Houses of Parliament Education Loan Boxes

Not a lot of people know that Home Education units such as a small family can usually apply for what a whole school applies for such as the fantastic Houses of Parliament Education Loan Boxes.

We’ve just taken delivery of one of the big blue boxes containing the following:

• Cloth Backdrop of the House of Lords and the House of Commons – enables classes to recreate either chamber in a classroom or hall setting

• Colourful relief of each chamber showing where key members of both Houses sit

• The Speaker of the House of Commons’ official black robe – to help distinguish the Speaker as someone with a specific role to play in the chamber

• A Clerks wig – which helps convey to students that Acts of Parliament are laws

• An Act of Parliament – so pupils can see what an Act looks like and investigate the names and occupations of the signatories

• A Division bell – so pupils can be called to cast their vote

• Images of Parliament – to help set the scene and promote further investigation

The box was delivered free of charge and will be collected in 6 weeks, I think. Definitely worth having in order to get the kids re-enacting the route from bill to law but please be aware that the container’s dimensions are 114cm x 50cm x 35cm so you might want to ensure you have ample space for its usage/storage before ordering.

The relevant link is http://www.parliament.uk/education/outreach-in-your-school/loan-box-scheme/

Maths Club – Now over-subscribed

Hi All

I’m thinking of starting a Maths Club for kids aged 7+.

My idea is to have a group of about 10 kids following a similar maths syllabus and meeting up weekly or fortnightly for a tutorial hour or two in order to go over what they find difficult or easy. Just to be clear, this is not a teaching project. As much as I like maths, I’m not looking to teach it but from experience, I know learners remember and probably assimilate more during informal interactive tutorials.

I’m guessing the kids will need a lot of help but I expect them to be fully independent learners in a couple of years’ time.

Here are the logistics:

• I’m looking for kids (and parents) able and happy to embark on a maths journey starting Jan 6 2014 from primary to IGCSE and beyond.
• The syllabus we are following is the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching’s specs (CIMT) because it’s the best I’ve come across. It’s free and it covers reception years to A Level.
• We are looking to start from Year 3A in January and hoping to complete the initial ones between now and end of 2013
• CIMT materials can either be freely printed off the website or ordered for a nominal cost.
• When the club commences, I’m hoping the participating kids can cover a minimum of 2 pages a day so that if we meet up weekly, there’ll be at least 10 pages to munch over. As time goes on, I’ll be calling on some maths gurus to cover some problematic areas.
• I will be setting up a private GOOGLE group to discuss problems, solutions, best practices, maths links, etc

[Like others using books, we also supplement it with the  conquer maths and study ladder software programs but these are just to break the monotony at these early stages. To really kill maths, nothing beats pen and paper.]

As already mentioned, this is not a maths tuition class. I’m happy to guide the kids but I have no interest in teaching on a weekly basis so I will expect other parents to chip in as well. In any case, I’m so confident the kids will need minimal adult assistance as time goes on. I’ll like to continue to believe that private paid-for tuition is not needed for maths.

The relevant CIMT link is here.

For the moment, if anyone wants to embark on this amazing Maths journey with us, please show your hands offlist. A max of 10 kids altogether are needed. I already have 2.

Cheers All

Pxx