Lucy in Year 10 looks at issues surrounding climate change and the damage our current ways of living are having on the planet. Might geothermal energy offer the UK, and the world, a solution for us to clean up our act?
We are in the midst of a climate crisis; the UK government has recently made a commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 to help stop further damage to the environment. The burning of fossil fuels to generate power is a significant contributor to the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, so the use of renewable energy sources is critically important to meeting this commitment to achieve net zero emissions. There are already many established sources of renewable energy, such as wind, solar and tidal power, but geothermal energy might be an unexpected solution to the UK’s problems.
Geothermal energy: a solution to a cleaner future? Picture from https://www.britannica.com/science/geothermal-energy
Geothermal energy uses the natural heat from within the Earth’s crust to heat water and create steam. This steam then powers a turbine in a similar way to the production of energy using fossil fuels, with the key exception that the heat comes from the earth instead of from the burning of coal, oil or gas. So, like other forms of renewable energy, geothermal energy produces far less CO2 than fossil fuels do.
The key advantage geothermal energy offers over many other forms of renewable energy is consistency. Solar cells and wind turbines rely on climate and weather conditions to operate, which means that the amounts of energy produced varies and can be unreliable. Geothermal energy doesn’t have that problem. No matter what happens, a geothermal plant will always produce the same amount of energy. The problems caused by inconsistent energy provision have already been seen; only weeks after setting a new wind power generation record, a breezeless day in January 2021 resulted in a shift back to fossil fuelled power and a tenfold surge in spot energy prices.[1]
Geothermal energy is currently in the news due to a recent announcement to build the first ever geothermal plant in the UK, in Porthtowan, Cornwall. It will produce enough energy to power 10,000 homes[2] – enough to power almost all of Birmingham. So, why don’t we build them everywhere?[3]
While geothermal energy does have significant benefits, it also comes with its own set of problems. The most prominent of these is the very specific characteristics of the Earth’s crust needed to be able to superheat the steam and power the turbines. As opposed to somewhere like Iceland, on the boundary of a tectonic plate, these locations are few and far between in the UK. Some will unfortunately be located in populous areas, where the negative aesthetics of a power station would outweigh its benefits. Another worrying fact about geothermal plants is that their construction, and the drilling of geothermal wells into the earth’s surface, have been the cause of several earthquakes over the past decade (5.5 magnitude earthquake in Pohang, South Korea in 2017). While this is less of a risk for the UK, being geologically more stable, it still is a factor to be considered. I would hasten to add that this risk is less than that of CO2 from fossil fuels or the toxic clean-up of a nuclear power station!
While geothermal energy plants are undoubtedly an effective and positive use of the Earth’s natural resources to create a sustainable and consistent supply of energy, the problems that their construction and capabilities raise mean that it would be impossible for them to become the sole provider of the UK’s energy. However, it is undeniable that their existence and use could aid the UK greatly in our battle against greenhouse gases and the climate crisis. While geothermal energy cannot solve the climate problem alone, it should definitely be a part of the UK’s, and the world’s, solution to the threat that is the climate crisis.
Autumn Focus: Metacognition – students driving their own learning through reflection
Teaching and learning Gem #27 – start of term reflection on prior learning
This comes from Mary and Yvonne in Chemistry, who used digital RAG forms at the start of this term to help students reflect on their learning. This is such a great method to develop metacognition. Whilst we have done a Friday Gem on RAG forms before, I thought it would be useful to share how colleagues are using them to great effect with the current T&L focus.
In creating the Microsoft Form, Mary and Yvonne used statements from the specification to break down the topic (great for helping students’ mental schema about the topic)
They asked the students to complete the form after a holiday, allowing students to realise what has stuck in the long-term memory, and what has not.
This drew the students’ attention to the nature of memory, and the need for regular, spaced practice.
In rating their knowledge Red, Amber, Green, students were having to recall ideas and concepts and reflect on their own confidence.
As well as being a great metacognitive task for students, it also allowed for Mary and Yvonne to get really quick feedback about the class at a snapshot, but they could also zoom into the detail to see the confidence of individuals.
It has helped them plan for revision/interleaving/revisiting areas.
What did the students think of this?
“The girls said they found it really useful. They particularly liked it at the end of a topic with the spec statements as it really helped breakdown the content of the units and identify what they felt uncertain about when they had time to think about it. They advised me that they want me to do more and definitely at the end of units.”
Ali Fryer-Bovill, Teacher of English at WHS, and her family Bov, Darcey and Freddie invite you to a special, travel-inspired WimTeach this week: around the World in 7 menus. Tuck in…
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
Quite so, Mark Twain. And how difficult it is for many of us now, who hanker very deeply for positive glimpses of unknown places, to breathe in that feeling that you are doing something far away, for the very first time.
