weeks.
I think both of them have to be
661
00:27:36,360 --> 00:27:39,760
interweaved a lot more.
And let's move on to now
662
00:27:39,840 --> 00:27:42,600
something you said there, which
which I thought was fascinating
663
00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:48,200
about when to problem solve,
because I think we can speak now
664
00:27:48,200 --> 00:27:49,600
about we've got these three
pillars.
665
00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:53,080
And, and it very much felt like
at the start of my career when
666
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:55,640
this was first being introduced
because fluency and problem
667
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:58,480
solving, this idea of mastery
and everyone doing like really
668
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:01,240
pushing themselves.
I want to start by saying I
669
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:03,840
think it's vital.
Every child problem solves,
670
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:06,960
every child reasons and every
child becomes fluent in maths.
671
00:28:07,120 --> 00:28:10,880
I think that's vital.
But we're thinking about of
672
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:14,280
these three pillars, I don't
think it should look like a 33%
673
00:28:14,280 --> 00:28:17,360
split absolutely in your lesson,
and I think that's bad practise
674
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:21,280
and dive into that and then
we'll talk about what good
675
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:23,080
problems on my.
Level Well, I even say that in
676
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,840
that split analogy, whatever the
split is that you think is
677
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:27,760
optimal for your class, even
that doesn't work on the
678
00:28:27,760 --> 00:28:29,400
individual level.
Different children have
679
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:31,880
different splits, genuinely,
because different children will
680
00:28:31,880 --> 00:28:35,640
require some children require a
lot more time at the fluency
681
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:38,400
stage to become fluent.
And if we, if we accept the
682
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:42,000
idea, this flow diagram of when
you're fluent in something, you,
683
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:44,040
you can then start applying it
to problem solving.
684
00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:47,160
Then by definition, obviously
some children take, it takes
685
00:28:47,160 --> 00:28:48,440
them longer to become fluent in
something.
686
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:50,400
So by definition, they're
getting problem solving
687
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:52,320
opportunities at different
points on that objective.
688
00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:54,920
But there's another layer to
this, because it doesn't mean,
689
00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:55,920
which is the point you're
getting at.
690
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,680
It doesn't mean then that those
kids that take a lot longer to
691
00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:00,960
become fluent, you can't just
say, Oh, we've run out of time
692
00:29:00,960 --> 00:29:02,840
again and no problem.
They never get any problem
693
00:29:02,840 --> 00:29:04,480
solving because we never get
that fluency.
694
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:06,400
Finished yeah and didn't hate on
the podcast.
695
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:07,960
Said I can't just give them
problem solving.
696
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,240
They're just not getting there
ever with the fluency is not
697
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:12,000
true.
How do we solve?
698
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:14,560
What you can do is problems You
can.
699
00:29:15,320 --> 00:29:18,080
You can give them problem
solving opportunities with
700
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:20,640
objectives that are not
necessarily the exact unit
701
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:22,160
you're doing right now at the
exact level.
702
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,760
It could be something from
before you find something they
703
00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:27,640
are fluent on.
I've seen examples where
704
00:29:28,240 --> 00:29:31,120
children are just maybe
significantly behind their age
705
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:33,080
expected standard in maths.
It doesn't.
706
00:29:33,080 --> 00:29:34,400
They can't do any problem
solving.
707
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:37,120
It just means you might need to
drop back a year group or even 2
708
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,280
year groups and find something
they are fluent in and provide
709
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:42,880
them problems that allow them to
utilise that fluency.
710
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,840
So that's everyone gets a chance
to problem solve.
711
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:48,960
It just might not be at the same
level or the same level of
712
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:50,680
fluency underpinning that
problem solving.
713
00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:52,120
So you've got to find the
balance.
714
00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:54,280
It sounds almost slightly
contradictory.
715
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:55,960
I get it because it's, I'm in
one breath.
716
00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:58,560
I'm saying keep going with the
fluency until they're until
717
00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:00,120
they're definitely fluent
because then you can problem
718
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,560
solve on it.
But I'm also saying, but do also
719
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:04,360
building opportunities to
problem solve.
720
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:06,760
So there's got to be sometimes
where you think, OK, we've done
721
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:08,920
a lot of fluency, but I am going
to now build in, I'm going to
722
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:11,520
dedicate some time to do a
little bit of problem solving
723
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:14,720
because I want them to be, I
can't not do problem solving at
724
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:16,400
all ever.
So I need to build in some time,
725
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,080
time and what that ends up
transcending to sometimes in a
726
00:30:19,080 --> 00:30:20,880
lot of schools, we've seen this
over our whole careers.
727
00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:23,440
People then go to the final
version of this and they go, OK,
728
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:25,400
cool.
So we'll put a policy in place
729
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:29,480
where everyone does a bit of
fluency in their lesson and then
730
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:31,200
they do a bit of reasoning and a
bit of problem solving.
731
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:32,480
If we do that and every lesson,
don't worry.
732
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:34,960
Teachers, I know that children
are at different paces, so I'll
733
00:30:34,960 --> 00:30:36,360
let you do different amounts of
them.
734
00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:39,040
But everyone has to have
fluency, reasoning and problem
735
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:42,080
solving in their lesson.
Teacher A you can do 50%
736
00:30:42,200 --> 00:30:44,360
relevancy, 15 reason problem
solving, TGB.
737
00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:45,840
You've got class find a bit
tricky.
738
00:30:45,840 --> 00:30:49,080
You can do 60% fluency and then
just 40% reason problem solving,
739
00:30:49,080 --> 00:30:50,640
but everyone's got to do it.
Yeah, it.
740
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:53,920
Doesn't work, No.
I think this is hopefully if we
741
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:56,480
are really establishing these
definitions at the start, it
742
00:30:56,480 --> 00:30:59,800
just becomes common sense that
this can't happen and it doesn't
743
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:01,920
have to happen.
And I remember as we were
744
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:04,600
preparing for Ofsted as maths
leads master came in, we had a
745
00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:08,040
very successful maths Ofsted and
we get very successful data in
746
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:09,400
maths and all the schools that
we've ran.
747
00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:12,320
So we know this works and we
were, we were looking up things
748
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:16,560
and it said like, it can
actually be seen as bad practise
749
00:31:16,840 --> 00:31:19,840
for problem solving to be
shoehorned into every single
750
00:31:19,840 --> 00:31:22,320
lesson.
Because if you're doing that,
751
00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,080
you're not doing problem solving
for the right reasons.
752
00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:28,520
You're doing it for coverage
because you're worried it needs
753
00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:31,960
to be seen.
Problem solving can happen twice
754
00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,360
a week.
Problem solving can be can be a
755
00:31:34,360 --> 00:31:37,320
whole lesson.
It can be half a lesson once a
756
00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:39,440
week.
It can be every day.
757
00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:42,800
It can be okay.
It's not hard and fast raw.
758
00:31:43,040 --> 00:31:45,240
And if you're thinking about
what problem solving has to look
759
00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,880
like and what fluency looks like
and what we might see is like a
760
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:51,760
generic split.
I think for me, the vast
761
00:31:51,760 --> 00:31:54,640
majority of your maths teaching
should be around fluency.
762
00:31:55,080 --> 00:31:58,480
You have to get that right.
You have to, it's as simple as
763
00:31:58,480 --> 00:31:59,440
that.
You have to teach the
764
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:02,120
curriculum, you have to get
through things and children need
765
00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:03,800
to be able to do maths.
They were thinking about
766
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:06,560
reasoning as being able to
understand concepts, procedures
767
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:09,280
and language.
That is by far if you just think
768
00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:13,120
about it for a second, you can't
do the rest unless you have
769
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:14,920
that.
So the vast majority of your
770
00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:17,240
time in your lessons should be
on fluency.
771
00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:18,840
The reasoning happens all the
time.
772
00:32:19,360 --> 00:32:21,840
I wouldn't even, I honestly
wouldn't even be saying to
773
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:24,160
someone, oh, you need to have a
reasoning chunk in your lesson.
774
00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:27,600
It would just be so built into
my planning, to my questioning,
775
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:31,200
to my, to my fluency and to my
teaching that fluency is
776
00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:33,360
happening all the time in
whether I'm I'm sorry, that
777
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:35,200
reasoning is happening all the
time, whether I'm doing fluency
778
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:38,800
or problem solving.
Reasoning is thinking like it
779
00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:40,000
doesn't even need to be a
separate thing.
780
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:44,800
And then I could either think to
myself, OK, my children aren't
781
00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:46,040
quite fluent in this.
I'm going to carry on.
782
00:32:46,680 --> 00:32:49,520
You might think, oh, my children
are getting fluent in this, but
783
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:52,400
there's something else I want to
recap and do and and keep them
784
00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:54,200
fluent in that.
And you might even think to
785
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:55,720
yourself, I think it's time for
some problem solving.
786
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,440
And that might be my kids are
fluent in this year for stuff
787
00:32:58,440 --> 00:32:59,800
I'm doing.
Oh, rub my hands again.
788
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:02,920
But let's try a problem where I
know the cognitive load won't be
789
00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:04,320
on the processes and the
understanding.
790
00:33:04,320 --> 00:33:05,240
So you're going to do it at your
full?
791
00:33:05,240 --> 00:33:06,240
Level.
So I'm going to do at your full
792
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:07,760
level.
However, I might well have a
793
00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:10,080
class or even a group of
children where I think, do you
794
00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:13,200
know what you guys are fluent in
Year 4, you're going to do it at
795
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:15,440
this year 4 level.
You guys aren't.
796
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:18,120
But there's no way I can deprive
your problem solving because
797
00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:19,840
that's what maths is.
It's that your name in the
798
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:22,080
curriculum.
