LGfL Maths Boot Camp
Raising standards in numeracy for underachieving KS4 students
Raising achievement in KS4 maths using innovative teaching techniques which harness the power of LGfL content, cloud platforms and the latest stylus-based Chrome books.
What did you do?
A group of 30 underachieving Year 11 students were targeted for a 4-day intensive maths ‘Bootcamp’ to rapidly increase confidence, conceptual understanding and confidence.
The aim was to benchmark attainment at the start of the 4 days and then assess any tangible improvements that could then be attributed to the change of technology, the resource’s used and the teachers approach. The ‘Bootcamp’ was hosted by the AET Trust in its main offices near Euston station.
Why did you do it?
The cohort of students targeted were all characterised by their school maths teachers as underachieving level 4/5 students. The aim of the ‘Bootcamp’ was to:
-
Improve achievement for students who fall behind in mathematics.
-
Encourage students to seek mathematic opportunities in further education.
-
Reconnect students with mathematics to find enjoyment of mathematics by making it relevant.
-
Encourage students to engage with their peers from other geographic areas around the country.
-
Improve conceptual understanding and thereby deepen student’s awareness of mathematic connections.
The challenge
The students came from 5 different schools; 3 from London, one from Birmingham and one from Milton Keynes.
The students needed to adapt to new technology, new teachers and new students in their class.
The loaned equipment from Google was being used on an office environment wifi infrastructure.
Students view
"Using G suite and chrome books allowed my teachers to track my understanding and intervene when I was going wrong and I got much faster progress as a result" - Student feedback
What was the impact on learning?
The average increase was 11 marks for pupils that sat both papers. This is significant as the two assessments were out of 64 marks and the improvements made by pupils were not exclusively in the areas/topics we had covered during boot camp. This represented an average 17% increase over the 2 papers. This would equate to a full 1-grade increase based on recent grade boundaries, although this does depend on which tier the pupil has been entered for.
The pupils were also asked some questions to uncover their attitudes towards maths. Enjoyment went up from 3.16 to 4.43 and the data suggests that pupils felt readier for their GCSE exam as this saw a jump from 2.42 to 4.04. The data also reveals that pupils thought that maths was more relevant to their lives with a 0.7 increase between the start and finish of Bootcamp.