In an attempt to alleviate the sadness caused by our cancelled trip to a Sri Lankan wedding last Easter, Darcey and Freddie set about creating an indoor plane in our sitting room. It featured ‘comfy seats’ in rows with bottles of pop and electronic devices strewn. ‘Beep!!’ they would shout, and dutifully their parents would rush down the ‘aisle’ to answer their every need. ‘Please can I have some sweets?’ or ‘Please can you fluff up my cushions and sort out my blankets while I go to the toilet?’ and even, ‘Please can you give me my menu choices?’
Yup. Choices.
All the treats of travel that begin with choices on the plane – before in fact, when choosing what to pack – which dresses or books you can squeeze in without going over your limit, what new things you (don’t) need in your washbag; everything carefully considered and nothing taken for granted.
And this, when we realised how many small things we each missed about our travels, is when our idea of ‘Around the World in 7 menus’ was born.
We took it in turns to choose our countries. Me: ‘Sri Lanka…’ Darcey: ‘Err.. Spain!’ Fred: ‘Italy!!!’ Bov: ‘Hmm. Peru.’ etc. until we had filled up our first week. The children, using little scraps of paper and a giant stapler, created ‘passports’ and honourably filled in pages of flags and facts in endless styles of bubble writing. And I embarked upon menu-collating, from old friends and family, to see what sort of shopping list I needed to create for my now-much-cherished-once-a-week adventure in a car, to the supermarket.
The most interesting thing to me, as the main cook in our house, was that shopping in this way – collecting unusual items and very specific ingredients – did not add complication or brain-ache to my life. Quite the opposite, in fact. The first time we did it, I did not find myself at 6pm on Thursday with that all too familiar…’oh! Let’s have a look at what we’ll have tonight. Err… an aubergine… some old mushrooms… a bit of out-of-date crème fraiche… ahhh! Leeks! AND… oh. A black pudding.’ Yuck, frankly. Every Thursday the same – just different combinations of yuck.
But no more! Thursday evening would be… ‘let me see – ahh! Thailand!’ and the lemon grass, coconut milk and fish sauce would be ready calling, proud to act as the base for something wonderful sent over on a pdf by our local family-run Thai pub.
We have collated several passports of weeks of world tours at different times in various lockdowns, including France, Russia, Tanzania, France, Sweden, France… (what it is about France that makes you keep on needing to return to its food?) I feel we are keeping our curiosity for new places alive through bringing some of them into our home – as, not wanting to labour the point – what choices do we currently have?
I will now share with you 4 items towards a week of ‘Around the World in 7 menus’: 2 vegetarian, 1 seafood, and 1 meat.
1st stop: Hill Country, Sri Lanka
Shani’s dhal:packed with flavour and utterly comforting, this dish was a staple of the Fryer family (4 generations of doctors/ and later tea planters in Madulkele) and something Darcey and Fred will eat for breakfast (if I haven’t got there first). And they claim to have seen me eat it straight out of the pan (blooming fantasists).
Music to accompany: A collection of Sinhala songs and Baila
Red lentils – Masoor dal/daal/dhal
One red onion
Tomato (finely chopped cherry tomatoes add a sweetness)
More cherry toms, another onion, a clove of garlic and a bit of brown sugar, and same spices
METHOD
Step 1
Start by rinsing the lentils, until the water runs clear.
Step 2
In a pot combine the dal, coconut milk, onion, tomato, spice powders, garlic, salt and bring to boil. Cover and cook until all the fluid has evaporated and the dhal is cooked. If it looks dry at any point, add a slosh of water.
Step 3
Add any spare coconut milk, extra water and simmer. You may need to add more salt to bring out the flavours.
Step 4
We add a tempering (or ‘spicy salsa’ as the kids call it) to the dhal to bring more flavour. Heat a small non-stick pan and add oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, dried chili pieces, chopped cherry toms, sliced onion, brown sugar and garlic. Heat until the toms have melted and it all splutters. Add this caramalised tempering to the dhal.
Enjoy with rice, or chapati, or naan, or pitta, and a very cold beer, or lime juice.
I can hear the Ceylon Hanging Parrots as I type.
2nd stop: Trincomalee, Sri Lanka
Keshia’s mum’s Pol Sambol: another absolute favourite food of mine is ‘Pol Sambol’. I would sprinkle it on virtually anything edible but used to particularly love it smothered over scrambled eggs in Sri Lanka, adding a life-changing punch of sweet, sour and spiciness.
But I have never made a good job of creating it. Believe me I have tried! I think the way I have grated the coconut has been wrong. So I have turned to a culinary mentor within our school community – Nalagini Mahen – to aid me in providing this recipe, and I intend to try it myself next week, to accompany our Friday celebratory breakfast at home of scrambled eggs on toast.
From Keshia: ‘’We had it two nights ago with dosa! Keep in mind the recipe is catered towards people with a high spice tolerance so feel free to lower down some measurements to your liking.’’
