I teach in a comprehensive city centre school in the Midlands of England. It is fairly unusual as it is an all girls school of which there are not many left now. We feel strongly that girls are given a much better chance to succeed in what can often be male dominated subjects such as mathematics, science, technology and ICT. However I carried out some research with a sample of girls from each year group (ages 11 -16) Students were asked how much they agreed with the statement "I like mathematics lessons in school" I also asked for reasons for their response and a comment of where they used mathematics outside school and why they may need a mathematics qualification in the future.

The results from 150 girls surveyed can be summarised as follows:

• 42% neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement (but stated that they liked some maths lessons but not all)
• 30% agreed with the statement "I like mathematics lessons in school"
• 28% disagreed with the statement

More 14 year olds disagreed than the older or younger students.

Reasons given for liking mathematics lessons

• Teacher explains the work clearly
• Gets your brain working
• Fun lessons including games
• Good teacher
• Lots of practical work
• Answers are either right or wrong with no imagination needed

Reasons for disliking mathematics lessons

• Having to copy from the board
• Boring
• Hard to understand
• Teacher talked for too long
• Covered topics too quickly
• Not enough fun lessons
• Not enough display work
• You have to think and not have your own ideas

Most pupils agreed that mathematics lessons are important and that you need a maths qualification to get a good job. One student wrote " you need mathematics for all jobs except cleaning toilets" It could be argued that you need maths there too!!

Students see practical uses for their mathematics in

• Counting money
• Working out change
• Working out tax
• Measuring a room for decorating it
• Cooking helping their children (in the future) with their homework
• Working out credit card bills