The Teaching and Learning Challenge this term coincided with Maths week, so naturally we aimed to include something mathematical across the curriculum. The challenge was to use percentages in your lesson – no matter what the subject. This is what some of our staff got up to:

Percentages in PE

“Students were asked to peer assess each others’ gymnastics performances and I had written a list of criteria on the board that had to be included. Students were then given a target board with 50%, 75% and 100% written on them in different sections of the target board. After watching each others’ performances, students had to indicate how much of the criteria was included in the performance. Students said they found this an easy way to feedback to each other and make a quick decision over something that they would normally take longer over. It also encouraged quick and easy self reflection.” Elena Dundjerovic (PE, Business and Economics).

Percentages in Languages

“I used percentages to jazz up a year 9 topic – talking about how much money they save and what they are saving up for. I wanted the pupils to engage with the vocabulary in a different way, and also hoped to increase their engagement. The previous lesson they had done some speaking practice and carried out a survey. The following lesson we looked at analysing statistics using percentages, based on a comprehension starter that I made. I think they found it challenging, especially as they weren’t expecting to be working out percentages in a German lesson. But by the end of the lesson they were fully on board and proud of the work they had done. It’s definitely something that I will try again, but next time I will think a little more about differentation from a Maths perspective, as I was surprised at how some of them struggled with the percentages.  It was, however, nice to see different pupils flourishing in the lesson because they could show off their Maths ability a little more, whereas they normally struggle with German.” Beth Ashton (MFL).

Percentages in English

“I got students to use percentages to work out how much of the Language GCSE each exam question was worth. The exam (total) is 60% which is a bit scary, so we broke it down to more manageable amounts.  It helped to show them where they needed particular focus as some questions had greater weighting towards the final outcome.” Frances Jackson (English).

“I simply asked students to convert their latest controlled assessment score out of 30 into a percentage. Two diligent girls found this straightforward as they scored 100%” Michael Tatham (English).

Percentages in Psychology

“We are doing the topic of statistical analysis in Psychology A2 at the moment and were discussing the common level of significance we use in psychological research, which is p˂0.05. The point the students needed to understand was that this means we can only ever be 95% confident that our results are not due to chance and there is always a 5% margin of error. This means that there is a 1 in 20 chance that our results are not actually statistically significant even if our statistical test says they are. This is all in the context of knowing which statistical test is appropriate for the kind of data and research being undertaken, which appears on our final A2 paper.” Carly Thomas (Psychology).