We ran a “speed data-ing” session to help pupils learn about mathematical hypotheses, creating questionnaires, using tally charts - and each other.

The object of the exercise was to find out what a typical Year 7 pupil was like.

The pupils started with a variety of hypotheses in the classroom, such as:

“All Year 7s eat Weetabix for breakfast,” “All Year 7s have two brothers,”

“All Year 7s wear size 5 shoes.”

We took four classes of Year 7 into the hall. Two of the them each formed a circle on chairs facing outwards. The other two formed a circle around each of the first circles, facing inwards.

They then asked each other questions and recorded their information on a tally chart. After one minute the outer circles had to stand and move round one person clockwise. When they had gone round the circle once, we returned to classrooms to process the data in bar charts and pie charts Jane Holland is an English teacher who teaches the cross-curricular Year 7 course at Charles Burrell High School in Thetford, Suffolk

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