Let's just dip back a little
799
00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:26,840
bit, but the art of problem
solving, the ability to look at
800
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:29,160
and try and use your reasoning
to know what to do.
801
00:33:29,760 --> 00:33:33,920
The techniques involved, the
types of question, whether it's
802
00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:37,760
missing number, word, problem,
finding all possibilities, trial
803
00:33:37,760 --> 00:33:39,960
and improvement.
Whatever the strategies might
804
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:42,200
be, everyone can use those
strategies.
805
00:33:42,640 --> 00:33:45,640
Everyone in any class can do
trial and improvement.
806
00:33:45,880 --> 00:33:48,000
It might be that ones in the
context of something much more
807
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,680
simple for them to understand.
It might be another one is much
808
00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:52,480
trickier to know.
That's what you've got to do.
809
00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:54,680
But part of the problem solving
is figuring out you got to do
810
00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:57,720
that and then doing it.
But you can fundamentally have
811
00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,320
any amount of children with any
level doing problem solving a
812
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:03,440
mass, and it's vital.
And it doesn't have to be
813
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:04,920
shoehorned in.
It doesn't have to be the same
814
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:07,280
amount of time every day.
It just needs to be a whole
815
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:09,800
picture.
And I think that's where you can
816
00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:11,560
fall into that trap of tick box,
tick box, tick box.
817
00:34:11,560 --> 00:34:13,199
Because I want to just see that
everyone's doing the right
818
00:34:13,199 --> 00:34:14,040
thing.
I want to make sure it's all
819
00:34:14,040 --> 00:34:15,560
right.
Yeah, it's got to be holistic,
820
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:18,600
because actually tick boxes by
definition can force you to do
821
00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:20,280
it wrong.
Exactly what what happens a lot
822
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:22,719
in that situation, just to be
extremely clear, is when you are
823
00:34:22,719 --> 00:34:25,320
doing the tick box situation,
you are then in a position
824
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:28,000
possibly where you're showing
kids problem solving
825
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:30,560
opportunities and they're simply
just not fluent in the maths
826
00:34:30,560 --> 00:34:31,840
yet.
And and therefore is it's a
827
00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:33,360
complete waste of time.
Because what you end up doing is
828
00:34:33,360 --> 00:34:35,400
you end up modelling it all on
the board, taking away the
829
00:34:35,400 --> 00:34:37,880
problem solving element and end
up inadvertently doing more
830
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,080
fluency, which probably
realistically is not the worst
831
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:41,760
thing in the world because they
clearly need more of that.
832
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:43,760
But it would be maybe more
effective to have just been
833
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:45,280
carrying on with the way you're
doing fluency.
834
00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:47,880
A really good idea very quickly
on problem solving, because I
835
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:52,520
love this as like a function is
to to take the numbers out of
836
00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:54,520
the question.
Because sometimes by taking
837
00:34:54,520 --> 00:34:56,639
numbers out of the question,
you're kind of getting rid of
838
00:34:56,639 --> 00:34:59,080
that difference there of like,
oh, are you working at you 2
839
00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:01,320
level, your four level, your
five level of addition, let's
840
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:03,480
say?
Because no, what that then
841
00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:06,720
becomes is then the children are
simply solving the problem.
842
00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:09,920
And the question is simply just
what do I have to do here?
843
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:12,520
What what is the, what is the
like?
844
00:35:12,520 --> 00:35:15,440
What do these words mean?
Are you fluent in the vocabulary
845
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:17,560
we've learnt?
Oh, you are brilliant.
846
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:19,640
That means you've been exposed
to a bunch of vocabulary.
847
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,360
What do you think it might mean
for a delivery to be shipped
848
00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:24,920
somewhere?
That is not, that is not the
849
00:35:24,920 --> 00:35:26,840
word ad.
That is not the symbol ad.
850
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:30,160
That is you think I'm really
thinking to tell, OK, I kind of,
851
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:31,560
I can use my phone, become
fluent in this.
852
00:35:31,560 --> 00:35:34,360
I understand these words mean, I
think we need to add, we don't
853
00:35:34,360 --> 00:35:37,320
even have the number, but but
the act of that and that this
854
00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:38,880
can be reasoning and problem
solving.
855
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:40,960
This is where it overlaps.
You can explain to stuff.
856
00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:42,960
I think it means add because the
shop would have more of it.
857
00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:43,960
Yeah.
Oh, interesting.
858
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:45,200
What does the question say at
the end?
859
00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:47,600
The question says how much does
the shop at the end of the week?
860
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:49,040
Oh, interesting.
So is there something else in
861
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:50,200
the question that might happen
in the week?
862
00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:53,240
This is like as close as it gets
to actually extracting pure like
863
00:35:53,240 --> 00:35:55,240
problem solving and reason
because you're almost taking out
864
00:35:55,240 --> 00:35:56,360
the bit where they actually do
the maths.
865
00:35:56,360 --> 00:35:57,600
At this point.
You can take my numbers.
866
00:35:57,760 --> 00:35:59,400
I actually learned that.
Hilariously, if we're begging up
867
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:01,920
people like Gina Donaldson, I
actually learned that from
868
00:36:02,080 --> 00:36:03,680
originally right at the
beginning of my career, Gareth
869
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:06,520
Metcalf, who we had on this
podcast two years ago now.
870
00:36:06,520 --> 00:36:08,400
It's crazy to think that one of
our earlier episodes, go and
871
00:36:08,400 --> 00:36:10,960
find it.
He's an unbelievably talented
872
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:13,800
mathematics teacher.
He creates incredible resources
873
00:36:13,800 --> 00:36:16,640
that I see reasoning, I see.
I see problem solving as well.
874
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:18,720
Really, really good.
But I first picked that up from
875
00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:19,880
him.
I went to one of his training at
876
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:21,080
many years ago.
I was like, Oh my God, yeah,
877
00:36:21,400 --> 00:36:23,200
just another, It's just another
string to your bow, isn't it?
878
00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:25,520
There's so many little things
and tools and tricks and ways
879
00:36:25,520 --> 00:36:29,440
you can expose children to
isolated skills, as well as just
880
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:31,440
opportunities to just straight
up problem solve, as well as
881
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:33,880
opportunities to just practise a
method and arithmetic, as well
882
00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:36,080
as opportunities for them to
become fluent by showing them
883
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:38,880
five different ways of looking
at an arithmetic question.
884
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:40,040
That's just ever so slightly
different.
885
00:36:40,040 --> 00:36:42,400
There's a bit of very fluency in
there where they're using slight
886
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:44,280
elements of reasoning, but it's
not problem solving because
887
00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:46,520
ultimately it's just two numbers
and you're either adding or
888
00:36:46,520 --> 00:36:48,720
subtracting them or multiplying
and dividing them.
889
00:36:49,040 --> 00:36:52,080
You've got all these little
levels and I just think you have
890
00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:54,600
to genuinely to be a really good
maths teacher, I think you just
891
00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,280
have to be aware of all of
these, these layers and elements
892
00:36:57,280 --> 00:37:01,480
and aware of differences between
reasoning, problem solving and
893
00:37:01,480 --> 00:37:04,160
fluency and how they are, like
you said, they are both pillars
894
00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:06,880
in terms of the way we account
for them and we, we, they're
895
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:09,640
three separate aims, but they're
also not pillars in the idea
896
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:12,360
that they're completely separate
things all the time, that they
897
00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:15,240
flow for each other.
Reasoning flows through fluency
898
00:37:15,360 --> 00:37:17,320
and problem solving.
And just having this grand
899
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:19,720
awareness of all these things in
maths is what makes you a really
900
00:37:19,720 --> 00:37:21,240
good maths teacher.
And I think without these
901
00:37:21,240 --> 00:37:24,560
things, what can sometimes
happen is if you, it's the
902
00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:27,160
classic, what I think a lot of
people say that when I was at
903
00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:30,400
school, this is what we did.
We got wrote, taught a method
904
00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:33,160
that works.
When I see this number times
905
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:35,840
this number written like that,
this is the method that works.
906
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:37,600
Just do that.
Why are we bothering teaching
907
00:37:37,600 --> 00:37:39,800
kids different methods?
Is that what we're teaching kids
908
00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:41,520
different methods?
Because when the problem isn't
909
00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:45,280
shown exactly like that, they
then don't know what to do
910
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:47,880
because they were never really
taught to think about it.
911
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:50,000
They were just taught.
If you see this, do you can
912
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:52,400
teach a computer to do that.
If you see this, apply this
913
00:37:52,400 --> 00:37:53,840
method.
It doesn't always work.
914
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,480
And to to just jump on that and
finish off that's still
915
00:37:57,480 --> 00:38:00,160
important to do exactly.
It's still, well, not even
916
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:01,760
people who are saying why don't
you just do that?
917
00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:03,320
I was like, mate, I do.
Yeah, that's what.
918
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,120
Fluency and arithmetic is yeah,
that's really, really important.
919
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:08,280
You're not wrong.
You are not wrong.
920
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:10,240
That is really important.
But you know what I'm also going
921
00:38:10,240 --> 00:38:12,200
to do?
Just expose them to a different.
922
00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:13,560
Way show them a different way.
Exactly.
923
00:38:13,560 --> 00:38:15,080
The most simple one I always
think of right.
924
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:18,440
And this is something we're
building into our, our best
925
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:20,800
software for maths that we're
passionately building right now,
926
00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,120
which is really, really focused
at the moment on arithmetic.
927
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:25,280
And it will expand wider into
fluency and more.
928
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:27,200
Yeah.
One of the easiest things that
929
00:38:27,200 --> 00:38:29,880
we've we've done is can you move
the equal sign to the other
930
00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:31,000
side?
