On Wed, 18 May 2011 11:40:22 +0100 Mark wrote :
She's a bright lass though, sitting her GCSE Maths this year at the
end of Year 9. I have a sneaky feeling she has yet to come across
anything that has really been "difficult".

Y9! Yikes, that's early. Our school lets the brightest students do
GCSE Maths at the beginning of Y11. My eldest has also yet to come
across anything really difficult.

BTW There's a news article recently about how schools are putting
students in for Maths too early you may be interested in:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-13351933

Not quite sure how Y9 translates, but in my 1960s grammar school the
top stream (overall, no streaming by subjects) took O-level Maths at
the Jan sitting of the fourth year (i.e. after 3 years and one term at
GS) and then Additional Maths in June (which would normally mean an
extra year's teaching).

I still remember that out of 32 pupils in my cohort the Maths grades
(in an era when pass grades were A-E) were 24 A, 4 B and 4 C. Mr
Steffens was one of those really gifted teachers who knew how to
combine discipline and kindness to bring out what his not always
enthusiastic boys could achieve; he started as a pupil at the school,
went to uni, came back as a teacher c.1927 and stayed there until he
retired. I might not have appreciated him at the time, but I owe him a
great debt.

--
Tony Bryer, Greentram: 'Software to build on', Melbourne, Australia
www.superbeam.co.uk www.eurobeam.co.uk www.greentram.com