Starters of the Day

Comment recorded on the "May24" page.
"Find the starters wonderful; students enjoy them and often want to use the idea generated by the starter in other parts of the lesson. Keep up the good work"

Ruth Seward, Hagley Park Sports College
Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Comment recorded on the "May28" page.
"An absolutely brilliant resource. Only recently been discovered but is used daily with all my classes. It is particularly useful when things can be saved for further use. Thank you!"

L Smith, Colwyn Bay
Monday, May 22, 2006

Comment recorded on the "April10" page.
"A really useful set of resources - thanks. Is the collection available on CD? Are solutions available?"

Mike Sendrove, Salt Grammar School, UK.
Thursday, May 25, 2006

Comment recorded on the "April10" page.
"Sorry Mike, because some of the starters link to live data on the Internet there is no CD version. Thanks for your comments."

Transum,
Thursday, May 25, 2006

Comment recorded on the "June25" page.
"We all love your starters. It is so good to have such a collection. We use them for all age groups and abilities. Have particularly enjoyed KIM's game, as we have not used that for Mathematics before. Keep up the good work and thank you very much
Best wishes from Inger Kisby"

Inger.kisby@herts and essex.herts.sch.uk,
Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Comment recorded on the "July12" page.
"Thanks very much for this one. We developed it into a whole lesson and I borrowed some hats from the drama department to add to the fun!"

Miss J Key, Farlingaye High School, Suffolk
Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Comment recorded on the "September10" page.
"3 NQTs in the department, I'm new subject leader in this new academy - Starters R Great!! Lovely resource for stimulating learning and getting eveyone off to a good start. Thank you!!"

Carol, Sheffield PArk Academy
Sunday, September 10, 2006

Comment recorded on the "September5" page.
"The pupils really enjoyed working out the numbers 1 to 20. It created a good buzz in the classroom. I told them in advance that the calculator was a basic calculator and therefore worked from LTR. It was interesting to see which pupils came up with the most concise answers. It was more than a 10 minute starter."

Kaye Rumpel, Hope Valley College
Friday, September 15, 2006

Comment recorded on the "September14" page.
"Thsi is a great memory aid which could be used for formulae or key facts etc - in any subject area. The PICTURE is such an aid to remembering where each number or group of numbers is - my pupils love it!
Thanks"

Trish Bailey, Kingstone School
Thursday, September 21, 2006

Comment recorded on the "September28" page.
"A set of real life savers!!
Keep it up and thank you!"

Malcolm P, Dorset
Thursday, September 28, 2006

Comment recorded on the "September18" page.
"My year 8's absolutely loved the "Separated Twins" starter. I set it as an optional piece of work for my year 11's over a weekend and one girl came up with 3 independant solutions."

Mrs. Peacock, Downe House School and Kennet School
Monday, October 02, 2006

Comment recorded on the "October3" page.
"This is an excellent website. We all often use the starters as the pupils come in the door and get settled as we take the register."

Fiona Bray, Cams Hill School
Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Comment recorded on the "October9" page.
"I think that having a starter of the day helps improve maths in general. My pupils say they love them!!!"

Mr Jones, Wales
Monday, October 09, 2006

Comment recorded on the "October14" page.
"Just a quick note to say that we use a lot of your starters. It is lovely to have so many different ideas to start a lesson with. Thank you very much and keep up the good work."

Inger Kisby, Herts and Essex High School
Thursday, October 12, 2006

Comment recorded on the "September23" page.
"This triangle starter is excellent. I have used it with all of my ks3 and ks4 classes and they are all totally focused when counting the triangles."

Judy, Chatsmore CHS
Thursday, October 12, 2006

Comment recorded on the "July26" page.
"It's great to have a starter that's timed and focuses the attention of everyone fully. I told them in advance I would do 10 then record their percentages."

Julie Reakes, The English College, Dubai
Sunday, October 15, 2006

Comment recorded on the "October3" page.
"Very good starters, help pupils settle very well in maths classroom."

S Mirza, Park High School, Colne
Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Comment recorded on the "October19" page.
"I used this with my bottom set in year 9. To engage them I used their name and favorite football team (or pop group) instead of the school name. For homework, I asked each student to find a definition for the key words they had been given (once they had fun trying to guess the answer) and they presented their findings to the rest of the class the following day. They felt really special because the key words came from their own personal information."