Because I can tell you in my
931
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,960
career how many times where
especially earlier on where I
932
00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:37,440
maybe didn't consider this, I'd
show every single question as A
933
00:38:37,640 --> 00:38:41,560
* B equals or A+B equals.
And it'll always be arithmetic
934
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:44,120
and then equals at the end.
And the kids genuinely thought
935
00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:48,520
equals meant this is the answer.
They thought it meant the symbol
936
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:49,640
where you put your answer next
to it.
937
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:51,920
And they didn't really
understand what equals actually
938
00:38:51,920 --> 00:38:53,240
meant.
And as soon as you then took the
939
00:38:53,240 --> 00:38:56,800
exact same question, A * B
equals and you put blank equals
940
00:38:56,800 --> 00:39:00,040
a * B, they were like, oh, have
I got Oh my God, what do I do?
941
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:01,760
Have I got to use?
Have I got to use inverse?
942
00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:05,080
Because because they don't know,
they haven't been exposed to the
943
00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:09,720
variety of fluency enough.
They know the method and I will
944
00:39:09,720 --> 00:39:11,760
practise that method.
I'll make sure they are fluent
945
00:39:11,760 --> 00:39:15,000
in the method itself, but I'll
also make sure they're fluent in
946
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:18,320
a wider sense in this is some
different ways to even represent
947
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:20,160
this arithmetic, Yeah.
Yeah, like.
948
00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:23,000
Precisely.
And that is just fundamental to
949
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:26,560
the way we're building this app.
This software that we're
950
00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:29,360
building is like, it's not just
methods, even though it's
951
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:31,520
unbelievably important.
It's also here's some different
952
00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:35,120
ways you might see the same
arithmetic question, but still
953
00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:37,120
applying the same method.
And it's important kids are
954
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:38,920
exposed to it, by the way.
So yeah, use this.
955
00:39:39,080 --> 00:39:41,920
And, and the great thing is with
this and fluency in general, I
956
00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:44,640
think the, the really important
thing about knowing facts, for
957
00:39:44,640 --> 00:39:47,040
example, and becoming fluent at
something is you are doing it
958
00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:49,240
quite frequently as well.
You're doing quite frequently,
959
00:39:49,240 --> 00:39:51,240
not necessarily for ages and
ages in terms of obviously you
960
00:39:51,240 --> 00:39:52,960
need to teach a lesson and have
varied fluency in there.
961
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:55,160
But then when when like I've
maybe I've taught additional
962
00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:58,760
subtraction and this kind of
links in to be to be fair with
963
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:01,720
schemes and stuff in general.
Which is, you know, it's very
964
00:40:01,720 --> 00:40:04,040
common now to block things.
Maybe we can talk about that a
965
00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:05,920
little bit where you might block
your learning.
966
00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:08,560
And what we mean by blocks is
there are essentially two ways
967
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:11,360
traditionally that you might
teach maths. 1 is a spiral
968
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:13,160
curriculum and 1 is a block
curriculum.
969
00:40:13,520 --> 00:40:16,160
In a spiral curriculum, let's
take additional subtraction.
970
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:18,160
Let's say you've got six weeks
of that you need to do in year
971
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:20,320
4.
In a spiral curriculum.
972
00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:22,960
You do it for two weeks before
Christmas, you do it for two
973
00:40:22,960 --> 00:40:24,960
weeks before Easter, and then
you do it for two weeks before
974
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:26,800
summer.
And the idea being you come back
975
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:28,080
and maybe you get deeper each
time.
976
00:40:28,720 --> 00:40:31,480
The block curriculum would be
you do all six weeks before
977
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:34,480
Christmas in a row because
you're really diving deep into
978
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:36,960
it and getting those
opportunities where for the
979
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,040
first week and a half I didn't
really get a chance to problem
980
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:40,960
solve too much.
But my goodness me, because I'm
981
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:42,840
doing it for six weeks, we're
going to dive in.
982
00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:44,600
They're going to become really
fluent and get those
983
00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:47,520
opportunities.
I think block curriculum really
984
00:40:47,520 --> 00:40:50,960
lends itself to be able to apply
what we've talked about today
985
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:52,600
better.
I think it's a good thing.
986
00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:55,840
Truly mastering maths?
To truly master it, I do think
987
00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:59,080
it has a massive drawback, which
again goes against is one thing
988
00:40:59,080 --> 00:41:01,160
we've said which is fluency
needs to be done all the time.
989
00:41:01,320 --> 00:41:02,920
You need to be revisiting it all
the time.
990
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,960
And that's where a block
curriculum loses its power if
991
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:09,960
you don't do something about it.
Because then those children
992
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:12,880
doing six weeks of additional
subtraction might get really
993
00:41:12,880 --> 00:41:15,720
deep and by November they are
unbelievable, but they're not
994
00:41:15,720 --> 00:41:17,760
going to do additional
subtraction until next November
995
00:41:17,760 --> 00:41:19,320
when they come back to it for
the next year group.
996
00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:22,160
So maybe you could talk talk a
little bit about this as like,
997
00:41:22,520 --> 00:41:25,400
why is it still important, even
though maybe we have this idea
998
00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:28,600
of mastery to become fluent in
something and thinking about our
999
00:41:28,720 --> 00:41:31,960
platform, even about arithmetic
testing every week and becoming
1000
00:41:31,960 --> 00:41:34,400
really good at doing your maths.
Why?
1001
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:37,760
How can we square that with what
schemes do now, which is?
1002
00:41:37,760 --> 00:41:40,040
Block so there's something
really important that we need to
1003
00:41:40,040 --> 00:41:42,640
understand about block
curriculums, which is they are
1004
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:45,680
mapping coverage of your main
lesson objective.
1005
00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:49,880
And I think sometimes it's easy
to forget that that might not be
1006
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,080
the be all and end all of the
entirety of your maths lesson.
1007
00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,560
A really good maths lesson, and
this is to, in my opinion, is
1008
00:41:55,560 --> 00:41:59,200
the best practise, is that there
is a significant different chunk
1009
00:41:59,200 --> 00:42:01,680
of the allocated time that you
have to teach maps that is
1010
00:42:01,680 --> 00:42:04,520
dedicated to your lesson
objective and that very much be
1011
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:07,200
following your, your curriculum
map.
1012
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:10,720
OK, your your block curriculum,
but there should be a, another
1013
00:42:10,720 --> 00:42:13,400
significant part of your lesson,
maybe smaller than the main bit,
1014
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:17,920
which is dedicated to not that
main lesson objective, but other
1015
00:42:17,920 --> 00:42:19,720
things.
So mostly fluency.
1016
00:42:19,720 --> 00:42:21,240
It could even be problems.
We'll come to that later.
1017
00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:25,600
But a part of your lesson is
dedicated to recapping parts of
1018
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:27,800
fluency that you've looked at in
the past so that you're not
1019
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,680
leaving at a year, year.
It's we should never be in a
1020
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:33,840
situation where you're actually
leaving an objective an entire
1021
00:42:33,840 --> 00:42:36,920
year before it's remotely talked
about or touched on again.
1022
00:42:36,920 --> 00:42:39,760
That is bad practise.
And I, and I hate the idea that
1023
00:42:39,760 --> 00:42:42,520
anyone looks at block curriculum
and says, well, that encourages
1024
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:45,320
this, therefore it's bad.
It doesn't actually encourage
1025
00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:46,280
it.
It's really just mapping out
1026
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:48,280
your main lesson objectives.
You should be building as a
1027
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:50,440
school, you should be building
in time.
1028
00:42:50,520 --> 00:42:53,320
I think what do we have about 20
to 25 minutes.
1029
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:57,040
We had this dedicated section,
which is is nothing to do with
1030
00:42:57,040 --> 00:42:59,800
the main lesson objective.
It could be, if you want it to
1031
00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,160
be, it could be, it could be
linked, it could be we're pre
1032
00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:04,680
teaching a skill that we think
that's going to be useful.
1033
00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:07,240
And by pre teaching, I'm
literally talking about, let's
1034
00:43:07,240 --> 00:43:09,800
say you're doing rounding.
And you know, if you, I would
1035
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:12,320
say the same example, it's the
easiest one to think of because
1036
00:43:12,320 --> 00:43:14,840
it's so like tangible when
you're teaching rounding, like
1037
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:16,960
obviously you need kids to know
multiples of 10 or if you're
1038
00:43:16,960 --> 00:43:19,320
rounding the nearest 10, they
they intrinsically need to know
1039
00:43:19,320 --> 00:43:21,000
what multiples of 10 are when
you're teaching rounding.
1040
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:24,080
So you might be doing a pre
teaching in starters leading up
1041
00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:26,000
to this rounding unit where
you're reminding them of
1042
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:27,280
multiples of 10.
If you feel that's what they
1043
00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:29,760
need, that's what I'd call as
pre teaching teaching, but and
1044
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:31,440
you've also got reteaching in
that time.
1045
00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:34,680
It could be that you know what
we finished this unit on
1046
00:43:34,720 --> 00:43:36,320
addition, subtraction.
We use that example a lot.
1047
00:43:36,960 --> 00:43:41,040
And a month later, I just, I
just wasn't satisfied fully that
1048
00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:42,760
they were fluent, as fluent as
I'd like them to be.
1049
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:45,120
And you know what, I'm going to
use some of this time outside of
1050
00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:48,000
my main listing objective in
later blocks across the year to
1051
00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:51,360
reteach some smaller parts of,
of, of those of those small
1052
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:53,600
steps, those elements of those
lessons I'm going to reteach.
1053
00:43:53,800 --> 00:43:56,200
And the big one, the thing we do
the most is, is just genuinely
1054
00:43:56,240 --> 00:43:58,120
just recapping.
It's been a bit of time.
