Joshua Gaff

Head of Maths with an interest in the challenge of maths anxiety. American Footballer, two time national champion, Patriots fan and Arsenal fan.

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@ICT_MrP Have said for years that SATs should be taken in September of year 7.
1) takes pressure off primary school
2) students won’t be pressured by secondary staff to revise loads/cram
3) no more barely doing maths etc for end of summer term of y6
4) gives a true baseline for secondary

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

Makes me cringe thinking how much of the lesson feedback I received early in my career (from non maths teachers mainly) was to let the children discover the method rather than just telling them.

“You can’t tell them too much! It makes it too easy!” 🙃

[Carl Hendrick @C_Hendrick]

Does teacher centred teaching reduce inequality?
Yes according to this study. Explicit instruction is associated with higher mathematics attainment for low SES pupils, while student centred instruction shows no such equity effect.
Takeaways: if the goal is to reduce inequality in mathematics outcomes, structured, explicit, teacher led approaches may provide a stronger academic return for pupils from less advantaged backgrounds.
Both approaches were equally distributed across SES groups. The difference lay in outcomes.
Student centred teaching is not automatically more equitable. In some contexts, it may simply advantage those who already possess background knowledge.
https://t.co/5ea8PWFkuI

[New England Patriots @Patriots]

These are FIREEEE 🔥

Repost to win yourself a Patriots Rivalries helmet: https://t.co/UcDlYjQka0

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@ByAlFrancisco @daniel_rotman15 That sounds like a phenomenal cause @daniel_rotman15

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@Rod__Mason @Huggermuggered @LewisMoody7 Same logic applies, it could just be a correlation because of the genetics that make them good for a career in contact sports makes MND more likely

There’s no evidence it’s anything about the sport currently

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@Rod__Mason @Huggermuggered @LewisMoody7 Could simply be that the gene that causes MND occurs slightly more often alongside genes that are beneficial for a career in sport

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@Patriots @MarcusJonesocho @DKSportsbook 🔥🔥

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@_AndrewCallahan This graphic is somewhat pointless without considering what personnel they are in too. If pats are facing 7 in the box in 10 personnel then sure it’s teams signalling they are disregarding their pass game. If it’s 7 in the box vs 22 personnel it’s them disregarding the run…

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@oldandrewuk @kerryleelondon Have worked in multiple secondary schools and I’m fairly certain every single one did lockdown practice for staff and students for the last 10 years at least

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@1stclassmaths @AQAMaths They are on the centre services section https://t.co/T2lKz5lSoQ

It seems all about maths has been completely abandoned after they changed it to make it much worse to use. A sad thing all around really.

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@DennyTWright @Little_Less_Ego @MsHWard1 @Miss_Snuffy No, never that drastic as estimates are quite good now but have seen movement in the second decimal place which when schools hover around 0 can be the difference between +/-. Was a few years ago though

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@Little_Less_Ego @MsHWard1 @DennyTWright @Miss_Snuffy Also the first time schools get told about these definite targets were last week, 6 months after exams started. We have found ways to estimate it but until this week nobody “knows” what a student needs for positive progress.

It’s a strange way of doing things

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@Little_Less_Ego @MsHWard1 @DennyTWright @Miss_Snuffy It’s the biggest downside of this system. No school can have positive progress without another school having negative progress. Equally no student can achieve a grade without another student not achieving it. We designed our education system to ensure a certain amount fail…

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@patscap Does the waiver wire order change if someone makes a claim?

Say we claimed an OT do we then drop to 32 for our next claim?

Or is every claim processed simultaneously and we always have 3rd priority?

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

Depressing how few realise that the percentages for each grade are largely decided before students sit the exam and the grade boundaries are tailored to make the percentages work.

We predetermine ~30% will fail maths and then wonder why there’s a negative connotation to it 🙃

[Barry Smith @BarryNSmith79]

45% of kids get 5 plus in maths & English. That’s the CORE business of schools. 45%. Schools unable to get decent grades for kids in M&E after 11 years. And we think schools can fix society’s ills? 90% of schools already GOOD, apparently. What more can schools do?

[New England Patriots @Patriots]

The greatest of all giveaways 🔥

RT to win a signed @TomBrady jersey.

Sweepstakes rules: https://t.co/AprEWKAQDl

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@LearningMaths Reminds me of this article I read while at Lboro Uni -

https://t.co/GbMOKgvtxj

One of the better modules I did at Uni tbh!

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@patscap Thanks as always Miguel!

[Joshua Gaff @JoshGaff]

@patscap Was this LTBE or NLTBE?