E Pollard, Huddersfield
Thursday, October 19, 2006

Comment recorded on the "October3" page.
"I think this is a brilliant website as all the students enjoy doing the puzzles and it is a brilliant way to start a lesson."

Mrs Johnstone, 7Je
Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Comment recorded on the "May2" page.
"I think these are great! So useful and handy, the children love them.
Could we have some on angles too please?"

Angela Lowry,
Friday, January 19, 2007

Comment recorded on the "January21" page.
"We recently had an afternoon on accelerated learning.This linked really well and prompted a discussion about learning styles and short term memory."

S Johnson, The King John School
Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Comment recorded on the "March17" page.
"Thank you so much for your wonderful site. I have so much material to use in class and inspire me to try something a little different more often. I am going to show my maths department your website and encourage them to use it too. How lovely that you have compiled such a great resource to help teachers and pupils.
Thanks again"

Amy Thay, Coventry
Monday, February 05, 2007

Comment recorded on the "February5" page.
"Hi there, my name is Richard Walter and I am a secondary school maths teacher at Gordano School in Portishead, near Bristol. I have used your starters consistently over the past two years since I began my career in teaching. I think that they serve as an excellent resource at the start of a lesson in settling and engaging my pupils in their mathematics. What is more, they really enjoy them!

The starters I find most successful in their ability to engage pupils are the number orientated problems such as the magic/un-magic square, neighbours, the once where you have the numbers 1 to 8 and a seating arrangement and the pupil has to come up with a seating plan where no consecutive number can sit next to or diagonally opposite another, the probability starters involving coins of which I can't quite remember.... etc etc. Basically the starters that give pupils a chance to have a go at them by trial and error but also allow a high degree of differentiation to engage those more able pupils who can start to identify the mathematical principles behind those problems.

Not so engaging for me are the ones which start, "Think of as many mathematical words as possible that begin with the letter 'A'." I avoid using these ones.....

I will continue to use "starter of the day" and continue to push it's use in my maths department. Keep up the excellent work! And thank you!

Richard Walter"

Richard Walter, Gordano School Portishead
Monday, February 05, 2007

Comment recorded on the "April2" page.
"This website was brilliant. My class and I really enjoy doing the activites."

Mrs Wilshaw, Dunsten Collage,Essex
Monday, March 12, 2007

Comment recorded on the "April5" page.
"This resource has made a great deal of difference to the standard of starters for all of our lessons. Thank you for being so creative and imaginative."

Mr Stoner, St George's College of Technology
Thursday, April 05, 2007

Comment recorded on the "May6" page.
"I am thankful for providing such wonderful starters. They are of immence help and the students enjoy them very much. These starters have saved my time and have made my lessons enjoyable."

Natalie, London
Thursday, May 24, 2007

Comment recorded on the "June19" page.
"Excellent. Thank you very much for a fabulous set of starters. I use the 'weekenders' if the daily ones are not quite what I want. Brilliant and much appreciated."

Nikki Jordan, Braunton School, Devon
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Comment recorded on the "May1" page.
"What a brilliant website. We have just started to use the 'starter-of-the-day' in our yr9 lessons to try them out before we change from a high school to a secondary school in September 2007. This is one of the best resources on-line we have found. The kids and staff love it. Well done an thank you very much for making my maths lessons more interesting and fun."

Phil Anthony, Head of Maths, Stourport High School
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Comment recorded on the "December7" page.
"I use Starter of the Day as a registration and warm-up activity for my Year 6 class. The range of questioning provided is excellent as are some of the images.
I rate this site as a 5!"

Cathryn Aldridge, Pells Primary
Friday, December 07, 2007

Comment recorded on the "June17" page.
"Dear Transum,

I love you website I use it every maths lesson I have with every year group! I don't know were I would turn to with out you!"

Mr Hall, Light Hall School, Solihull
Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Comment recorded on the "March16" page.
"I have used your starters for 3 years now and would not have a lesson without one! Fantastic way to engage the pupils at the start of a lesson."

Mrs A Milton, Ysgol Ardudwy
Wednesday, January 14, 2009