1055
00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:01,480
I want to make sure I'm covering
and I'm going over and making
1056
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:03,520
sure because fluency has to be
done all the time and they're
1057
00:44:03,520 --> 00:44:05,120
building on it.
I'm going to go back to old
1058
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:07,000
objectives and I'm going to and
I'm going to recap this.
1059
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:10,880
Why is it difference to reteach?
Reteach is I guess is from
1060
00:44:10,880 --> 00:44:12,640
mindset, right?
So reteaching is specifically, I
1061
00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:14,320
feel like they weren't fluent,
they weren't there, they weren't
1062
00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:15,800
quite there.
And I and I want to make sure
1063
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:18,000
I'm getting them to this a
certain standard recapping.
1064
00:44:18,000 --> 00:44:20,800
They could be absolutely there,
but it's very important that
1065
00:44:20,800 --> 00:44:22,440
it's still, yeah, refreshing
their mind.
1066
00:44:22,440 --> 00:44:25,600
In that recap, obviously you're
saying that they're still
1067
00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:28,520
fluent.
Do you think in this, in this
1068
00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:30,480
like chunk?
Because I used it a lot to be
1069
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:32,400
like, cool, well, I can reason
in problem Solver now as well,
1070
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:34,520
yeah.
Would that come into recapping
1071
00:44:34,520 --> 00:44:35,880
for you or like going over
stuff?
1072
00:44:35,880 --> 00:44:38,880
Again, it would do yeah.
So, so for me that is down to
1073
00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:41,160
all honesty like the the make up
of your class as well.
1074
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:44,320
So I've had classes before where
genuinely, because we are
1075
00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:47,680
struggling with the fluency so
much and yeah, I was building a
1076
00:44:47,680 --> 00:44:49,960
problem solving opportunities in
the class, but fluency was a
1077
00:44:49,960 --> 00:44:51,400
much bigger issue than maybe
other times.
1078
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:56,160
That time for me became almost
exclusively more time to recap
1079
00:44:56,160 --> 00:44:58,960
and reteach and preteach fluency
things.
1080
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:01,520
And very, very rarely, whereas
I've had other classes where
1081
00:45:01,680 --> 00:45:04,240
because they're so fluent, it
doesn't take me long to recap
1082
00:45:04,240 --> 00:45:05,640
things to make sure they're
still up there.
1083
00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:07,720
It's like bouncing off the
limiter of like, they're right
1084
00:45:07,720 --> 00:45:09,600
up there really, really
understanding, really super
1085
00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:11,120
fluent.
So I'd be like, cool, I've got
1086
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:14,480
some opportunities here to to
now recap or reteach some
1087
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:16,120
opportunities from to problem
solve as well.
1088
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:17,960
Because actually that is always
that is the end goal.
1089
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:20,400
And I can and that's like, I can
make that infinitely hard.
1090
00:45:20,400 --> 00:45:21,760
You can't complete problem
solving.
1091
00:45:22,200 --> 00:45:24,600
It just goes on forever.
So yeah, lots of different
1092
00:45:24,600 --> 00:45:26,520
things you can do.
But my main point here, maybe
1093
00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:29,640
you can dive into it more, is
you've got your main lesson
1094
00:45:29,640 --> 00:45:31,080
objective and you've got your
coverage.
1095
00:45:31,280 --> 00:45:35,160
And as part of your lesson,
you've got exclusively a special
1096
00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:37,520
part of your lesson that is
designed for recapping, re
1097
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:39,840
teaching, pre teaching, whatever
else you need to do.
1098
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:41,680
Yeah, I think it's vital.
I think it's the way to make
1099
00:45:41,680 --> 00:45:43,520
schemes work like this.
I don't think they work
1100
00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:45,160
otherwise.
And I think I'm going to
1101
00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:47,200
slightly change what you said.
I don't think it necessarily has
1102
00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:50,440
to be part of your lesson.
I quite, I quite like thinking
1103
00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:52,160
of them as literally separate
things.
1104
00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:54,120
I can think of my maths lesson
when I'm going through the
1105
00:45:54,120 --> 00:45:57,600
curriculum that has the majority
of that is fluency and it has to
1106
00:45:57,600 --> 00:45:59,320
because I'm teaching them how to
do the maths.
1107
00:46:00,200 --> 00:46:02,280
I've had people message us
saying I'm really frustrated.
1108
00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:04,840
My head teacher says every
single lesson needs to have this
1109
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:06,200
much reasoning and this much
problem solving.
1110
00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:07,920
It's annoying me.
I'm like, I I get why that's
1111
00:46:07,920 --> 00:46:10,200
annoying because it would annoy
me because when I'm teaching the
1112
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:13,480
curriculum, I have to teach you
how to do the thing.
1113
00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:15,760
And part of that is going to be
reasoning, problem solving.
1114
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:17,640
Reasoning comes for everything.
Part of it will be problem
1115
00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:19,360
solving.
But the majority of my lesson is
1116
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:21,280
fluency because I'm teaching you
how to do the maths.
1117
00:46:21,600 --> 00:46:25,560
This separate thing here, the
reason I love it so much and I,
1118
00:46:25,600 --> 00:46:28,200
I thought it was the best thing
we ever did for maths in our
1119
00:46:28,200 --> 00:46:31,600
school was introducing this as a
hard, hard separate thing.
1120
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:33,480
Protected time.
It's protected time.
1121
00:46:33,480 --> 00:46:37,040
It is literally protected time
where you get 20 to 25 minutes.
1122
00:46:37,440 --> 00:46:40,760
And I used it for times tables
because I was in year 4 big
1123
00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:42,800
focus on times tables.
I did a lot of times tables in
1124
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,120
there.
I did a lot of recapping stuff
1125
00:46:45,360 --> 00:46:48,440
if I finished my block and I was
like, I, I had a set that maybe
1126
00:46:48,440 --> 00:46:49,800
needed more support in maths,
let's say.
1127
00:46:50,240 --> 00:46:52,320
And I finished my block and I
thought, do you know what?
1128
00:46:53,240 --> 00:46:55,720
OK, I might sometimes choose to
just do it for another week or
1129
00:46:55,720 --> 00:46:57,200
two.
And that's also fine.
1130
00:46:57,200 --> 00:46:59,320
You've got to be flexible.
But I might think, you know, I
1131
00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:00,640
really just need to move on
actually.
1132
00:47:00,640 --> 00:47:02,600
So I'm going to move on.
Lots of them got it, but some of
1133
00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:04,520
them didn't.
Then I'd use that time to go
1134
00:47:04,520 --> 00:47:06,400
over that, become more fluent.
Reteach some bits.
1135
00:47:06,400 --> 00:47:09,920
Literally, I would use a lot of
that time to do some problem
1136
00:47:09,920 --> 00:47:12,320
solving because I found myself
with my class who needed more
1137
00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:15,000
fluency.
I really started to resent the
1138
00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:17,000
fact that I felt like I wasn't
doing enough problem solving
1139
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:18,560
with them in those lessons.
So I thought, you know what I'm
1140
00:47:18,560 --> 00:47:20,080
going to, I'm going to make sure
I do this in this time.
1141
00:47:20,080 --> 00:47:21,760
You nail the fluency in the
lesson and.
1142
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:23,880
Nail it.
Yeah, I'm reacting to the kids.
1143
00:47:23,880 --> 00:47:25,360
Like there might be some
lessons, like you said, where
1144
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:27,360
I'm doing it all the time in my
lessons because the kids are
1145
00:47:27,360 --> 00:47:28,880
fluent.
My kids weren't quite fluent.
1146
00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:30,480
So I thought, you know what, I
can do my extra time.
1147
00:47:30,760 --> 00:47:32,600
I'm going through the curriculum
with them and I need to do that
1148
00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:35,400
in this time.
I absolutely went on to the year
1149
00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:37,800
2 curriculum, downloaded
PowerPoints of reasoning,
1150
00:47:37,800 --> 00:47:39,960
problem solving questions that
based on what they, what they're
1151
00:47:39,960 --> 00:47:41,280
called.
And I went, you know what?
1152
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:44,520
Yeah, my kids absolutely can
count that.
1153
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:45,600
They can do that.
That's fine.
1154
00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:47,440
They're struggling the year for
objectives, but they can count
1155
00:47:47,440 --> 00:47:48,960
in twos.
Let's look at some problem
1156
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:51,160
solving questions that use
counting in twos.
1157
00:47:51,320 --> 00:47:55,160
So my kids are no longer
thinking, oh God, I don't know,
1158
00:47:55,160 --> 00:47:57,520
because I don't know how to do
the maths and I'm already
1159
00:47:57,560 --> 00:47:59,600
thinking about these numbers are
too big.
1160
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:02,280
I don't really understand.
No, no, the, the maths itself is
1161
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:03,960
fine.
They can put all of their effort
1162
00:48:03,960 --> 00:48:06,640
into thinking, what do I have to
do to solve this problem?
1163
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:09,360
And I, I found that chunk of
time invaluable.
1164
00:48:09,360 --> 00:48:11,280
And we had to make it really
clear to everyone.
1165
00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:15,240
That's 20 to 25 minutes a day.
And a chunk of that would always
1166
00:48:15,240 --> 00:48:17,240
be practising known facts
because you have to know, you
1167
00:48:17,240 --> 00:48:19,200
know, facts and that's fluency.
And the chunk would be
1168
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:21,160
reasoning, problem solving or
preteaching like you just said.
1169
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:24,920
But what was really powerful I
found because it's what I would
1170
00:48:24,920 --> 00:48:26,760
have wanted, which is why we
introduced it in our school.
1171
00:48:27,080 --> 00:48:29,360
It was all power to the teacher.
Yeah, it was not.
