Latest news with #maths
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Zoe Ball set for new TV role just weeks after returning to BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 presenter Zoe Ball is set to make a return to TV alongside her dad Johnny Ball and son Woody Cook. Ball returned to BBC Radio 2 in May after stepping down from her breakfast show in December 2024. She also hosted TV special VE Day 80: A Celebration to Remember on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on May 8. Scott Mills (left) replaced Zoe Ball (right) on BBC Radio 2's breakfast show. (Image: James Manning/PA Wire) Now it appears Ball has landed another TV role. The 54-year-old could be set to star on a new factual series about maths, created by her father Johnny Ball, according The Sun. The new show would tell the story behind 'the history of maths' and is based on the first six chapters of his book - Wonders Beyond Numbers. Zoe and Johnny Ball would team up to host the show along with Zoe's son Woody Cook. Johnny Ball, speaking to The Sun, said: 'The material can be honed down to the essentials, so that anyone could present it in a light and transparent way. 'This is why I believe myself, Zoe and my grandson Woody could add all what each age group requires to make it a fascinating and revealing series.' A channel for this untitled show is yet to be decided, with Johnny hoping to convince TV bosses to commission the series, admitting having Zoe on board is a 'big pull'. Zoe and son Woody have appeared on Celebrity Gogglebox before, but this would be the first time three generations of Ball have appeared on air together. Zoe Ball announced she was quitting her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show role in December last year, and was eventually replaced early in 2025 by Scott Mills. She had been in the role for six years, but said it was time to step away so she could "focus on family". Ball, at the time, added: "It's been a privilege. I think the world of you listeners and I'm grateful to my bosses here for their support, especially this year." It came after a tough 2024 for the radio presenter who was forced to take time away from BBC Radio 2 after her mother, Julia, was "heartbreakingly" diagnosed with cancer before succumbing to the disease in April. RECOMMENDED READING: Zoe Ball returns to BBC Radio 2 after quitting the Breakfast Show 4 months ago Zoe Ball is in 'a good place' after quitting BBC Radio 2 breakfast show Zoe Ball to star in popular BBC TV series following Radio 2 return, reports say However, Ball returned to Radio 2 on May 3 with a brand new show. She now goes to air once a week from 1pm to 3pm on Saturdays, having replaced Mark Goodier's Pick Of The Pops, which has moved to Sundays. You can listen to Zoe Ball every Saturday from 1pm to 3pm on BBC Radio 2.
Daily Mail
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Zoe Ball is set to 'share a rare insight into her life in surprise new TV gig featuring three generations of her family'
Zoe Ball has reportedly been eyeing up a return to TV and the surprise gig could be a family affair. The Radio 2 DJ's famous presenter father Johnny Ball, 87, is said to have created a new educational series - and he wants his daughter to front it. Johnny is known for popularising mathematics and The Sun has reported his new show will focus on the history of the subject. The show will feature Johnny, 87, his daughter Zoe, 54, and his DJ grandson Woody Cook, 24, and to complement the family hosting it will look at the history of maths across three generations. Johnny is said to be so invested in the series, he rejected the opportunity for him, Zoe and Woody to compete as a trio on Celebrity Race Across The World. It will be the second time Zoe appears on screen with her son Woody, who she shares with her ex-husband Fat Boy Slim, after they did Gogglebox together. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Her father's maths show is reportedly based on the first six chapters of his book, Wonders Beyond Numbers. Speaking to The Sun, he said: 'The material can be honed down to the essentials, so that anyone could present it in a light and transparent way. 'This is why I believe myself, Zoe and my grandson Woody could add all what each age group requires to make it a fascinating and revealing series.' It comes after last week Zoe revealed she was suffering from a new health condition, shortly after after making her Radio 2 comeback. She gave her listeners an update on her wellbeing as she spoke on her show and revealed she has been diagnosed with bursitis. Bursitis is when the fluid-filled sacs (bursa) that cushion the joints have become painful and swollen. It comes after last year she revealed she had been battling another painful health condition - TMJ (temporomandibular joint) - after announcing her departure from her Breakfast Show host role. At the time she said she was quitting her breakfast show to 'focus on family' and then also had to face the health condition which causes bad headaches. Speaking about her bursitis this weekend on her show she said: 'Yes, it's come to that. Fifty-four and I got bursitis.' Despite the pain she has still been training with her personal coach, Seth, in a bid to improve her strength. 'Thank you to Seth,' she said on the show. 'I found out I've got a… what is it? A rating of… was it a four or five on the fitness level? 'I was quite impressed with myself - out of, I think it's nine or ten. You've gotta start somewhere, haven't you?'. Zoe returned to her new Saturday afternoon show on BBC Radio 2 in early May after previously taking a step back to focus on time with her family. The star stepped down from her breakfast show in December to 'focus on her family,' bidding farewell to her £950,000 salary. Reconnecting with her listeners she announced: 'Hello it's me, oh it's lovely to be back on a Saturday. 