Here’s what you told us

Last month we conducted a survey of our subscribers to find out what you really think!  After 18 months of blogging, we were curious…

Q. If the blog stopped tomorrow, which of these statements would best describe your attitude? (Tick only one)

 

Well, that was a relief.  No-one ticked the “Happy – all the email updates annoy me” box.  We’ll do our best to keep it that way.  Thank you for your support.

Q. How long did you read the blog before you subscribed to it? (Tick only one)

 

This result took us by surprise.  We had no idea the decision to subscribe was taken so quickly.

Q. Before you started this survey, who did you think writes and produces the blog? (Tick all that apply)

This response made us smile.  We can say definitively that we are Longman, which is part of Pearson Education.  Either of those would have been correct, so a majority of you were on the right track.  We are not part of AQA and definitely not Nelson Thornes (greatly though we esteem those organisations)!

Q. If we were to cut down the types of activities we were going to provide on the blog to just four, which of the following types would you want to keep? (Tick four only)

Harder to read this slide, so here’s a summary: the most votes went to “GCSE new-style practice questions and papers”.  We hear you – we’ll keep them coming and make sure we offer all the support we can through the Summer exam season. 

Our topical resources came in as next most popular.  Collectively, there were 42 votes for our topical lesson plans and activities relating to:

• “…major sporting events” – for example, our World Cup posters last year – 16 votes
• “…major non-sporting events”, for example our General Election activity last year – 15 votes 
• “…annual festivals, e.g. Christmas, Halloween, Bonfire Night”, for example our Sherlock Holmes competition last Autumn, episodes of which related to these festivals – 11 votes 

We’ll keep this stuff coming as far as time and tide allow.  For example, to mark the passing of the 500 day milestone and the availability of tickets for sale, we’ll shortly be publishing an Olympics poster.

There was also enthusiasm for the sample pages from our published resources, with 12 votes.  Again, we’ll keep these coming.  The least votes went to our video resources and news updates on AQA specifications and policy.

We asked you to tell us what other kinds of resources you would like to see.  Your answers centred around three types: (i) more exam questions/papers/feedback, (ii) more puzzles, (iii) interactives. 

We hear you.  We’ll do our best.

Q. What are your other sources of topical resources for use in school? (Tick all that apply)

Space doesn’t allow for all the questions, and we promised to keep all individual responses confidential.  But we do want to say a  big  T H A N K   Y O U  to everyone who took part.  Some of your additional feedback was very encouraging: you made especially kind comments about our Middle sets Student Book, about our Sherlock Holmes competition, and about our other free resources.  

Finally, some of you expressed concern that we might start charging for the content on the blog (we asked a few hypothetical question around this).  Don’t be, because we won’t.

With best wishes,

The Maths Team at Longman

New and existing subscribers: claim your FREE Foundation sets package – 1 Maths Student Book and 2 Practice Books

We take differentiation seriously in our AQA GCSE Maths resources.  To prove it, we’re offering new and existing subscribers a FREE Foundation sets package containing 3 books:

• Foundation sets Student Book covering grades G-C
• Foundation sets Practice Book covering grades G-C, designed to work in combination with the Student Book
• Our unique G-F Practice Book, also designed to work with the Student Book, and presented as a write-in workbook to allow students to interact directly with the Maths.  Click here for a sample.

This just goes to show, as we’ve observed before, that the best things in life are… THREE!

New subscribers

To claim your 3 free books, enter your school email address in the box top right of your screen, and press Subscribe. We’ll post the books out to your school.  This offer is only open to UK-based Secondary Maths teachers.  As a subscriber to this blog, you’ll receive all new posts by email (1-2 per week) and no spam.  We will not pass your details to any 3rd parties.  

Existing subscribers

If you wish to claim your free Foundation sets package, just “leave a comment” on this post, and we’ll send them through to you.  We will not publish your comment (unless you want us to!)

The  S M A L L  print: This offer is only open to UK-based Secondary Maths teachers, and is limited to one package (i.e. 3 books) per centre.

Countdown to 2012: your FREE Olympic maths poster!

500 days to go to the big event (actually, 489 days as we write)…

Here’s your free classroom poster, with a map of all the London venues and some Maths activities built in.  These are at GCSE Grade D/C, and Functional Maths Level 2 – covering ratio,  map scales, and distance-speed-time:

Practise some Olympic maths, and help Boris find his bearings... Click to download.

How can we help?

We’ve just sussed from the recent survey of our subscribers (more on that in a later post) and from our own data, that fully 30% of the AQA schools that subscribe to this blog have adopted our new Maths resources.  Either our AQA GCSE course or our Functional Maths course.

So firstly, thank you.  It’s a great vote of confidence, and we hope the resources are fulfilling your expectations. 

Secondly, and more importantly, how can we help?   We always intended this blog should support our customers, as well as inform potential customers.  Tell us if you have any questions or requests?

Are your students adapting to the new GCSE maths question styles?

With two more AQA GCSE Maths 2010 Unit papers taken this week, are your students feeling more confident with AO2 and AO3 questions?

If you’re looking for a bit more practice on sequences and proof for Unit 2 Higher, here’s a FREE Topic Test from our AQA GCSE Maths Assessment Pack.

And here are the answers…

How did you find our practice papers?

Back in October we posted a free AQA GCSE Unit 1 Practice paper plus answers.  Last month we posted a Unit 2 paper.  They were written specially to support the new specification.

How did you find these papers?  How have your students been finding the exams, and how have they coped with the new AO3 problem-solving questions?

By the way…

Our Assessment Pack (RRP £149.99) contains two complete sets of Linear and Modular practice papers, as well as a bank of exam-style questions organised by topic.  We’re running a 30% discount for our subscribers for online purchases before 30th April.  If you’re interested, “Leave a comment” on this post and we’ll send you a voucher.