Grated coconut – 100g (fresh)
Dried red chili – 8 to 10 depending how hot you would like it
Small onion / Shallots – 5 to 7
Curry leaves – 1 stem
Ginger- half an inch
Lime – As you need
Salt – As you need
METHOD
Step 1
In a pan heat half a spoon of ghee or oil and sauté the following ingredients; curry leaves and red chilli but do not deep fry or burn.
Step 2
Take that out and then add shallots and ginger into the pan and toss in the remaining ghee/oil.
Step 3
When this is ready grind sautéed red chilli along with curry leaves and salt in any sort of blender (a food processor is recommended) then empty it.
Step 4
Grab a pestle and mortar. Add shallots and ginger into the mortar and grind until a fine pulp
Step 5
Add in your red chilli mix from the blender. Finally add in your coconut and grind with the pestle and mortar till as fine as you like. Squeeze in a lime or two.
Put in a jar and place in the fridge. Pol Sambol is used like a chutney.
Shani’s Dhal, and Keshia’s mum’s Pol Sambol would go so beautifully together, if anyone is ever stuck for what to give me for my birthday…
3rd stop: Spain
Saffi’s Seafood Paella: definite glass in hand cooking this one (Bov’s late wife’s family initiated him into Spanish cooking.) Luxuriate while you watch it bubble and you can actually hear the Catalan rumba calling.
Music to accompany: Paco Pena
(for a longer playlist)
1L (4 cups) fish stock
1/2 tsp saffron threads
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
300g skinless firm white fish fillets, cut into thumb-lengthish pieces
1 chorizo, thinly sliced diagonally
1 red onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons paprika
1 long fresh red chilli, thinly sliced
1 small red capsicum, thinly sliced
1 small yellow capsicum, thinly sliced
330g (1 1/2 cups) arborio rice – or any risotto rice alternative
125ml (1/2 cup) white wine
8 large prawns, unpeeled
200g squid tubes, thinly sliced into rings (I buy frozen)
80g (1/2 cup) frozen baby peas
One lemon, wedge
Chopped fresh continental parsley, to sprinkle
METHOD
Step 1
Bring stock and saffron to the boil in a saucepan over high heat. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm.
Step 2
Heat the oil in a paella pan or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Season fish. Cook, turning, for 2 minutes or until almost cooked through. Transfer to a bowl and cover.
Step 3
Add chorizo and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until brown. Stir in onion, garlic, paprika, chilli and combined capsicum for 4-5 minutes or until soft. Stir in rice for 1 minute. Stir in wine for 1 minute or until wine evaporates.
Step 4
Add stock mixture to pan, reserving 80ml (1/3 cup). Reduce heat to low. Cook, without stirring, for 15 minutes.
Step 5
Push prawns and squid into rice. Add the reserved stock. Cook for 10 minutes. Add fish. Cook for 5 minutes or until liquid is almost absorbed. Sprinkle with peas. Shove lemon wedges in the surface. Cover with foil. Rest for a few minutes and then devour with something crisp, snappy and refreshing.
4th Stop: India
Nazlee’s Tandoori leg of lamb: Another country we find ourselves returning to on our menu tour, with alarming regularity is, of course, India. Here I am going to share a mouth-watering dish from our very own Nazlee Haq, who teaches Maths at WHS. Like most meat dishes from Asia, prepare the marinade and allow it to infuse the day before cooking – not only does this aid the fragrances to percolate, but also tenderises the meat.
‘I have made this many, many times and it never fails to please! The key is the marinade, leaving the leg in the marinade overnight and cooking the leg on a long, low heat.’ Nazlee Haq
Music to accompany: Carnatic Music, Fusion music
(Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar)
1 leg of lamb, around 2.5kg
For the marinade:
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1tsp black peppercorn seeds
250ml yoghurt
1 whole bulb of garlic, peeled and grated (I buy frozen cubes of garlic from the Asian section in big supermarkets, just as good and time saving. Would use three chunks for this recipe)
8cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated (again, you can buy the frozen version. Would use three chunks for this recipe)
Juice from 1 lemon (or a few tbsps from a bottle)
1tsp red chilli powder
2tsp salt
2tbsp olive oil
Generous handful of fresh, chopped coriander
METHOD
Step 1
The day before serving, score the lamb and trim excess fat but leave some as it will cook and keep the lamb juicy.
Step 2
Take the whole spices (cumin, coriander, peppercorn) and gently toast on a frying pan for no more than a minute – you should smell an aroma! Do not let them burn. In an electric grinder (I have a coffee for this) or a pestle and mortar, grind the whole spices. In a large bowl, mix the remaining ingredients.
Step 3
Put the leg of lamb in the roasting dish/pan and cover with the marinade. Get stuck in and rub the marinade into the grooves. Cover with clingfilm or foil. Leave in the fridge overnight.