'This is where it all began for me back when I used to sweep up and make the teas.' Happy to see the star's return, a viewer wrote: 'Great to have you back, Saturday afternoon is much better than having to wake up early.' She proceeded to read out some other well wishes she then added: 'It is lovely to be here thanks for all your messages'. After six years at the helm, Zoe handed her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show over to Scott Mills after stepping down to 'focus on family' just months after her mother Julia's death in April. Then in February, Radio 2 officially announced programme changes, including a new weekly show with Zoe (1-3pm on Saturdays). She will also be hosting two specials, including a BBC TV show celebrating Elaine Paige's 60-year career in showbusiness. Helen Thomas, Head of Radio 2, said at the time: 'Zoe is one of the UK's most loved presenters, so I'm thrilled to announce that she has a new home on Radio 2 on Saturday lunchtimes.
ABC News
12-06-2025
- General
- ABC News
A systematic maths approach could unlock stronger results across primary schools
When Nathan Forbes took on the role of principal at Budgewoi Public School in 2020, he recognised an opportunity to enhance the school's maths program. The school had room for improvement in maths results, with Nathan observing a diverse range of teaching approaches among staff, including discovery and games-based teaching strategies. Fast-forward five short years and a lot has changed. Teachers take a systematic approach to teaching maths, following a common lesson sequence from Foundation to Year 6 and explicitly teaching new content to students. Now, there's no guess work about what maths topics to teach or how, and lessons are fast-paced as kids have no time to waste. It's paying off. While there's still plenty left to work on, students and teachers have made great strides. Budgewoi's 2024 NAPLAN numeracy results improved from 2023, with Year 3 students performing well above students in similar schools. The question is: what's holding other schools back from doing the same thing? Budgewoi's journey shows us how challenging it is to lead school improvement, and why state governments need to invest in the kind of shoulder-to-shoulder support principals need. The challenge of school improvement Budgewoi serves a community with many families experiencing socio-economic disadvantage, including many Indigenous households. When Nathan arrived in 2020, he found a school deeply committed to student wellbeing but lacking focus on learning outcomes. 'I gained the sense that student learning outcomes were not the focus,' Nathan told us when we visited the school as part of the research for our report, How to implement great maths teaching in primary schools: a guide for principals. 'I developed the view that if we raised expectations of ourselves and our students, we were capable of much better results,' Nathan said. The transition wasn't easy. Some teachers initially resisted the shift to a systematic maths approach, where content was sequenced lesson by lesson and new content was taught explicitly — that is, in small chunks, with teachers providing whole-class explanations, lots of opportunities for practice and immediate feedback, before students work independently. Some teachers regarded it as 'really regimented, like the army'. Nathan said he had to build understanding about the cognitive science behind the approach, so staff understood that 'we're not doing it because other schools do. We're doing it because it's based on science and helps students to learn. Once teachers have the why, you can get into the what and how.' A turning point came when Nathan recruited two experienced maths leaders with expertise in explicit instruction — a decision he described as the best he ever made. These specialists helped refocus the school's approach, introducing structured training sessions and establishing observation and coaching cycles. They also implemented a new assessment schedule in maths, with quarterly 'data weeks' where staff analysed students' results to understand the impact of their teaching methods. Leaning on other schools for help Amy Haywood is the deputy program director of the education program at the Grattan Institute and co-author of the The Maths Guarantee report. ( Supplied: Amy Haywood ) Budgewoi didn't do this work alone. Its instructional vision was inspired by visits to three nearby Hunter Region public schools — Blue Haven, Charlestown South and The Entrance (which was just one year ahead in its implementation journey) — where systematic maths teaching had proven effective. These schools teamed up, developing a common set of sequenced and detailed lessons plans, which Budgewoi has now adopted. Nathan said the materials supported high-quality teaching while alleviating much of teachers' workload burden. The results speak volumes: accelerated learning, improved NAPLAN results and teachers developing significant maths curriculum expertise. Perhaps most importantly, the principal notes, 'Budgewoi's experience shows that good-quality teaching looks the same in the most disadvantaged and most advantaged schools, and all kids can learn maths if we teach the right way.' The case for Maths Hubs What if we could systematise this approach across Australia? This is where Maths Hubs come in. Drawing on England's Hubs model, Australia should establish 50 Maths Hubs as demonstration schools that showcase best practice and provide intensive support to about 150 other primary schools in their area. These hubs, established at existing high-performing schools, would bridge the gap between research evidence, education policy and classroom practice. With about $930,000 in additional funding per year, each hub school could employ a lead coordinator, a lead mathematics specialist and the equivalent of three full-time maths coaches. These specialists, who may also work part-time teaching at the school, would provide training to teachers across their region, including hosting school visits; conducting or unpacking demonstration lessons; and delivering topic-specific training. 