1172
00:48:29,440 --> 00:48:32,400
I was not coming around and
saying have you done your 10
1173
00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:34,560
minutes reason problem solving
in this little section?
1174
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:37,120
I couldn't care less.
I said to the professional, as
1175
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:40,760
the teacher, you are their
teacher and you teach them 50
1176
00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:42,080
minutes every single day of
maths.
1177
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:43,960
What are you not giving them
enough of?
1178
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:46,560
What do they need more of?
What do you decide?
1179
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:49,360
If you had another 20 minutes,
what would you do with the kids?
1180
00:48:49,360 --> 00:48:51,440
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's interesting.
1181
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:53,880
Do that.
And that is your.
1182
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:58,120
And my kids made so much more
progress because I could be so
1183
00:48:58,120 --> 00:49:00,840
targeted in that time.
And just just flipping that a
1184
00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:03,880
bit, people thinking, well, my
maths lesson's shorter.
1185
00:49:03,880 --> 00:49:05,440
You just said your maths lesson
was 50 minutes.
1186
00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:07,560
Yeah, because I wasn't obsessed
with getting through reasoning,
1187
00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:10,360
problem solving and and doing my
fluency all in one lesson.
1188
00:49:10,640 --> 00:49:12,760
It can be shorter.
It's a very small step.
1189
00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:16,120
The curriculum can be condensed.
50 minutes is genuinely A
1190
00:49:16,200 --> 00:49:17,600
suitable amount of time.
It is.
1191
00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:20,280
I remember thinking so short,
remember going for an hour to 50
1192
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:21,880
minutes once and I was like, Oh
my God, is it possible?
1193
00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:23,880
How can I possibly teach maths?
And it's because I was locked in
1194
00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:26,520
that mindset of I have to do
XYZI, have to get all these
1195
00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:28,000
elements in.
It's not a good maths lesson.
1196
00:49:28,280 --> 00:49:30,400
It's just not true.
Just take them on the journey.
1197
00:49:30,600 --> 00:49:33,920
The whole lesson can be fluency.
And I know there's multiple
1198
00:49:33,920 --> 00:49:37,360
years of my career where I felt
like I would look terrible if
1199
00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:39,520
someone looked at my lesson.
I looked at the book afterwards
1200
00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:41,680
and I'd only been working on
fluency in that lesson.
1201
00:49:42,040 --> 00:49:45,160
And I wish I could go back and
be like, no, if, if that's what
1202
00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:47,440
they needed because they were
not ready.
1203
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:50,040
And you felt like it wasn't
appropriate to do problem
1204
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:51,800
solving in this lesson yet.
And you didn't want to go back
1205
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:53,320
to the previous year because
you're like right in the middle
1206
00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:56,440
of this little journey and you
just wanted to finish off making
1207
00:49:56,440 --> 00:49:59,520
sure they're really fluent.
Then that's what you need to do.
1208
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:01,560
And that is OK.
You didn't need to do that
1209
00:50:01,560 --> 00:50:03,600
reasoning, problem solving that
you planned because you got told
1210
00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:06,120
to push it into a starter in
another week.
1211
00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:08,440
Maybe you don't even use it or
maybe use it in tomorrow's
1212
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:10,080
season, whatever.
But that's, that was the right
1213
00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:11,280
choice.
You adapted on the spot and they
1214
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:13,120
needed to become fluent.
And there's one thing I will
1215
00:50:13,120 --> 00:50:14,880
just say, and we'll clarify this
right now because it sounds like
1216
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:16,600
we're being, I feel like we're,
don't people think we're being a
1217
00:50:16,600 --> 00:50:18,520
bit wishy wishy of like, Hey,
you just do everything ever,
1218
00:50:18,520 --> 00:50:21,920
ever, all the time.
One thing I absolutely did just
1219
00:50:21,920 --> 00:50:25,200
nail and hammer all the time in
my status was at the end of the
1220
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:27,920
day, arithmetic.
I would say at at minimum,
1221
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:32,720
minimum once per week, my extra
2025 minutes was dedicated to
1222
00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:36,000
recapping or reteaching very
specifically at the fluency
1223
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:38,040
level, some arithmetic.
And that yeah, that might
1224
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:40,840
include, I've presented it in,
in its inverse format or I've
1225
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:42,720
put the equal sign on the other
side just to give them that bit
1226
00:50:42,720 --> 00:50:45,360
of variety.
But ultimately it was, I need us
1227
00:50:45,360 --> 00:50:47,080
to re practise this method
because I taught this to you a
1228
00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:49,040
month ago.
We haven't divided decimals by
1229
00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:51,360
numbers in a while because
realistically that's one of 19
1230
00:50:51,360 --> 00:50:54,600
objectives by the by year 6.
Here's here's 5 questions
1231
00:50:54,600 --> 00:50:56,080
dividing decimals.
Can we remember it?
1232
00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:58,720
You've forgotten it.
Cool. 22nd recap.
1233
00:50:58,720 --> 00:51:00,960
Because you were fluent.
You were here before you were
1234
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:02,960
super fluent.
You've just dropped down a tiny
1235
00:51:02,960 --> 00:51:03,840
bit.
I'm just getting you back up
1236
00:51:03,840 --> 00:51:04,560
there.
Do you remember that?
1237
00:51:04,560 --> 00:51:05,640
Oh yeah, I remember that now.
Brilliant.
1238
00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:06,800
We've practised it for 10
minutes.
1239
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:11,600
Move on.
So arithmetic embedded in in my
1240
00:51:11,600 --> 00:51:14,080
starters all the time.
I did it every single day in
1241
00:51:14,080 --> 00:51:16,160
year 4, like every single day.
It was, it was not even a
1242
00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:18,000
question.
Like my kids got to the point
1243
00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:19,880
where they're like, oh, here it
is the five questions again.
1244
00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:21,600
Because I do 5 arithmetic
questions every day.
1245
00:51:21,960 --> 00:51:24,120
Some days it might just be
addition.
1246
00:51:24,480 --> 00:51:27,120
Some days it might just be
addition with different digits
1247
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:29,080
because I know for a fact it's a
misconception.
1248
00:51:29,080 --> 00:51:30,320
They can't learn at their
numbers properly.
1249
00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:33,880
Some days it might be a mixture
where I've said, actually, you
1250
00:51:33,880 --> 00:51:35,200
know what?
We've done so much work over the
1251
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:37,320
last couple weeks.
Here are 5 questions with five
1252
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:40,560
different question types.
It's still arithmetic, but now
1253
00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:43,960
you're showing me your fluency
and your reasoning because you
1254
00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:45,080
need to work out what to do each
time.
1255
00:51:45,360 --> 00:51:47,600
It's not just doing the process
to process, not reading it,
1256
00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:50,040
understanding the symbols.
It's still a part of reasoning.
1257
00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:54,000
It's still fluency, but it's
that really important skill that
1258
00:51:54,000 --> 00:51:56,600
children need to be able to do
math quickly and accurately.
1259
00:51:56,720 --> 00:51:59,240
They have to be fluent.
And arithmetic is the perfect
1260
00:51:59,240 --> 00:52:02,520
example of that.
You have to be accurate.
1261
00:52:02,520 --> 00:52:05,280
And I'd say it to my children
and I'd, I'd be saying it in a
1262
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:08,080
way where like it's a really
nice supportive thing where I'd
1263
00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:11,840
say to them, I know for a fact
when we finish year 4, every
1264
00:52:11,840 --> 00:52:15,280
single person in this room
would, will be able to, I say,
1265
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:18,440
will will be able to answer
every single question on your
1266
00:52:18,440 --> 00:52:20,720
repeated paper.
You might make a mistake, that's
1267
00:52:20,720 --> 00:52:23,480
fine.
You might get there and rush
1268
00:52:23,480 --> 00:52:26,120
through something or miss an
exchange, That's OK.
1269
00:52:26,480 --> 00:52:29,560
But I know through my coverage
and my daily practise and my
1270
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:33,320
fluency that I know everyone in
the room can answer that
1271
00:52:33,320 --> 00:52:34,880
question.
And that's all I want to get to
1272
00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:36,280
guys.
And then we'd be doing a
1273
00:52:36,280 --> 00:52:38,520
repetite at the end of the year,
it's out of 40 and my class
1274
00:52:38,520 --> 00:52:41,720
would be averaging 35 and the
odd mistake.
1275
00:52:41,880 --> 00:52:44,360
But there wouldn't be anything
that a child goes, yeah, I've
1276
00:52:44,360 --> 00:52:46,320
never seen that before because I
do it every day.
1277
00:52:46,640 --> 00:52:48,120
I'm not remember at all.
Exactly.
1278
00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:50,680
And that's where this, this idea
of our maths platform has kind
1279
00:52:50,680 --> 00:52:52,880
of come from.
It's like, OK, how can we make
1280
00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:55,680
it easy for teachers to do this?
Because I know the power of
1281
00:52:55,680 --> 00:52:58,680
doing arithmetic every single
day and getting fluent in being
1282
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:01,400
able to actually do the maths.
But a teacher might not quite
1283
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:02,960
get the nuances of the different
questions.
1284
00:53:03,080 --> 00:53:05,640
They might not quite understand
maybe why there's, you know, 2
1285
00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:07,960
exchanging in this question or
going past the bridging past the
1286
00:53:07,960 --> 00:53:10,840
zero makes it harder, etcetera.
And even if there are teachers
1287
00:53:10,840 --> 00:53:13,560
who get that, it can be time
consuming and frustrating to
1288
00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:16,320
make sure you get coverage.
And it can be time consuming and
1289
00:53:16,320 --> 00:53:19,600
annoying to get every individual
child's data and be like, well,
1290
00:53:19,600 --> 00:53:20,920
that child can't do this, this
and this.
