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Nazard...Loads of fantastic stuff and I echo most of it.

Functional Maths has always been around you are right.

2 Differences.

(i) In yesteryear pupils were taught the basics and had number skills rather than simply 'having to make everything functional' now yet the foundations of kids maths oten doesnt support it. Many do functional lessons as its 'more applicable to life' yet the kids dont have a clue becuase nobody made them learn number skills.

(ii) The functional stuff now is so watered down to mask falling standards and an attempt to justify this fluffy 'emotional learner' idea that its getting further and further away from maths to factor in weaker students.

I know my 'best' KS4 group would struggle their way through the 11 plus given (even when it was put into metric units)

DM:

I still don't really understand your agenda Sabbir but here are the STEP papers you were after:

1987 - 1999 http://bit.ly/9xCtXO

1998 to 2010 http://www.admissionstests.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/adt/step/Test+Preparation

Thanks very much for these. I don't think my "agenda" is particularly mysterious. I simply ask myself (and try to answer) this question: If there were no mickey-mouse exams to hold them back, what would be the best possible mathematical education that my students could be provided with?

School mathematics has a particularly simple structure (e.g. topics can be arranged in a hierarchical tree structure starting from basic counting right through to advanced calculus - I have been developing my own structure based upon the textbooks and other resources that I have mentioned above), which once established, allows students to progress along it step-by-step at their own pace, gradually developing an understanding of increasingly complex topics and building up a sophisticated armoury of problem-solving techniques through practical application of this knowledge.

Achieving a sound level of basic mathematical knowledge, developing a large range of problem-solving techniques through solving a wide range of problem types, gradually building up the intellectual stamina to work through increasingly difficult or challenging problems, and encouraging creativity to try out new and different ideas once these sound foundations are in place - these are the kinds of attributes that I think I would ideally like to see developed in my students, and which would set them up well for the future.

Best wishes,

Sabbir

I simply ask myself (and try to answer) this question: If there were no mickey-mouse exams to hold them back, what would be the best possible mathematical education that my students could be provided with?

I think the problem here is you are very much trying to generalise.  Many schools around the country can and do push the very best students with their mathematics.  Beyond GCSE (which many are ready to attempt early) there is additional maths, then there is A-level maths and Further Maths and clearly STEP papers. 

The "agenda" I was referred to was your plan to accelerate children to university at the age of 13 or 14.   University is not just about acquiring knowledge.  As you have pointed out, it is perfectly possible to acquire knowledge in your own home (without shelling out £££ for tuition fees).   

I believe my university experiences transformed me into the person I am today.   It certainly did a lot for my confidence and afforded me the opportunity to become independent and interact with people from completely different backgrounds.   If children are accelerated in this way, they are bound to miss out on the major social part of the university experience and I consider that a terrible shame.

pencho:

I simply ask myself (and try to answer) this question: If there were no mickey-mouse exams to hold them back, what would be the best possible mathematical education that my students could be provided with?

I think the problem here is you are very much trying to generalise.  Many schools around the country can and do push the very best students with their mathematics.  Beyond GCSE (which many are ready to attempt early) there is additional maths, then there is A-level maths and Further Maths and clearly STEP papers. 

I do agree that there are good schools that push their best students (presumably with a strong bias towards the fee-paying ones or grammar schools), however I think most schools have, almost by necessity, become obsessed with achieving top grades in exams to the expense of the students' education.

This would be fine if today's exams were as well-designed and challenging as they were in the past, where to do well required a very sound understanding of the topics covered, often requiring knowledge of several different topics to answer a single question, as well as sophisticated problem-solving ability. However today's GCSE and A level exams are simply not like this by any stretch of the imagination and the vast majority of students are having their education crippled as a result. The development of the Pre-U, which is much like the A levels of old, is an explicit attempt to counter this trend and return the more rigorous standards of the past.

As I have already alluded to, I do not have an issue with STEP papers, but like the Pre-U, only the elite few actually take these. If the Pre-U were made compulsory and A levels abolished (with the GCSE being replaced by a Pre-U version of the old O levels, with perhaps a new CSE for those students who have no intention of further study), then we might see a change. But even if this were miraculously to happen, the new problem would be (and indeed is) in finding teachers with adequate ability and training to actually teach the course.

Best wishes,

Sabbir