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I have had just a couple of months experience teaching to 'themes' at KS3. My greatest observations were that: - (a *major* positive) many lessons were, or seemed, 'new' to students, because you don't have whole lessons focussed on 'traditional' topics like 'fractions', 'decimals' ,or even 'probability' which the students feel, rightly or wrongly, they have 'done' before (and either 'suceeded at', or 'failed at' before). i.e. they don't bring the prejudices and pre-conceived expectations of difficulty to the lessons to anywhere near the degree that they 'normally' do. This is a very, very good thing. - (another generally very positive aspect) was that it was inspiring, and invigorating for Maths teachers ourselves. It made us (have to) plan and prepare more and forced us to genuinely re-consider how best to 'teach' the Maths. Because it was structured very differently to normal, it made it easy to 'break' from traditional,expected, (some would argue 'established') forms of teaching Maths. For Maths teachers interested in proper Maths (i.e. not restricted by the artificial syllabus examined by GCSE), and those with the time/inclination to prepare their lessons properlydo this, I found it positively inspirational and exciting.But the SoW was developed by a true Mathematician (whose love of Maths was obvious), and teaching expert. Had it been developed, or implemented by 'mere' (albeit expert, highly respectable) Maths teachers, then I strongly suspect it would be unsuccessful (or at least no more successful than existing methods). - (a potentially *major* negative) is that it takes far greater preparation from teachers. There's generally far fewer pre-prepared resources (no MyMaths, for example!), and some topics may not even be known (by non-Mathematician) Maths teachers. This is a major, major problem if you (ever) need your lessons to be covered, by either internal teachers, or by the vast majority of Maths supply teachers. The bottom line, for me, was that it works brilliantly for students and teachers alike if the Maths teachers are naturally *inspirational*, and interested in Maths itself. But it could be a disaster, and unimplementable within a Maths department with predominantly 'normal' Maths teachers (many of whom do an excellent job, but would never really call themselves Mathematicians, or are even be too interested in anything beyond curriculum, GCSE / A-level Maths). From a managers, or SLT's perspective. It's a tough call. If the HoD champions it, and is supported by SLT, then it will IMO hugely 'succeed'. [Though whether that actually translates to better GCSE results remains an open question]. I hope that's a balenced perspective.
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