1291
00:53:21,040 --> 00:53:22,160
This child can't do that and
that.
1292
00:53:22,160 --> 00:53:23,120
But it's a different one as
well.
1293
00:53:23,120 --> 00:53:25,840
They can't do.
Our platform is going to be
1294
00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:29,160
something where you can really
easily harvest this information
1295
00:53:29,160 --> 00:53:30,600
from the children.
They can practise it.
1296
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:33,000
They can do it every day.
They get what they need.
1297
00:53:33,000 --> 00:53:36,320
It's adaptive to them.
And it's going to be so powerful
1298
00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:38,800
to get children better
arithmetic.
1299
00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:40,400
And it's something they don't
have to do for an hour a day.
1300
00:53:40,400 --> 00:53:42,120
They can do it for 10 minutes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1301
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:45,120
They can do a test, they can do
a bit of practise on what they
1302
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:46,920
need.
And the teachers can go in and
1303
00:53:46,920 --> 00:53:48,520
say, actually I want this, this
and this question.
1304
00:53:48,680 --> 00:53:51,360
Generate me 10 done.
Yeah, it's it's going to be.
1305
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:55,640
So I'm so gassed about it
because anyone listening to this
1306
00:53:55,640 --> 00:53:57,800
who kind of gets what we're
saying here about arithmetic, a
1307
00:53:57,800 --> 00:53:59,200
lot of people already message
about it.
1308
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:01,720
Message us and just let us know
if it's something that interests
1309
00:54:01,720 --> 00:54:04,400
you because it's going to be so
powerful.
1310
00:54:04,560 --> 00:54:08,920
And the reason we're doing it is
not because we're saying teach
1311
00:54:08,920 --> 00:54:10,760
to a test.
You just got to be able to do
1312
00:54:10,760 --> 00:54:13,000
arithmetic.
Hayden, I'm hoping for what
1313
00:54:13,000 --> 00:54:15,480
we've said today.
You can really understand that
1314
00:54:15,480 --> 00:54:18,640
unless you've nailed that, the
true goal is pointless.
1315
00:54:18,720 --> 00:54:21,600
Yeah, You can't build on top of
broken foundations.
1316
00:54:21,960 --> 00:54:23,400
You need to have the foundations
in place.
1317
00:54:23,560 --> 00:54:26,480
We are trying to target the
thing that matters the most,
1318
00:54:26,640 --> 00:54:29,840
which is the foundation.
And we know one of the side
1319
00:54:29,840 --> 00:54:33,080
effects of mass mastery is the
misconception of having to do.
1320
00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:35,080
We just need to put in loads
more reasoning and problem
1321
00:54:35,080 --> 00:54:36,440
solving.
And the horrible side effect of
1322
00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:39,640
that is in some places, in some
schools, in some classrooms,
1323
00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:41,880
arithmetic and fluency is
actually getting a little bit
1324
00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:44,160
weaker because what they would
have been doing way more of that
1325
00:54:44,160 --> 00:54:45,800
before, they're now not doing as
much because they think they
1326
00:54:45,800 --> 00:54:46,720
have to.
I've got to do reasonable
1327
00:54:46,720 --> 00:54:49,000
problem solving every lesson.
And now they're not as fluent.
1328
00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:50,080
And it's like, oh, man, we need
it.
1329
00:54:50,080 --> 00:54:51,480
We.
Yeah, we're trying to tackle the
1330
00:54:51,480 --> 00:54:52,640
problem from every angle.
Yeah.
1331
00:54:53,120 --> 00:54:55,080
Yeah.
I I had a conversation with
1332
00:54:55,080 --> 00:54:58,280
someone the other day who said
they're in year 6.
1333
00:54:58,280 --> 00:55:00,800
They messaged us and they said
our school is thinking of
1334
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:04,600
starting to do arithmetic every
week and I was like, sure what?
1335
00:55:06,040 --> 00:55:08,920
They were doing excuse.
Me and it's like people go so
1336
00:55:08,920 --> 00:55:11,680
far down this road of schemes
and I suppose just wanted to get
1337
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:14,640
your quick thought on schemes
because I am not anti scheme.
1338
00:55:14,640 --> 00:55:19,080
I think schemes are really good.
However, when implemented really
1339
00:55:19,080 --> 00:55:22,720
robustly and strictly and
stringently and, and badly, they
1340
00:55:22,720 --> 00:55:24,840
can be awful.
And I think this is a symptom of
1341
00:55:24,840 --> 00:55:28,040
this where schools might buy
into schemes or say, yeah, we've
1342
00:55:28,040 --> 00:55:29,760
got this.
It's, it's rooted in evidence,
1343
00:55:29,760 --> 00:55:33,360
It's a good scheme and it has
lots of chances, fluency and
1344
00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:35,040
reasoning and problem solving,
all that kind of stuff.
1345
00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:39,560
But maybe it's missing just
enough to just practise and
1346
00:55:39,560 --> 00:55:42,120
become really fluent in actually
doing the maths and then a
1347
00:55:42,120 --> 00:55:45,280
school doesn't do it because
they're so wedded to the scheme
1348
00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:47,560
so very quickly.
If you could just summarise our
1349
00:55:47,560 --> 00:55:49,120
thoughts on schemes.
So now we're on the same page
1350
00:55:49,120 --> 00:55:52,080
here.
Is that a reason to bin schemes
1351
00:55:52,080 --> 00:55:53,440
or do you just think, look, come
on.
1352
00:55:53,920 --> 00:55:56,000
Absolutely not scheme.
I'm going to say what I said
1353
00:55:56,000 --> 00:55:57,360
earlier.
Schemes are really good for
1354
00:55:57,360 --> 00:55:59,560
mapping coverage of lesson
objectives that you're teaching
1355
00:55:59,560 --> 00:56:01,600
the main bit of your lesson.
Schemes are very good at that.
1356
00:56:01,600 --> 00:56:03,840
What I feel like schemes lack a
lot of, and which is another
1357
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:06,200
reason we're doing this, is
because we feel like it's not
1358
00:56:06,200 --> 00:56:08,040
there.
What schemes aren't so good at
1359
00:56:08,040 --> 00:56:11,320
is taking something like just
arithmetic and providing loads
1360
00:56:11,320 --> 00:56:14,120
of resources and loads of
fluency tools and ways for you
1361
00:56:14,120 --> 00:56:16,880
to just practise that bit and
saying like, oh hey, in your 20
1362
00:56:16,880 --> 00:56:18,720
minute segment that you do in
the afternoon or in your 20
1363
00:56:18,720 --> 00:56:20,320
minute segment that you do at
the beginning of your lesson.
1364
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:22,760
However, your school allocates
this bit of extra time that
1365
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:24,000
we're talking about.
Like Dylan said earlier, it
1366
00:56:24,000 --> 00:56:25,240
doesn't need to be within your
maths lesson.
1367
00:56:25,240 --> 00:56:26,440
It could be another part of the
day.
1368
00:56:27,120 --> 00:56:28,480
Here's the resources and map for
that.
1369
00:56:28,480 --> 00:56:29,840
And this is how this is some
great.
1370
00:56:29,920 --> 00:56:33,440
It doesn't exist, I don't think
not not to a not to a level that
1371
00:56:33,440 --> 00:56:36,040
I think is good enough, which is
why we are building this
1372
00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:38,640
arithmetic tour.
That is going to be I, I, I'm
1373
00:56:38,640 --> 00:56:40,680
getting too, I get too excited
about have to calm myself down.
1374
00:56:40,680 --> 00:56:42,880
But I genuinely think it's going
to be transformational because I
1375
00:56:42,880 --> 00:56:46,080
think if you get those
foundations right with a really,
1376
00:56:46,080 --> 00:56:50,440
really good adaptive tool that
works at the exact nuances of,
1377
00:56:50,600 --> 00:56:52,920
you gave an example.
When you've got a tool that
1378
00:56:52,920 --> 00:56:55,640
knows the difference between a
four digit number, add a three
1379
00:56:55,640 --> 00:56:58,520
digit number with exchange with
exchange or exchange and the
1380
00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:00,440
different and all of the
combinations of that and
1381
00:57:00,440 --> 00:57:03,440
understands those nuances.
And if I want, if I want more of
1382
00:57:03,440 --> 00:57:04,960
these questions, it's like,
yeah, you can have more of these
1383
00:57:04,960 --> 00:57:06,400
questions because that's what
you want to practise.
1384
00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:08,560
Like you said in your starter,
you might practise one day.
1385
00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:10,960
A very specific misconception
that your kids are making.
1386
00:57:10,960 --> 00:57:13,960
Give them five more of those A.
Misconception, which literally
1387
00:57:13,960 --> 00:57:16,320
couldn't be taught if you just
did random numbers exactly
1388
00:57:16,320 --> 00:57:18,120
because if you're doing random
numbers, you might not get
1389
00:57:18,120 --> 00:57:20,440
exchanging, you might not get
the same number of digits,
1390
00:57:20,440 --> 00:57:21,840
etcetera.
You're so right.
1391
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:23,920
And it has it.
This is where it's going to be
1392
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:26,960
transformative because you can
create 100 questions
1393
00:57:27,200 --> 00:57:29,480
regenerating the same thing.
And do you know why I think it's
1394
00:57:29,480 --> 00:57:32,360
going to be such a good tool?
Because it it puts together 2
1395
00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:35,120
things that we're really
passionate about. 1 is quality
1396
00:57:35,120 --> 00:57:38,480
maths teaching and whether you
are adept to it or not.
1397
00:57:38,480 --> 00:57:40,800
I'm not judging you as an
individual because some people
1398
00:57:40,800 --> 00:57:42,480
are much more adept, like we
know it inside out.
1399
00:57:42,720 --> 00:57:44,040
Other people won't and that's
fine.