Step 4
The next day, pre heat the oven to gas mark 4/180C/350F. Remove the covering from the roasting pan and add 150ml of water. Cover again with foil, making sure you seal the edges. Place the pan in the oven. Cook for 2¼ hours for lamb that is pink in the middle. I personally cook for at least another hour as like mine well done and at this point the lamb will be so tender it will melt off the bone. For the last 20 minutes of cooking I remove the foil and scoop out some of the juices to make a gravy. I place the lamb back in the oven to let it brown, if needed. If not, let it rest, covered whilst you make your gravy.
When ready, the meat should be very tender. We normally have this with rice, seasoned Greek yoghurt flavoured with chopped mint and coriander (raita) and a simple salad.
And to finish…
Thank you so much to Shani, Nalagini, Saffi and Nazlee for joining us in our home and on our travels around the world, by sharing these amazing family secrets with me, and now allowing me to share them with the whole WHS community.
If anybody does make it ‘around the world in 7 menus’, please do share your discoveries with @WimbledonHigh on social media and perhaps we can make our own bespoke WHS passport of culinary temptations. Or, if you try out any of the above, please send me a photograph, as sharing food with friends and family is something we massively miss, just as we miss our adventures overseas.
Isabelle in Year 11 looks at whether we will ever be able to live on the moon, and what this might involve.
Ever since man first stepped onto the moon, the possibility of one day living there has become increasingly prevalent. NASA’s several lunar missions have brought back information that shows the potential of a new home for the human race and, with Earth slowly becoming less inhabitable due to global warming, it is now more essential than ever to find a (potentially radical) solution. In our solar system the other planets have extreme temperatures and pressures that would make it impossible for us to survive and, since technology has not advanced enough to send life beyond the moon, it is unlikely the habitable planets outside of our solar system are within reach in the next 100 years.
Above: Astronaut via Pixabay
Data collected by NASA has shown that the moon’s surface (made up of regolith) has a consistency and cohesiveness of baking flour and although it is similar to sand on the Earth’s surface, it has very different properties. A build-up of electrostatic forces causes the regolith particles to stick to equipment and astronauts’ suits and clouds of dust could become trapped around the wheels of vehicles rendering them immobile. It would definitely be difficult to build infrastructure on this type of surface but a planned Artemis mission in 2024 will send scientists and engineers to the surface to examine the potential.
Water is an essential for humans and although the moon lacks liquid water, molecules can be found trapped in the rocks and minerals or in the form of ice at the poles. This water can be extracted to sustain human life for some time – certainly not the entire of Earth’s population but potentially enough for a moon base. Oxygen for breathing can also be found in the moon’s surface as it makes up 42% of the regolith. This can easily be extracted by robots which NASA have already built prototypes for, and used as fuel for rockets alongside hydrogen. So, the moon already has the raw materials for 2 necessary conditions for humans to live.
Food is a little more complicated. In previous space missions, astronauts have brought light, compact packets of non-perishable food but going back and forth from the moon bringing food every few months would cost a huge amount and a whole civilisation would require a lot more food compared to 3 or 4 astronauts. The moon’s soil contains toxic elements that would kill plants before they would have the chance to grow but experiments have found that if you add human manure, the soil becomes safer to use. This sustainable way of producing food would only need seeds to be brought in the spaceship.
A major difference between the moon and Earth is the strength of gravity. The moon’s gravity is around a 6th of the Earths. This has a negative impact on humans as the weightlessness causes bone density and muscles to deteriorate as they are not being used and heart rate and blood pressure to decrease dramatically. Fitness levels of astronauts have been shown to drop as aerobic capacity reduces by 20-25%. However, there have been no deaths related to lack of gravity over a long period of time and medicine can help our bodies to adapt to the new norm.
Cosmic radiation rarely affects us on Earth due to the ozone layer that protects us from most of the waves however the moon doesn’t have anything like this. Scientists have found that hydrogen can act as a shield and have considered wrapping a form of it around infrastructure. Another option would be to use regolith to create bricks to create housing as this would also protect humans. Much like the Earth, the moon’s poles receive sunlight almost 24/7 and so that would be an excellent option for providing power through solar cells.
Scientists have really thought about just about everything to sustain a base or civilisation of the moon. The problem with this all is the cost. There haven’t been very many missions to the moon due to the expense of building a rocket that contains all the necessary things and the advanced technology such as the rovers that are used to transport astronauts around the surface of the moon. It would currently be impractical as even a handful of people would still require several rockets and as well as robots and technology the idea of sending enough people to even create a base would be impossible for the near future. The dream is not dead yet though. Elon Musk recently became the richest man in the world and he has set his sights on building a small civilisation on the moon among other things through his SpaceX programme and with all the information gathered this could become a reality for the next generations.
