Happy Hedgehog Learning

Yesterday, was GCSE results day. 🎉

I love hearing from ex pupils’ about their results and hearing their exciting plans and next steps.

It’s a time of year that always gets me thinking about the journey to sitting the exams.

We often talk about the two years of GCSE study but that’s not really the whole picture. There’s no denying that pupils work really hard in those last two years leading up to the exam, but the reality is that preparation for GCSEs starts much earlier.

As early as Foundation Stage pupils begin to form an understanding of key concepts through physical exploration. The curriculum is designed to build on those foundations year on year creating a bank of knowledge and skills in which to transition with confidence to secondary school to school.

Children often come to me with gaps in their knowledge that have widened over the years. Those gaps have often held back their progress, confidence and enjoyment of Maths too.

My recommendation is not to spend every waking moment on Maths, as children need time to play and explore freely. Nevertheless, short regular habits of Maths practice do reduce the risk of gaps forming, building strong foundations for high school, GCSEs and life beyond the classroom.

After many years working with pupils, I have developed something exciting specifically for Year 6 pupils, launching in September. It’s designed to tackle those gaps, supporting progress and confidence in Maths as children transition to secondary.

I will be back to tell you more about it very soon. In the meantime, if you’d like to find out more about what’s ahead for your child in Year 6, take a look at my recent Blog Post. There’s a link in my bio to my website.

Parents often ask me, “What is the column method of multiplication.”

It’s probably one of the most traditional multiplication methods taught in school over many years but it can be confusing at first and many parents tell me they don’t ever remember being told why it works.

It’s important to take it slow and one step at a time.

It’s learnt best using squared paper so that children can write and work with the numbers in place value columns.

I always recommend pupils only write one digit in every box and use H for hundreds, T for tens and O for ones at first, for the most success.

Step One:
We start by multiplying the number in the ones column by the multiplier.

4 x 5 =20

We then jot the ones part of the answer on our answer line and jot the tens part of our answer in the tens column, ready to use in the next step.

Step two:
Multiply the number of tens by the multiplier and add on any tens that were jotted down from the previous calculation.

3 (lots of Ten) x 5 = 15 (lots of Ten) + 2 (lots of Ten) jotted from step one. Our total is now 17 (lots of ten).

The 7 (lots ten) is jotted on the answer line and the 10 (lots of ten) is actually 1 hundred, so we jot this in the H column.

Step 3:
The last step is to multiply the lots of a hundred by the multiplier and add on any jottings from our previous calculation.

E.g. 1 (lot of a hundred) x 5 = 5 (lots of a hundred) plus the 1 (lot of a hundred) jotted in the previous step. Our total for this step is 6 (lots of a hundred) to note on our answer line.

Our calculation is now complete:
134 x 5=670

There’s lots of steps to this method and it takes time to understand how it works and become confident with it.

Please feel free to watch the video again to hear how I relate each step to place value. This helps children understand why the method works not just a memory of steps that can easily be forgotten.

Please follow me for more short maths demos.

When I’m not tutoring, I’m usually working on the business in other ways.

Today’s job was reviewing and updating all of the policies to make sure I’m still compliant with GDPR, safeguarding and so forth.

I always like to start the new term with everything reviewed and ready for the new term.

Whilst the summer is normally much quieter it’s been really busy this year. We have a number of pupils sitting the 11+ in September and lots of pupils who’ve worked really hard all year and don’t want to slip over the long summer break.

It’s been lovely to see pupils and hear all about what they’re up to in the holidays as well as helping them to continue building on their great progress.

I hope everyone is still enjoying this glorious sunshine 🌞 that is so unusual for the school holidays 🤣.

July has been so busy.

Here’s a little snapshot of what I’ve been up to in July at Happy Hedgehog Learning:

📌 The Tutors’ Awards in London
📌 The Tutors Who Thrive Conference in Blackpool
📌 My husband’s 50th birthday
📌 Tuition lessons continue
📌 Creating new Maths resources
📌 Classroom photoshoot with pupils

It’s been a really busy month and I’m looking forward to a couple of days off next week as there are lots more exciting things in the pipeline for August and September.

I need a couple of child models for a photo shoot next Friday morning (31st August at 10am) for around 30-40 mins.

Payment will be in a £25 gift voucher per child for Smyths Toy Shop.

Ideally, I need a boy and a girl aged between 7-11.

The shots will be in my classroom and focus on a learning together theme. The photographer will be aiming to take angles that don’t directly identify the child.

The photos will be used in a local magazine feature, on my website and used in social media promotion of my business.

If your child would like to help, please get in touch: ⁨07806 615997⁩

It’s Saturday morning and I need to get my classroom ready for the 11 Plus Mock Experience.

Following a number of parent requests, I’m offering pupils the opportunity to sit the practice papers back to back, under timed conditions, to help them experience the flow of exam day

Pupils sit the 45 minute English paper first followed by a short break, juice and a biscuit.

Pupils then sit the 50 minute Maths paper with another quick break before sitting the Verbal Reasoning paper.

Pupils have so far reported that they’ve found the experience really useful as they were nervous about sitting three tests, back to back.

Following the day, parents receive a brief report with scores, an analysis and areas of focus going forward.

Pupils will receive their papers back in their upcoming tuition sessions as we work and learn from corrections together.

I’m looking forward to offering more of these Mock Experience sessions in the near future.