1400
00:57:44,040 --> 00:57:45,640
Their passion might be English,
but they've got to teach maths
1401
00:57:45,640 --> 00:57:46,760
and they're really good at
teaching maths.
1402
00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:50,240
Whether or not you're, you're
really, really like to clued on
1403
00:57:50,400 --> 00:57:54,120
this can do it for you.
And what it does is then allows
1404
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:57,360
you to teach, this isn't going
to be the thing that like
1405
00:57:57,360 --> 00:58:00,520
suddenly just takes over your
class and teaches children how
1406
00:58:00,520 --> 00:58:03,080
to do it more than you know.
What this is going to do is give
1407
00:58:03,080 --> 00:58:06,720
you the tools to be able to
teach it so well and save you
1408
00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:10,440
time and give you exact things
that the children need and do
1409
00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:13,320
gap analysis for you and give
them targeted intervention.
1410
00:58:13,520 --> 00:58:15,560
It's going to do that.
And then you as the teacher can
1411
00:58:15,560 --> 00:58:18,480
go around and say, right, you're
struggling with this 5 minutes
1412
00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:20,520
with the white board, let's go.
And you can teach them it.
1413
00:58:20,520 --> 00:58:22,200
It's so powerful.
Can I fix because now we're
1414
00:58:22,200 --> 00:58:24,200
getting super excited.
Can I finish by telling that
1415
00:58:24,200 --> 00:58:26,600
there's a, there's a moment that
I can think of where I was like,
1416
00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:29,120
this tool just doesn't exist.
This doesn't exist and I need
1417
00:58:29,120 --> 00:58:30,960
it.
Which was it was it was a SATS
1418
00:58:30,960 --> 00:58:32,960
question that I was looking at.
It was I can't the exact one.
1419
00:58:32,960 --> 00:58:35,480
It was something along the lines
of like 2 1/2, lots of 57.
1420
00:58:35,560 --> 00:58:37,720
It was a really horrible.
It was like the last question in
1421
00:58:37,720 --> 00:58:39,680
the SATS paper once.
And I was like, that's rancid in
1422
00:58:39,680 --> 00:58:42,760
terms of giving the kids that
and I wanted to have more.
1423
00:58:42,760 --> 00:58:44,440
I just, I was like, I want to
practise these questions because
1424
00:58:44,440 --> 00:58:46,280
that's actually really hard.
I've got a high mass set on a on
1425
00:58:46,280 --> 00:58:48,960
a practise mixed numbers times
like really horrible numbers
1426
00:58:48,960 --> 00:58:50,720
where you can't even divide by
the denomination.
1427
00:58:50,720 --> 00:58:53,240
Like 50 doesn't divide by two
without going to decimals.
1428
00:58:53,400 --> 00:58:55,360
It's horrible.
And when I used a random number
1429
00:58:55,360 --> 00:58:58,240
generator to just like generate
more, they just, they didn't
1430
00:58:58,240 --> 00:59:01,000
get, they didn't get the nuance.
It gave me stuff like 2 1/2,
1431
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:02,560
lots of 20.
And I was like, no, this isn't
1432
00:59:02,560 --> 00:59:05,920
what I want.
I want it to understand so why
1433
00:59:05,920 --> 00:59:07,880
this is hard.
So we're building this all that
1434
00:59:07,880 --> 00:59:10,000
does that and that's it.
That's it for me.
1435
00:59:10,000 --> 00:59:12,120
I was like, I need to that needs
to exist and that needs to exist
1436
00:59:12,120 --> 00:59:13,880
and it needs to get every single
level of nuance on every
1437
00:59:13,880 --> 00:59:16,600
question and be able to just
give me 10 more like that, you
1438
00:59:16,600 --> 00:59:18,840
know, anyways, but.
You're right, you're right.
1439
00:59:18,840 --> 00:59:20,440
And I think this is it's built
in.
1440
00:59:20,680 --> 00:59:23,080
Hopefully again from this whole
episode, you get how much we
1441
00:59:23,080 --> 00:59:24,640
love maths.
We're obsessed with maths.
1442
00:59:24,920 --> 00:59:27,000
We get good results for our
children.
1443
00:59:27,000 --> 00:59:29,680
We literally, it's what our
passion is.
1444
00:59:30,160 --> 00:59:35,640
And the ability to have been
building this makes me so happy
1445
00:59:35,800 --> 00:59:39,320
because I'm not building this.
And then, oh, yeah, it's
1446
00:59:39,320 --> 00:59:40,920
important because I've built
this thing.
1447
00:59:41,040 --> 00:59:43,640
No, I, I, I believe everything
I've said in this whole episode.
1448
00:59:43,720 --> 00:59:44,960
Yeah.
And that's why I think this is
1449
00:59:44,960 --> 00:59:47,360
such a thing that I've thought
for years would be so powerful
1450
00:59:47,360 --> 00:59:49,680
and good to build.
It's happening like it's going
1451
00:59:49,680 --> 00:59:52,280
to be so, so, so useful.
Watch this space, guys.
1452
00:59:52,320 --> 00:59:54,200
Yeah, keep asking us, because
every time you ask us questions
1453
00:59:54,200 --> 00:59:55,760
about it, we get really giddy
and excited.
1454
00:59:56,160 --> 00:59:58,720
So excited we're going to wrap
it up, but there's just one last
1455
00:59:58,720 --> 01:00:00,680
thing I wanted to mention.
And I don't think we need to go
1456
01:00:00,680 --> 01:00:02,480
into detail about it because
we've gone into so much detail
1457
01:00:02,480 --> 01:00:04,480
already.
But I think part of the problem
1458
01:00:04,920 --> 01:00:07,280
if we're going back full circle
is obviously preparing for the
1459
01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:08,240
test, right?
Yeah.
1460
01:00:08,240 --> 01:00:10,520
So think about SAT at the end
and we're thinking, oh, well,
1461
01:00:10,520 --> 01:00:12,280
yeah, you're just creating a
thing that helps you prepare for
1462
01:00:12,280 --> 01:00:13,560
the SAT.
Yeah, it does.
1463
01:00:13,560 --> 01:00:14,840
It does help you prepare for the
SAT.
1464
01:00:15,320 --> 01:00:16,640
It also makes kids better at
maths.
1465
01:00:16,960 --> 01:00:19,120
But the Venn diagram can
overlap, right?
1466
01:00:19,680 --> 01:00:21,640
Just because you're preparing
for the test doesn't necessarily
1467
01:00:21,640 --> 01:00:23,600
mean everything you're doing is
bad for the kids.
1468
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:26,640
Fundamentally, knowing how to do
maths and practising and getting
1469
01:00:26,640 --> 01:00:29,200
quicker and more accurate makes
you a better mathematician.
1470
01:00:29,320 --> 01:00:31,240
Does it also mean you're going
to boost your arithmetic scores
1471
01:00:31,240 --> 01:00:32,760
in your Sats?
Yeah, Yeah, it does.
1472
01:00:32,880 --> 01:00:35,080
And and that's good as well,
because you're better at maths.
1473
01:00:35,080 --> 01:00:37,600
Because you're better at maths,
not because you're just knowing
1474
01:00:37,600 --> 01:00:40,280
how to get around a test or
fudge your way through.
1475
01:00:40,360 --> 01:00:42,520
No, you can do maths more
quickly and more accurately.
1476
01:00:42,920 --> 01:00:46,160
And one thing I was going to put
over to you about the sats, you,
1477
01:00:46,160 --> 01:00:47,360
you're in your 6 for a long
time.
1478
01:00:48,000 --> 01:00:49,960
I've never liked the naming of
the sats.
1479
01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:52,640
Sounds ridiculous.
There's arithmetic paper and a
1480
01:00:52,640 --> 01:00:54,400
reasoning paper.
And I'm like, oh, what?
1481
01:00:54,560 --> 01:00:56,680
Like what?
Like, OK, there are reasoning
1482
01:00:56,680 --> 01:00:59,520
questions, I suppose.
Like explain this in the thought
1483
01:00:59,520 --> 01:01:01,280
bubble.
Of course that's a reasoning
1484
01:01:01,280 --> 01:01:04,040
question.
Fine, but the reasoning paper
1485
01:01:04,160 --> 01:01:05,400
has fluency in it.
Yep.
1486
01:01:05,560 --> 01:01:07,680
It's not reasoning.
It has just straight up fluency
1487
01:01:07,680 --> 01:01:09,040
questions like order these
numbers.
1488
01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:12,160
Like it just has like how you
know, how many sides does a
1489
01:01:12,160 --> 01:01:13,760
square have kind of thing.
Like it has those kind of
1490
01:01:13,760 --> 01:01:15,560
fluency questions.
It has some reasoning and it's
1491
01:01:15,560 --> 01:01:16,880
filled with problem solving,
yeah as well.
1492
01:01:17,320 --> 01:01:20,320
It's, it has always annoyed me
because I feel like it
1493
01:01:20,320 --> 01:01:22,200
contributes to the problem of
like people getting confused
1494
01:01:22,200 --> 01:01:24,680
between the problem.
Because realistically what's
1495
01:01:24,680 --> 01:01:27,440
happening is, yeah, you've kind
of summarised it, the two
1496
01:01:27,440 --> 01:01:29,280
papers.
It, it feels like it's supposed
1497
01:01:29,280 --> 01:01:32,000
to say we have a fluency paper
and then we have a reasoning
1498
01:01:32,000 --> 01:01:33,600
problem solving paper.
I feel like that's how people
1499
01:01:33,760 --> 01:01:35,760
interpret that when they see
arithmetic and reasoning.
1500
01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:37,840
They're like, OK, that's the
split they make in their mind.