Autumn Focus: Metacognition – students driving their own learning through reflection
Teaching and learning Gem #26 – using Teams conversation space for student self-reflection and visible improvement on prior learning
This Friday Gem comes from Andrea Croucher, Claire Baty and Suzy Pett, who all tried out this idea with their classes over the past two weeks.
Students start a ‘New Conversation’ in the general channel, writing down what they already know about a topic/answering a question.
At the end of the lesson – or a later lesson – students review and reflect on what they have written. They hit ‘reply’ and directly below their first comment they write a new comment, either thinking about how their learning has progressed, or improving upon their original answer.
You could use star emojis for students to rate how much their learning/understanding has developed.
This is effective because is because students are thinking explicitly about their learning:
Recalling prior knowledge is an important metacognitive skill.
Students evaluating their original understanding at a later point makes it clear to them what new learning has happened.
Students having a conversation with themselves allows them visibly to see their progress.
Thinking about what they still don’t understand or what they want to follow up allows them to drive their own learning and understand themselves better as learners.
Example from Andrea’s Year 10 RS lesson about Jewish beliefs and the nature of God. Students responded to an initial starter question. Then, next lesson, they reviewed what they had put and added to it with their new learning:
Example from Suzy’s lesson. Year 12 English students wrote down their initial understanding of what modernism means, and then after completing an independent project, reflected on how much their understanding had developed using star emojis. They thought about what they found particularly interesting, and what they would like to pursue further:
Example from Claire’s Year 8 French class. They wrote a sentence about where they live as a starter, and then improved at the end of the lesson:
In WimLearn this week, Imogen in Year 10 looks at the secret to becoming timeless, looking at the story of Helen of Troy through different historical periods.
It is uncertain if Helen of Troy ever lived, and yet nearly 3000 years after she first featured in Homer’s epic, the Iliad, she remains infamous – her story and reputation timeless. Set in the final year of the bitter Trojan war, the Iliad tells a legendary tale and includes characters both mortal and immortal. Although appearing only a handful of times, the portrayal of Helen is a striking one.
“No blame that the Trojans and strong-greaved Achaeans
have suffered so long on account of such a woman;
terribly does she seem like the immortal goddess to look on.”
(3.156-158)
At this point in the poem, Helen herself has not even spoken, but already has been pegged as almost divine in her beauty as well as having the blame for the brutal war placed upon her.
The strange thing is that once this claim was made, Homer neglected to elaborate further. She was supposedly the most beautiful, but no specific features are described, instead leaving it to the imagination. But deliberate or not, employing such a fluid image was a powerful choice, as after all beauty is so subjective. This ambiguity is appealing to the masses, since by allowing the individual to tailor their own perception of her, she can truly become the most beautiful in their eyes.
In a way the Iliad revolves around Helen, but Homer did not require her so much as a character, but more as the ultimate prize – compelling and beautiful, but nonetheless a possession. As a result, her personality is vague, with the little dialogue she has simply presenting her as wracked with regret. One of the first things she says is, “How I wish I’d chosen evil death.” (3.173) Her words are used just to support her reputation, for the more she blames herself for the sufferings of the war, the more the reader dwells on the part she played.
There is something so intriguing about being called the most beautiful woman in the world and yet wishing for death. That, coupled with a lack of detail regarding her personality and background, is what most likely led other writers to continue it, resulting in contradictions and strange embellishments to her tale. For example, in Euripides’ play Helen, she was told to have been born from an egg – peculiar, but it is thought that this was accepted by the Ancient World. And Helen had become so famous that not one, but two different places in Greece, Sparta and Athens, each paraded an eggshell and claimed it was the very eggshell from which she was supposedly born.
Regardless, it seems much of her acclaim stemmed from those in Ancient Greece. Although details like the timeframe, scale and Helen’s involvement in the war are debatable, many historians believe some kind of Trojan war did actually take place. Assuming one did, the aftermath of it would have brought many exaggerations and tales, due to war being a quick path to glory. These would have served to make the war even more renowned, simply adding to her considerable reputation – the greater and more terrible the war was, the more worthy the cause must have been. And had she existed, very few people would have seen her in person, resulting in speculation which was just another factor inflating her stature. For although some would scorn her alleged behaviour, many had genuine faith in her, or at least her beauty. A cult dedicated to her even sprung up across Greece, just like one would have been created for deity.
But how did the myth of Helen survive long after the Ancient Greek’s demise? Her status was not just maintained orally but would have also been displayed in more tangible ways like her appearing in writings, art and architecture, all of which outlived the people. They helped preserve her story, but ultimately it speaks for itself. Even for Greek mythology the tale was unique, and so it was embraced widely by other civilisations. Around 800 years after the Iliad she briefly appears in Roman writer Virgil’s Aeneid. Her story continued to be told even once the gods in it were discarded in favour of other religions like Christianity – somehow in early Middle Ages Helen began to be taken as almost an equivalent temptress to Eve. Skip a few centuries and the Elizabethan playwright Marlowe had coined a catchphrase for her – ‘Was this the face that launched a thousand ships?’ Even today, she continues to be a source of interest, inspiring more literature and films.
