Do the maths...

Alysha McDowell-Burke, Safaa Hussain, Joshua Heywood, Connor Flanagan, John Atkin (teaching assistant) and Andrew Clowes (acting headteacher).

WHEN four Year 6 primary school brainboxes sat down to do their GCSE maths exam five years early, they were joined by two of their teachers.

Acting head Andrew Clowes and teaching assistant John Atkin, from Hey with Zion School, Lees, were re-sitting the test decades after their first attempt.

Now Alysha McDowell-Burke, Connor Flanagan, Joshua Heywood and Safaa Hussain are waiting to see who has come out on top with results day approaching next month.

Mr Clowes gained a grade B when he did the old O-level maths exam back in 1977 and Mr Atkin, who joined the school 10 years ago, said he scraped through with a grade C 11 years later. Both said they would be gutted and red-faced if they did not score A*s this time.

Mr Clowes said: “I have not done much more maths since my last exam but I am better at working things out now because I teach it.

“The children liked the idea of us scratching our heads and trying to work it out in the exam. We don’t just teach them how to do sums. We want them to approach an exam with confidence and to be less stressed about it.

“We are very proud of our children’s achievements and above all their enthusiasm for maths. We find their high aspirations have a beneficial knock-on effect on the standards of their classmates too.”

This is the second year the school has entered pupils early for GCSE maths.

Will the pupils outperform their teachers? We will have to wait and see until results day, August 21.
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