1501
01:01:37,840 --> 01:01:40,960
But really the split is, yeah,
we have this really a subset of
1502
01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:43,200
of fluency, which is arithmetic
as one paper.
1503
01:01:43,480 --> 01:01:46,400
And then we have all of the rest
of fluency, all of problem
1504
01:01:46,400 --> 01:01:48,520
solving, and all of reasoning
that comes in between that,
1505
01:01:48,520 --> 01:01:49,720
because reasoning is just
everything.
1506
01:01:49,720 --> 01:01:52,120
Because I I think I think
there's some reasoning in
1507
01:01:52,120 --> 01:01:53,560
arithmetic.
Some some people might tell me
1508
01:01:53,560 --> 01:01:54,920
I'm wrong here.
What is the example I gave
1509
01:01:54,920 --> 01:01:56,840
earlier?
Exactly like the the idea of in
1510
01:01:56,840 --> 01:02:00,400
arithmetic, the, you know, yeah,
OK, being fluent includes the
1511
01:02:00,400 --> 01:02:02,680
ability to know which method to
go for and why etcetera.
1512
01:02:02,880 --> 01:02:06,080
But but that is reasoning.
Like it inherently is the
1513
01:02:06,080 --> 01:02:07,640
thought process of do you know
what?
1514
01:02:07,640 --> 01:02:09,800
I'm in this test.
I've got a method here that'll
1515
01:02:09,800 --> 01:02:13,120
take me 10 seconds or a method
that'll take me a minute knowing
1516
01:02:13,120 --> 01:02:14,760
to go for the 10 second one.
That's reasoning.
1517
01:02:14,760 --> 01:02:15,520
You're thinking it's.
True.
1518
01:02:15,520 --> 01:02:17,200
I've got a really good example
of that which I'll say really
1519
01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:18,600
quickly.
Long division always happens,
1520
01:02:18,600 --> 01:02:20,640
right?
If you, if you give a child A4
1521
01:02:20,640 --> 01:02:23,320
digit number divided by 45 and
another question, it's a four
1522
01:02:23,320 --> 01:02:27,040
digit number divided by 47.
A child that hasn't been taught
1523
01:02:27,040 --> 01:02:29,480
fluency properly with very
fluency might just have one
1524
01:02:29,480 --> 01:02:31,040
method they use that works.
And do you know what they could
1525
01:02:31,040 --> 01:02:32,000
get it right?
And that's fine.
1526
01:02:32,160 --> 01:02:34,640
But the reason comes into play
when you go, oh, some children
1527
01:02:34,720 --> 01:02:37,600
will look at 45 and think, I can
factorise that into two short
1528
01:02:37,600 --> 01:02:39,080
divisions.
I can divide by 9, get an
1529
01:02:39,080 --> 01:02:41,960
answer, divide that by 5, making
it on the whole a lot easier
1530
01:02:41,960 --> 01:02:43,920
because I don't have to think
about the 45 times tables and
1531
01:02:43,920 --> 01:02:46,080
finding huge remainders.
That's way quicker to me.
1532
01:02:46,080 --> 01:02:48,360
And another child when you look
at 47, they'll go, oh, that's a
1533
01:02:48,360 --> 01:02:50,480
prime.
I can't, I can't factorise this
1534
01:02:50,480 --> 01:02:52,120
into into two times tables that
I know.
1535
01:02:52,120 --> 01:02:54,160
So I'm going to have to just do
this, my long division method.
1536
01:02:54,400 --> 01:02:56,240
And in the first one, they save
loads of time, and the second
1537
01:02:56,240 --> 01:02:57,280
one, they're using the proper
method.
1538
01:02:57,280 --> 01:02:58,600
And you're telling me they
haven't done reasoning?
1539
01:02:59,040 --> 01:03:00,360
Yeah, that's what I mean.
Like that.
1540
01:03:00,360 --> 01:03:01,680
Then that's in the arithmetic
paper.
1541
01:03:01,680 --> 01:03:03,160
Exactly.
So reasoning kind of is
1542
01:03:03,160 --> 01:03:05,200
everywhere, yet we call one of
the papers reasoning.
1543
01:03:05,640 --> 01:03:07,560
I get it because it's more
reasoning.
1544
01:03:07,560 --> 01:03:11,040
Arithmetic is more stripped.
But it's not reasoning to just
1545
01:03:11,040 --> 01:03:14,320
be able to do a number that's
adding ten.
1546
01:03:14,560 --> 01:03:16,000
But how often does that come up
in the reasoning?
1547
01:03:16,000 --> 01:03:17,880
What's 10 more?
What they do is to make it look
1548
01:03:17,880 --> 01:03:19,800
different though, is they'll put
three of them in one question.
1549
01:03:19,800 --> 01:03:22,720
It'll be like this 1 + 10, this
1 + 10, this 1 + 10, this one
1550
01:03:22,720 --> 01:03:24,280
plus what equals this.
You have to get all three to get
1551
01:03:24,280 --> 01:03:26,760
one mark and it's.
Like each one of those questions
1552
01:03:26,760 --> 01:03:28,680
could have in the paper.
Yeah, if it was just one of
1553
01:03:28,680 --> 01:03:31,400
them.
So yeah, that's all I would say.
1554
01:03:31,400 --> 01:03:33,160
It's slightly confusing.
I don't think it's an issue.
1555
01:03:33,240 --> 01:03:35,040
Like I said, I think reasoning
permeates everything.
1556
01:03:35,040 --> 01:03:37,480
I don't think you can say it's
not reasoning.
1557
01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:40,440
It's annoying, but I just think
it just helps to push the
1558
01:03:40,440 --> 01:03:42,640
narrative of a bit of misunder.
I mean, on the upside as well,
1559
01:03:42,640 --> 01:03:44,880
it does also just kind of
reinforce the idea that
1560
01:03:45,320 --> 01:03:47,280
arithmetic is unbelievably
important because they felt the
1561
01:03:47,280 --> 01:03:49,520
need to put an entire paper to
that part of fluency.
1562
01:03:49,520 --> 01:03:50,800
Yes.
And then call them, you know,
1563
01:03:50,800 --> 01:03:52,000
the naming we can, we can
disagree with.
1564
01:03:52,000 --> 01:03:54,480
But yeah, ultimately arithmetic
is like, yeah, it's essential.
1565
01:03:54,640 --> 01:03:56,520
It's an essential underpinning
part of maths.
1566
01:03:56,520 --> 01:03:58,920
And we should be looking at can
the kids do the maths and then
1567
01:03:58,920 --> 01:04:01,440
also looking at can the kids
apply in any context, you know?
1568
01:04:01,640 --> 01:04:05,320
Absolutely got I, that is
probably my favourite chat I've
1569
01:04:05,320 --> 01:04:06,280
had in a long time.
There's.
1570
01:04:06,280 --> 01:04:08,600
So much more we could.
Say, I know like somebody don't
1571
01:04:08,600 --> 01:04:10,160
see it, maybe this this one in
the future.
1572
01:04:10,160 --> 01:04:13,360
But guys, if you enjoyed that,
please do leave us a review
1573
01:04:13,360 --> 01:04:15,240
wherever you get it.
And most importantly, honestly,
1574
01:04:15,320 --> 01:04:18,120
for this one, just share it
around a little bit, especially,
1575
01:04:18,120 --> 01:04:20,000
you know, if you're a newer
teacher, if you're training,
1576
01:04:20,000 --> 01:04:23,000
just send it around to people
because it is really important
1577
01:04:23,000 --> 01:04:25,200
information to know.
And if you're more experienced
1578
01:04:25,200 --> 01:04:27,920
staff, what I would say to you
is what we've all said here,
1579
01:04:27,920 --> 01:04:30,560
it's rooted in, it's rooted in
fact, it's rooted in research is
1580
01:04:30,560 --> 01:04:33,640
what it's what it is.
So if you kind of are noticing
1581
01:04:33,640 --> 01:04:36,720
in your school, maybe the
balance is a bit often and you
1582
01:04:36,720 --> 01:04:39,400
as a professional kind of have
this idea of like it's not been
1583
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:41,400
done properly.
Push back a bit.
1584
01:04:41,400 --> 01:04:44,360
Like just just ask about it.
Just say like look OK you might
1585
01:04:44,360 --> 01:04:46,880
get shot down fine but you might
not and you might be able to
1586
01:04:46,880 --> 01:04:49,320
change stuff.
And also talk to us because if
1587
01:04:49,320 --> 01:04:51,200
there's anything else more you
want to, you want us to talk
1588
01:04:51,200 --> 01:04:52,960
about about Mouse, you know, we
love it.
1589
01:04:52,960 --> 01:04:54,560
So if there's ever, if there's
elements you thought, I wonder
1590
01:04:54,560 --> 01:04:56,080
if they're going to talk about
this in this episode.
1591
01:04:56,080 --> 01:04:58,400
And we didn't please write in
because there's almost
1592
01:04:58,400 --> 01:05:00,280
definitely another episode we'll
do in the future where we can
1593
01:05:00,280 --> 01:05:02,560
talk about these other elements.
Of maths, but we're going to be
1594
01:05:02,560 --> 01:05:04,160
building our maths platform
every.
1595
01:05:04,320 --> 01:05:07,920
Episode from next week will
exclusively be about maths this.
1596
01:05:08,000 --> 01:05:09,800
Is a maths, but it's not that
we're going to change it.
1597
01:05:09,920 --> 01:05:12,640
Welcome back to MONEY.
That toxic school soon fine.
1598
01:05:12,840 --> 01:05:14,360
Only if they're doing maths
incorrectly.
1599
01:05:14,640 --> 01:05:15,480
See you next week.
See.
1600
01:05:15,720 --> 01:05:15,960
You guys.





