Mathematics

Communication between student and teacher at Tomlinscote is via Google Classroom. While Google Classroom has many useful features, the one thing we found lacking was the live interaction between student and teacher. Our Maths digital champion started trialling OneNote Class Notebook in lessons. Class Notebook enables a teacher to live mark the class work while the student is working and enables the teacher to spot misconceptions early on. Class Notebooks are also accessible for teachers sharing classes which enables them to also monitor students’ progress and aid planning.

DrFrost Maths has a number of features:

• Worksheets can be generated from a bank of thousands of past exam questions, including KS3 SATs, AQA GCSE and UKMT Maths Challenge questions. There is a whiteboard for the learner to write workings on. They get instant feedback, which can include the exam markscheme. Teachers can see the students' progress with questions skipped in grey and questions incorrect highlight red. This means we can focus our attention on those that need it.

• DrFrost Live adds an element of competition that the students enjoy.

• Key skills are focussed on students practicing a specific skill where they can work at their own pace. The students get instant feedback and are given worked solutions.

• The whiteboard feature allows teachers to quickly assess class understanding by setting a question and watching all the students’ iPads via the teacher’s monitor. Teachers can address any misconceptions before moving on.

At Tomlinscote we want our students to be mathematically inquisitive. Desmos is a powerful tool with features such as a graphing calculator, scientific calculator and digital classroom activities. These visual and interactive tools enable students to explore concepts more deeply, collaborate on problem solving and demonstrate the accuracy of their own conjectures.

Hegarty Maths

We use Hegarty Maths for all Home Learning tasks. Hegarty Maths has videos containing worked examples for the students to follow. Each question also links to the relevant part of the video. There is an option for students to leave feedback for their teacher for every question.

Students can access all videos and quizzes at all times and use it to revise for assessments or catch up on lessons missed.

Teachers can provide feedback on the overall quiz and on specific questions. There are reports available for download enabling us to monitor progress. Different tasks can be set for different students in a class so that we personalise the Home Learning.

Home Learning during Lockdown

The iPad was essential during the lockdown period. Class Notebook combined with Teams ensured we stayed connected with our students. We could monitor the work they were doing in real time and help them instantly as if we were in the classroom.