Therefore, what is the secret to becoming timeless? With Helen, there does not seem to be a single factor which can be isolated. Perhaps one could argue it was her iconic story, with her being beautiful enough for thousands of men to die over. But this alluring beauty is also reliant on speculation and mystery – all-important as a fixed image of her would never align with every individuals’ opinion. And so this opens up an important question: could there ever be another woman considered to be the most beautiful in the world? Nowadays, technology would undermine any such claim by eliminating this key element of mystery. Yet this is not necessarily a negative thing. Helen may be a timeless figure, but in the end being beautiful and famous brought her a sad life. The first time she speaks she begs for death, and in the Odyssey by the time she is back at Sparta she has resorted to putting herbs in her wine; essentially drugging herself against her grief. She seems broken – would anyone want to be timeless if that is the price?
Alys Lloyd, a Maths Teacher at Wimbledon High School, looks at society’s attitude towards Maths, what makes a good mathematician, and how you can compare the retaining of mathematics knowledge to that of languages.
Teachers do have social lives, although to our students this might be a shocking idea. A teacher being spotted outside of school, in the supermarket for example, can send some students into a flat spin. So the idea of a teacher being at a party might be difficult to imagine, but I can assure you, it does happen!
At parties and in social situations with people who don’t know me, I have found that my job can, unfortunately, put a bit of dampener on things. A typical conversation opener is to ask what someone does for a living. The most common response to my saying that I’m a Maths teacher is “oh, wow” then something along the lines of “I was never any good at Maths in school.” Then the person I was talking to politely excuses themselves. I now tend to dodge that kind of question and stick to safer topics.
Why is it socially acceptable to say you are bad at Maths? I doubt that so many people would be so upfront saying that they can’t read… So why does Maths get such bad press?
My Theory
Mathematics is a very black and white subject, with normally only one right answer, although there may be lots of different ways to get there. Many people have been put off Maths because in the past they have got stuck, had a negative experience and not known how to get to the correct solution.
This may have been because the teaching was poor, or the methods they were taught to use didn’t make sense to them, or they didn’t speak up in class so didn’t get help. I believe that by far the most common reason is that they take getting stuck personally. They believe that they didn’t get the right answer because they themselves are bad at Maths. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is something that just happened in the past; it still happens, and I see it happening with the highly achieving girls at WHS. They are not used to getting things wrong, finding something difficult, having to struggle, and they take it personally – they internalise this as a failure: they are bad at Maths.
Which leads us to the question: what makes someone ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at Maths? Who is someone who is ‘good’ at Maths? A Lecturer or Professor of Mathematics? A Maths teacher? Or someone who simply enjoys doing Maths? Is it about who you are comparing yourself to? As a Maths teacher, my level of mathematics is low compared to a Mathematics Professor. Being good at mental arithmetic is not the same as being good at Maths; possibly conversely in fact – professional Mathematicians are notoriously bad at mental arithmetic, as are some Maths teachers!
So, for people who say: “I’m bad at Maths”, they may think that those people who are ‘good’ at Maths never get stuck; never struggle to get to the answer. But I can assure you, that is not the case. I am a Maths teacher and I get stuck on Maths problems. I definitely don’t always immediately know how to get to the answer.
I believe the difference in how you feel about Maths is about what you do when you get stuck, because we ALL get stuck. Being stuck isn’t bad – it’s part of the process. It is a way of forming new connections in the brain; it’s a part of learning.
When I get stuck on a problem I don’t take it personally; I don’t take it as a reflection of my mathematical ability; I think of it as a challenge, a conundrum to be figured out, a puzzle to be solved. If I can’t find a solution quickly, I stop and try to think about it differently. Could it be thought about in another way? Can I visualise it by drawing a sketch or diagram? Is there an alternative approach or method I haven’t tried? Have I used all the information I have available? These are very important problem-solving skills and have lots of relevance to everyday life.
Above: Thinking, via Pexels
Use it or lose it
Mathematics in many ways can be considered its own language. When learning languages, you start with basics: hello, please, thank you, and a few important sentences (dos cervezas, por favor); and build up to be able to communicate fluidly. If you have ever tried to learn a language seriously, you will know that it is not a smooth process. You go through phases of thinking you’re doing great, then you feel like you plateau – you realise that there is a whole verb tense you had no idea existed, that you now need to learn.
Maths is similar. You need to know the basics: numbers, patterns, arithmetic, and a few important ideas like algebra; and you build up to some quite complicated Maths like calculus, proof, complex numbers. With Maths numbers and algebra are the words, and rules like BIDMAS are the grammar. They are a means to the same end as languages – to communicate effectively.