'Maths Hubs' are demonstration schools that showcase best practice and provide intensive support to other schools in their area. ( Supplied: Budgewoi Public School ) Hubs would offer intensive, two-year partnerships to schools, starting with those most in need — those with low performance, inexperienced staff or a combination of both. These schools would get shoulder-to-shoulder support from hub coaches, including practical help improving their curriculum and assessment schedule. Within about 10 years, Maths Hubs could provide intensive partnership training to all primary schools in Australia. The evidence from England suggests this approach works. Its Maths Hubs program has been credited by the national school inspectorate with helping create 'a resounding, positive shift in mathematics education'. Australia should learn from Budgewoi Public School Budgewoi's experience shows that improving primary maths teaching is hard work. Without the right support, even the most dedicated school leaders will struggle to make systemic changes stick. But by establishing Maths Hubs, Australian governments can provide the on-the-ground support school leaders need. The stakes couldn't be higher. As Budgewoi's principal told us: 'I've made a lot of mistakes, and we moved quickly — maybe too quickly — but we've also made a lot of progress.' With Maths Hubs, more schools could make that progress, and make it faster. Our students deserve nothing less. Amy Haywood is the deputy program director of the education program at the Grattan Institute and co-author of the new guide for principals on How to implement great maths teaching in primary schools.
Irish Times
09-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Carl O'Brien: How will ‘difficult' exams be graded over the coming weeks?
It's been another milestone day for Leaving Certs: taking on two of biggest exams, maths paper two and Irish paper one. Whether students came out smiling or just relieved to be finished, they can be proud of how far they have come. Students aren't just surviving these exams, they're growing through them. The reaction to maths, in particular, has been mixed and we've received queries from some parents whose children are worried about passing the paper or want to know how they are likely to be graded. We've a short explainer below which should demystify the process - and it should hopefully give a little boost to worried students. Who marks the exams? READ MORE The exams are marked by a team of more than 4,000 examiners, typically experienced teachers, who work under the overall direction of a chief examiner for each subject. Examiners normally mark scripts from a number of schools and do not know either the region or the schools from which the papers they mark are drawn. How does the marking process work? The marking process for each subject and level is typically overseen by a team consisting of the chief examiner, a chief advising examiner and a number of advising examiners, who monitor and advise the examiners. The chief examiner and the advisory team discuss, test and adjust a draft marking scheme. This takes place at a 'pre conference' that normally lasts two days and takes place before the main marking conference for the full examining team. All examiners attend this online training conference before marking. They then begin marking by selecting a random sample of scripts and applying the draft marking scheme to this sample. Feedback from the examiners, along with data from the marking of this random sample, is analysed by the chief examiner and senior advisory team. A minimum of 5 per cent of scripts marked by each examiner is monitored during the course of the marking. How are they graded? The marking scheme is adjusted to help achieve a 'bell curve' which aims to ensure a similar proportion of students from year to year achieve the same proportion of H1s, H2s and H3s, etc, across individual subjects. It might sound unfair, but it is aimed at ensuring standards are maintained each year. If it has been a particularly hard exam where many struggled, the marking scheme may be adjusted to be more generous to the questions where students generally performed better; equally, if it has been a relatively easy exam, the marking scheme will be adjusted to be less generous to the questions where students performed well. How will they be graded this year? Grades have been artificially kept at a high level – 7 per cent higher, on average, than pre-Covid results – through what authorities call a 'postmarking adjustment' since 2021. Very simply, exam papers are marked as normal and then, when the process is complete, a weighting of marks s added across all results to ensure overall grades match the tally from previous years, on aggregate. The plan this year is that a 'postmarking adjustment' to students' grades will reduce from 7 per cent to 5.5 per cent. In other words, students' grades will still be inflated – just at a lower level, on aggregate, compared with the bumper grades achieved over recent years. The good news, then, is that students' results will get nudged upwards after they have been marked. Where it might be unfair is in the competition for college places against students from recent years on bumper grades – but we'll explore that later in the week.
