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TagTeacherNet member Simon Downes is a Mathematics teacher at Winton School, Andover. His recent work at a Summer Numeracy School sounded like too much fun, so we've given him the chance to share his experiences here. You can also view the website he has constructed to celebrate the event. Click: http://www.winton.andover.taglink.co.uk/sites/summerschool

"Imagine that sat in front of you are 22 enthusiastic 11 year-old students, eager to learn mathematics. Imagine that the lesson introduction lasts for 20 minutes, with the students moving freely around the room reinforcing their understanding by visualising and verbalising the concepts being taught. Imagine that once the core part of the lesson begins, 8 extra pairs of hands immediately dive-in, ensuring that no student is working in a group larger than three.

Now imagine that it’s the middle of August and everyone is here voluntarily!

Such was the scene that greeted me  every day for two weeks at our Summer Numeracy School this year. This was the first time that I’d partaken in such an event - last year was a pilot year - and I’m certainly hoping to be involved again next year.

The aim - to pick-up around 30 students from Year 6 who are Level ¾ borderline, and have a fun but intensive couple of weeks of mathematical activities and try to cement Level 4 foundations.

Our main focus was problem -solving skills and fraction, decimals & percentages. Each day consisted of a one hour lesson, work on times tables, much Zoombini’s and mathematical games reinforcing concepts learned earlier.

Such was the level of enthusiasm shown throughout by the students that one would seldom go 10 minutes without being asked “Will you test me on my times tables please?”, and students were equally as keen to test one another - they were seriously good at the end of the fortnight.

We spent an excellent day at Newbury Racecourse, which was all planned by Martin Laton of the British Horseracing Training Board (info@rtbtb.keme.co.uk), the day culminating in the students running and timing the final furlong of the racecourse, both with and without the proportionally equivalent weight of a jockey.

For me, I believe that the most satisfying moment came on the penultimate day, when I was teaching the final lesson of the fortnight. I wanted to bring together fractions, decimals & percentages and see whether the links between them had been truly understood - and throughout the 20 minute intro I could feel my grin becoming wider and wider as the room echoed with individuals in turn reciting “2/5”, “0.4”, “40%”…etc, without difficulty.

Looking through one particular student’s diary, he summed up the whole mood of the event when he wrote:-

“The best thing about Winton Summer School is that all the teachers have always got a smile on their faces.”

I hope that with the Government’s next push toward tackling issues regarding numeracy at Year 5 they don’t overlook the excellent things that are currently in place.

I cannot stress highly enough just how rich an experience the Summer School has been to all involved."