Investigating the Cost of PE Kit for School Children

1. It was reported recently that some schools are being asked to relax rules about the type of clothes expected to be worn for PE because of the cost of PE kit. The other figures given seem very high to me too. I wonder how they worked out the numbers? The newspapers always exaggerate to make a better story! “An average of £130 to make sure one child has the right clothes for PE lessons” seems very high to me.

2. How would you find out the average cost of making sure that one child has the right clothes to wear for PE lessons? Put together a plan for finding out whether these figures are realistic or whether they are too high. It was reported recently that some schools are being asked to relax rules about the type of clothes that are expected to be worn for PE because of the cost of PE kit

3. It’s in the News!How much?! Teacher Notes

4. Oil spill Introduction: How much does it cost a parent to kit out one child for PE lessons? According to a recent article in The Guardian, the cost is an average of £130, with boys costing even more, averaging £155. This has led to calls for schools to ditch logos and other labels from their PE kits. But surely this can’t be right?! An average of £130 seems remarkably high doesn’t it?! What’s all the money being spent on? It’s in the News! invites students to plan how they would find out whether these figures are accurate or whether they’ve been exaggerated to make a better story. Content objectives: This context provides the opportunity for teachers and students to explore a number of objectives. Some that may be addressed are: • identify the necessary information to understand or simplify a context or problem; represent problems, making correct use of symbols, words, diagrams, tables and graphs; use appropriate procedures and tools, including ICT • decide which data to collect to answer a question, and the degree of accuracy needed; identify possible sources; consider appropriate sample size • plan how to collect the data; construct frequency tables with equal class intervals for gathering continuous data and two-way tables for recording discrete data • review and refine own findings and approaches on the basis of discussions with others; look for and reflect on other approaches and build on previous experience of similar situations and outcomes.. Process objectives: These will depend on the amount of freedom you allow your class with the activity. It might be worth considering how you’re going to deliver the activity and highlighting the processes that this will allow on the diagram below:

5. Activity: The activity challenges students to devise a plan to collect data to test the hypothesis that it costs an average of £130 to make sure one child has the right clothes for PE lessons. Students are shown a recent newspaper article which contains the figures: • it costs an average of £130 to make sure one child has the right clothes for PE lessons • it costs an average of £155 to make sure that one boy has the right clothes for PE lessons • the average cost of the rest of a child’s school uniform is more than £200. Students are then asked to explain how they would find out whether these figures are reasonable or whether they have been exaggerated. The objectives for this resource are primarily about the first part of the data handling cycle, specify the problem and plan. If you wish, and if time allows, students might then continue to carry out the survey and practice some or all of the rest of the cycle.. Differentiation: You may decide to change the level of challenge for your group. To make the task easier you could consider: • scaffolding the task – breaking the plan into smaller, more manageable chunks for the students to work on together • providing a writing frame for the type and level of plan that you expect • offering some examples of other plans and asking the students to decide which is the better and why. To make the task more complex you could consider: • reducing the scaffolding for the task – leaving the students to decide independently how to go about making writing their plan. This task offers plenty of opportunities for developing student’s skills in representing and this might be a priority objective for the lesson This resource is designed to be adapted to your requirements. Working in groups: This activity lends itself to paired work and small group work and, by encouraging students to work collaboratively, it is likely that you will allow them access to more of the key processes than if they were to work individually. You will need to think about how your class will work on this task. Will they work in pairs, threes or larger groups? If pupils are not used to working in groups in mathematics you may wish to spend some time talking about their rules and procedures to maximise the effectiveness and engagement of pupils in group work (You may wish to look at the SNS Pedagogy and practice pack Unit 10: Guidance for groupwork). You may wish to encourage the groups to delegate different areas of responsibility to specific group members. Assessment: You may wish to consider how you will assess the task and how you will record your assessment. This could include developing the assessment criteria with your class. You might choose to focus on the content objectives or on the process objectives. You might decide that this activity lends itself to comment-only marking or to student self-assessment. If you use the APP model of assessment then you might use this activity to help you in building a picture of your students’ understanding. Assessment criteria to focus on might be: • To use their own strategies within mathematics and in applying mathematics to practical contexts (Using and Applying Mathematics level 4) • to ask questions, plan how to answer them and collect the data required (Handling data level 5) • to design a survey or experiment to capture the necessary data from one or more sources; design, trial and, if necessary, refine data collection sheets; construct tables for large discrete and continuous sets of raw data, choosing suitable class intervals; design and use two-way tables (Handling data level 6).

6. Probing questions: You may wish to introduce some points into the discussion which might include: • who might you ask to find out the cost of PE kit? • do you think that, if you asked the parents, you might get a different answer to if you asked the children? • if you wanted to get a very high average cost where and how would you carry out your survey? • if it costs an average of £130 and this rises to £155 for boys, what’s the average cost of clothing a girl for PE? Why might there be a difference? You will need: The PowerPoint presentation. There are just two slides: The first slide introduces student to the article and the averages with which they will be working. The second slide sets the task, asking students to plan how they would test the figures in the article. Whether this plan is written, presented as a poster, developed as a discussion or in any other way is dependent on you and your objectives for the lesson.