One aspect of learning a language (or learning a musical instrument) is that if you don’t practise it regularly, you start to lose the gains you had made; it becomes more difficult, and eventually you forget. I firmly believe – that like a language – if you don’t use Maths, if you don’t practise it regularly, you start to lose it.
For me, this explains why parents can struggle to remember how to do school-level Maths with their children, even if they found it easy when they were young – they haven’t practised it in years. It can seem like an alien language – it’s hard to pick something up again when you have had such a long gap.
Yet even if you, yourself, haven’t used Maths in years, you are constantly using things that have been programmed by someone using Mathematics. Maths underpins everything ‘modern’ around us: the computer at which I am typing this article, the smartphone in your pocket; it keeps planes in the air and stops them crashing into each other; it’s in our buildings, in our clothes; Maths is fundamental to our modern style of living.
We want to encourage our children to feel it is socially unacceptable to be bad at Maths. We want them to be the ones solving the problems of the future, and part of this will certainly require mathematics.
So, what’s the take-home message? I’d like to think it’s this: in Maths, as in life, we all get stuck, but the people who succeed are the ones who don’t give up. And if you are lucky enough to meet a Maths teacher at a party, please be nice!
Autumn Focus: Metacognition – students driving their own learning through reflection
Teaching and learning Gem #25 – harnessing the self-reflection of Motivational Maps and R&R
This Friday Gem comes from Clare Duncan
One clear example of student self-reflection is their termly Review and Reflection session, and none more so than this year with our holistic approach. Using the Motivational Maps tool, students completed a series of questions which generated a report detailing their top motivators. They reflected on what these motivators meant to them and how they could harness them to develop strategies for success in every aspect of school life: academics, co-curricular and friendships. These thoughts were captured during R&R and their report has been transferred to their profile page on Firefly.
So how can we use these in our T&L to encourage students to take control of their learning and reflect on their progress?
Well, each student reflection was captured in a report on Firefly. If there is a student in your class who you feel is not connecting with your subject, why not look at their self-reflection and discuss with them their motivators: together, plan how the student can use those motivators to drive their progress in your subject.
By way of an example:
Take Ceri, her top motivator is a Director: she has a need for power and influence. Here is her reflection:
I am struggling with finding my feet in class and in the Sixth Form. This is particularly true in Politics and English as I feel that the more confident girls always speak over me and when I do say something; they challenge what I’ve said and I am unable to speak up or share my opinions.
Through Ceri articulating this, you and she can discuss and plan an approach to her having a voice. For example, giving her a lead role in an initiative, you will be addressing her motivational need. This is a great way of using a student’s self-refection to help them to flourish in your subject.
Emily Anderson, Head of History, reflects on how the pandemic has thrown the department’s thinking about place into relief, and how this is manifest in the History classroom and in inter-disciplinary thinking.
Let’s observe, Attenborough style, the historian at work. What comes to mind as you peer tentatively into your imagination, careful not to disturb? I would be certain that, to some extent, you would gravitate towards a library, or an archive, and rightly so. For this is where the historian finds their treasure, following lead upon lead to synthesise their research into new understanding, often of people and events far removed from our own experience. Whilst the primary location for our WHS historians is the classroom rather than the archive or library (with a healthy engagement with the latter, of course), the principle remains; understanding emerges through study of the sources.
And yet, how much poorer our understanding would be if we stayed in the archive. Venture outside, and our surroundings become another historical source, there to challenge and broaden our thinking. The potential of this has long inspired me: my Master’s dissertation in 2014 considered how far the political context of the debates over Home Rule in Ireland influenced the construction of Belfast City Hall, building on both an element of my undergraduate study but also my teaching at A Level at the time. Recently, I have felt the draw towards such lines of enquiry particularly keenly, as our world has shrunk due to the pandemic and the opportunities normally available to me and my department to explore the world for ourselves and, crucially, share this with our students on trips (always a wonderful experience) have not been available. Talking with family, friends and colleagues, I know that we are not alone in this.
Within the curriculum
We can, however, still incorporate the study of places into our curriculum. At A Level, we teach a study of the British Empire from c1857-1967. It is, of course, a very wide-ranging unit in terms of geographical reach and this is one of the things which drew us to it; the opportunity, not widely available at A Level, to study global history. The uniting focus of the course is Britain, but to only study the impact and debate from this perspective would be a severe dereliction of our duty as historians. The impact of the European empires on the physical landscape of periphery and metropole alike is striking – the more you look, the more you see and traditional narratives are disrupted. In our city, Notting Hill, now a by-word for the celebration of multi-culturalism, has become so because of migration from what was the Empire. To wander the streets and museums of South Kensington is to experience, to my mind, a showcase of the imperial project. Reading the testimonies of those involved in the Morant Bay uprising in Jamaica, and coupling these with the incredible sense of place evoked by David Olusoga in his documentary work, means that even sites of memory far away and currently inaccessible to us can be explored in the classroom.[1]
At GCSE, our course looks at Berlin during the Cold War. I find the city both wonderfully vibrant and hauntingly evocative, and love taking our students there to experience it for themselves. It is the unexpected, small-scale artefacts that intrigue the most – the oversize floodlight which lit up the approach to the Berlin Wall, still on the front of an apartment block though the Wall is long gone; the first memorial to the Holocaust, barely registered by those who pass it in the suburb of Schöneberg; the American-style cinema built for the occupying troops but more at home in the Midwest. The questions students ask both on such trips and back in the classroom show how such experiences enable them to see the history they study in new ways. Excitingly, our new GCSE, which the current Y9s will study from September, gives us the opportunity to conduct a study of Spitalfields, an area shaped and enriched by the diverse communities which have settled there. Classroom and in-situ enquiry will work together to bring our understanding to life.
