For my daughter’s Year 7 and 8 Maths we used a wide combination of Maths resources – lots of worksheets downloaded from different sites (Twinkl and TeachitMaths) and a few CGP workbooks. It worked fine but it did mean that she relied on me to give her the pages or tell her what was next and it limited her ability to read ahead or revise something by herself. As she gets older she is becoming more and more of an independent learner, yes I still explain concepts, we sit down and work through problems together but she likes to know where she is going and she likes to able to drive her own learning. So I started looking around for Maths books that I thought would give her more independence but that I also thought would be engaging and have good explanations and examples (I am determined that both kids have a good grasp of all areas of Maths). And I must admit I looked quite hard at different options until I found this series produced by Hodder Education – Mastering Mathematics Key Stage 3.

I chatted to someone at Hodder and we got the Book 3 text book and book 3 practice book for my daughter to use. As soon as they arrived I was impressed and I actually quickly bought my daughter practice book 2 (we were finishing up a few sections of her Year 8 Maths and I was struggling to find the good examples so I thought why not try this series). And in her last few weeks of Year 8 she used the Practice Book 2 and she really enjoyed it and I was really impressed (my youngest who is going into Year 6 actually asked if he could get a Maths book in this series – and he never asks me to buy him academic books). So I have high hopes for Book 3.

We are only going to start using the combination of the text book 3 and practice book 3 in September so this is just going to be a quick explanation of what you get and then once we have really gotten to grips with this new set I will write a more detailed post.

To start with you can get a text book, a practice book and an extension practice book for each year of KS3. At this stage we are going with the text book and the practice book and I may add in the extension book later all depending on how we progress.

Okay the text book and the practice book go hand in hand. Chapter 1 in the text book matches chapter 1 in the practice book but don’t worry the examples are different. So by including the practice book you are really giving your kid more examples to work through (also I must stress ALL the answers are FREE to download from their site). And I should also state these are not write-in workbooks. The questions are in the books and your kids will need to answer them in an exercise book or on a piece of paper. This is actually something which I think is a bonus because then you can get them to repeat a question a few months later or if you have multiple kids you can reuse the book with your younger kids.

The Text Book. We like the layout. Each chapter starts with a Coming up block – which explains what you are about to learn in the chapter. Then there is an activity and a skill checker – which is an introduction of sorts to what you are going to cover.

Next you get an explanation (from the explanations we have looked at we really like these). Which is followed by a worked example, my daughter has already commented that she likes the worked examples, and some activity questions.

Then you get three sets of questions – Band 1, Band 2 and Band 3, which are questions that get progressively harder.

And at the end of the chapter there is a review exercise – so more examples.

And if you link your text book to your practice book you get even more questions to work through.

This is why it appeals to me – I like the explanations and the worked examples. And then they have included a LOT of practice questions. And for me, Maths is about practicing what you have learnt and making sure you can apply it to different situations, so I like the fact that you get a whole lot of exercises to work through.

Okay so that is the basic layout.

What is covered in the Book 3 of this series?

• Powers and Indices
• Fractions
• Accuracy
• Progress Review 1
• Percentages
• Ration and Proportion
• Progress Review 2
• Using measures
• Equations, expressions and formulas
• Progress Review 3
• Graphs
• Real-life graphs
• Transformations
• Progress Review 4
• Prisms and Cylinders
• Constructions
• Trigonometry
• Progress Review 5
• Working with Data
• Probability
• Progress Review 6

Like I mentioned I will write an update post once we have used these books properly but based on how much she liked using the Practice Book 2 I am optimistic that she will like these.

And as always if I feel like we need anything extra we will have use the KS3 Maths pages from the Twinkl Resources website.

Okay so that is Maths for Year 9, a bit different to what we have done in the past but I am hopeful it is going to be a positive change.

The books mentioned can be purchased directly from the Hodder Education website or from Amazon

Key Stage 3 Mastering Mathematics Develop and Secure Practice Book 3

Key Stage 3 Mastering Mathematics Book 3

Admin – After I mentioned I would like to review this series, Hodder Education kindly gave us the Book3 Text Book and Practice Book. I bought the Practice Book 2 myself.

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