Congratulations to all our students in the Year 13 maths class who gained higher grades in their Maths GCSE examination. You can be very proud of your exam success.

These results show what students can achieve academically in a very short span of time when they are taught properly. Our maths specialists use teaching methods developed over many years by the Freudenthal Institute in the Netherlands (RME project), Wisconsin University in America (MiC project), and more recently by MEI in England.

Our study units are taught in a way that emphasises mathematical modelling. Typically, topics are introduced using three very different real life contexts that excite and engage students and at the same time carry the essential underlying maths. Students are encouraged to explore how the contexts relate to each other and explain what is different and what is the same between contexts. Over time students develop a single mathematical model that represents all three contexts. The teacher’s role in all this is to guide and support students as they gradually make sense of the maths.

Consistently working at this depth leads to a clearer and more permanent understanding. This becomes a very powerful way of working for the children and a useful habit later on. When children taught this way meet a new topic they naturally explore and look for connections to their existing knowledge. Whether it is simple fractions, similar shapes or advanced trigonometry they all boil down to the same thing, ratio and proportion.

After a topic has been modelled there is still a good amount of practice questions and exercises to complete. This is necessary for consolidation purposes. Interestingly, the modelling teaching method is the exact opposite of the more traditional maths classroom where a topic is first introduced as a formal procedure which is drilled and practised. Only later is the formal procedure applied to real life contexts.

This traditional passive style of learning can be very frustrating for teacher and pupil alike. Passive learners normally mimic teachers rather than actively make sense of the maths for themselves. Passive learning will become evident if your child struggles to choose the correct methods and procedures in real life applications or problem solving style questions. There will also be an alarming lack of retention, sometimes as little as two weeks after being taught a topic.

Whether primary, secondary or college students, everyone attending maths classes at the Teacher Cooperative Tutor Centre  are taught in the same manner by maths specialists. Our aim is to produce secure happy mathematicians who refine and develop their own beliefs by actively making sense of the maths around them and this will inevitably lead to exam success.