At Key Stage Three, we are embarking on a total overhaul of our curriculum. This gives us the exciting opportunity to reconsider how we incorporate our surroundings into historical study, and how we can use trips to their best advantage to complement it. Inspiration has abounded – one of the upsides of the past year has been the extraordinary availability of online seminars and training. We have been trialling some new enquiries with Year 9, including ‘What secrets of the past are hidden within the walls of a house?’, which uses the BBC programme and book ‘A House Through Time’ as a starting point for a study of social change in Liverpool in the 19th and 20th centuries.[2] Again, we have found ourselves drawing on a place – here a home – to focus and enrich our historical thinking.[3]
Inter-disciplinary opportunities
An interest in place, in all its complexities, is something we share with our colleagues and friends in Geography. You will have seen Dr Stephanie Harel’s article in October on this blog and this sparked thinking about how we could collaborate to share expertise and experience and develop understanding.[4] The Y12 History and Geography students participated in an initial exploration of themes around place during the STEAM+ event in November, and led the first joint session of Geog On, History Girls and Politics Society, sharing what they’d discussed. We are continuing our joint meetings this term.
I hope that this has given you some insight into an aspect of our current thinking as a department. We would love the wider community to be part of the conversation about our curriculum. Please do get in touch if you would like to via email or Twitter.
Further reading/ideas – along with the material referenced in the post
This week’s WimLearn post is an extract from Hannah B’s EPQ about Belgium’s political system.
According to the Belgian constitution, citizens of this European country have the right to freedom of language, since its independence on 4th October 1830, and can, therefore, choose which language to conduct their daily lives in. Article 30 states that ‘only the law can rule on matters involving language, and only for acts of the public authorities, and in legal matters’ (Vermeire Elke, Documentation Centre on the Vlaamse Rand, 2010). The freedom of language for citizens also complicates political matters, in which national polling occurs because votes from both language-speaking sides must be collated and moderated for a fair system.
Additionally, article 4 states that “Belgium has four linguistic areas: The French-speaking area, the Dutch-speaking area, the bilingual area of Brussels Capital and the German-speaking area.” Around 55% of the Belgian population belong to the Flemish community, whilst 40% belong to the Walloon community, and just 1% to the German Community. However, 16% have Dutch as their second language, whilst 49% have French as their second language. Overall, this means that for the national government, ratios must be put in place to ensure that one linguistic group does not outweigh the other on the basis of their population.
Above: Image from https://brussels-express.eu/wacky-world-belgian-politics/
Over the past 20 years, Belgium has not seen much political stability, largely due to their language divide. Belgium has a multi-party system, which means that political parties are often required to form coalition governments with each other. An issue that immediately arises when a coalition government must form is the parties’ cooperation.
In Belgium, this is made difficult by the languages that the two sides speak. Before political decisions are even made, the efficiency of the decision, that is who should form a coalition, is hindered. Whilst the regions are able to communicate with each other, both sides have preconceptions, and therefore hesitations to working together. These doubts are supported by the fact that, previously, Belgium has been without a government for 541 days, due to disagreements. The affect the language divide has on cooperation is seen here.
The fact that instant interpretation is often required would imply that the reason for Belgium’s political instability is due to their language divide, however this is not the case. There are 43 administrative arrondissements, which are an administrative level between the municipalities and the provinces. Each party must form a list of candidates for each of these arrondissements.
Arrondissements are split so that Flemish-speaking and French-speaking citizens will not fall under the same one. Many rules surrounding the use of language are put in place to minimise disagreement, and regional superiority. During political campaigns, there are restrictions on the use of billboards, and they only last for around one month. In national politics, politicians can choose to speak any of the three official languages, and the parliament will provide simultaneous interpretation. In this case, it would suggest that language is not the issue, but, instead, conflict of interest. All other official correspondence, such as tax returns, or passport requests, must be conducted in the official language of the region. At the age of 18, all citizens are automatically placed on the electoral roll, and are subject to compulsory voting.
