Bowland Resources

Background

The ISSP has provided funding to allow partnership schools to buy Bowland maths resources and to provide professional development for the teachers.

Bowland Maths makes use of case studies such as ‘Alien Invasion’ and ‘How Risky is Life?’ to make maths fun and absorbing for pupils aged 11-14. By increasing the motivation of students it is hoped that effective delivery of these resources will change student’s ideas about maths.

Seven schools have been trialling the resources in North Somerset and a group of five teachers have been working together on one of the case studies, ‘Save the Kangaroo’; they will be sharing their experiences at future maths subject leaders meetings.

Evaluation

Churchill School have been trailing the resources and have used ‘My Music’ and ‘Save the Kangaroo’. A total of 13 classes, of all abilities, have gone through ‘Save the Kangaroo’. Staff report that the resources are good at engaging students, provided staff have had training and students have had a chance to develop independent learning skills. Low ability students struggled to tackle some of the more difficult problems.

Students, who had recently completed ‘Save the Kangaroo’, were asked how much they agreed with two statements relating to the case study.

Top set year 8 group:

*Didn't learn much about maths - instead used maths that we already knew.

Top set year 9 group:

Overall the Churchill’s maths department are happy with the resources and asked if they would recommend them to other departments they replied yes, because they are more to do with real life than standard text book exercises.

Links:

Bowland Resource website