Irish Times
09-06-2025
- General
- Irish Times
Leaving Cert maths paper 2: Students seeking H1s or H2s find paper particularly challenging
Higher-level maths students who were anxious about their performance in paper one did not find comfort in paper two, but ordinary-level students will be pleased, teachers have said. Aidan Roantree, a maths teacher at the Institute of Education, said that students looking for H1s and H2s will have found the paper particularly challenging, especially towards the end. 'The paper continued the same mixture of the familiar and the quirky, but on a larger scale with more of both,' he said. 'The question setter is consciously creating papers that are unlike previous years by adding novel questions that would have been hard to prepare for,' Mr Roantree said. READ MORE 'Upon opening the paper, students will have felt an initial confidence boost to get them going. Section A's Q1, Q, 2, Q3 offered a reassuring and familiar start to the paper. This will have allowed students to accrue marks before venturing into the trickier sections. 'At Q4, the quirkier aspects of the paper emerged with questions that were evocative of pre-2015 statistics: interquartile ranges, averages, and later stratified sampling in Q10. Section B followed a similar pattern with approachable opening questions followed by mounting difficulty. In particular, Q9's part C was a very challenging probability question which would have tested the abilities of even the highest achievers. 'Indeed this paper contained some of the hardest questions on either paper, so students will leave the exam with a sense of having really pushed themselves,' Mr Roantree said. Niall Duddy, ASTI subject representative for maths and a teacher at Presentation College Athenry in Co Galway, agreed that higher-level paper two was more testing than paper one. 'But students didn't say they couldn't do it, and paper two is traditionally the trickier of the two,' he said. 'On the plus side, it was user-friendly and contained hints here and there, such as where to use sine and cosine. 'The topics were quite focused, except for the trigonometry question which included some algebra; this is part of a recent trend of amalgamating the topics on the papers. 'Questions on statistics and probability would be familiar. Some students didn't like the look of question eight, which included a 3-D problem, but the question itself wasn't unusual. 'Overall, my students felt that while it was trickier, it was doable.' Conversely, on the ordinary-level exam, Jean Kelly, a maths teacher at the Institute of Education, said that students who felt uncertain about their performance on paper one will have been relieved. 'Gone are the questions that jump around topics or hide aspects behind the language of the question,' she said. 'The paper was snappy, cutting right to the point and unified in the topics examined. Question one was focused on statistics, Q2 on trigonometry, Q3 on the circle. This helped students stay focused on the task and feel like they are being helpfully scaffolded as the questions got harder. This feeling of momentum will help them get through the paper and feel much more assured in their performance.' The paper was heavy on statistics, probability and trigonometry, with area and volume having a lesser presence than in previous years, which was likely due to a surprise appearance on paper one, Ms Kelly said. 'While there were enough challenging pieces on the paper to distinguish those striving for the O1, even those who struggle to pass will find themselves in a good position,' she said. 'The paper was often helpful, either through tips or by combining topics into a useful grouping. For example, the appearance of constructions in section B was new, but the helpful pairing of dilations and area and volume helped ease students through the material. 'While paper one needed students to constantly, even anxiously reread the questions, there was a nice snappiness to this paper. Students who had the fundamentals were able to quickly get their marks without fuss and frustration,' said Ms Kelly. Mr Duddy said the ordinary-level topics were laid out clearly and that the paper was user-friendly with lots of helpful hints.
