Thanks for the further replies. I did check and they pay 22% contribution regardless of what I put in, calculated before the salary is sacrificed.

Thanks for the replies, all – I knew STW would know!

I also appreciate the poster above who offered to take my job because of the generous employer contributions! They’ve moved us from a public sector pension where they were contributing 29%, to a private sector pension where they are contributing 22% so the private pension thing is new to me.

Hi Andy,

I am local. There isn’t a huge amount of singletrack style riding anywhere around Talybont, it’s more gravel/grassy bridleways. You sometimes need to do a fair amount of road to link it all together as well. There is the ‘classic’ Gap route which is about 34km: https://www.strava.com/activities/11926374321

Or you could venture over to Llangors/Bwlch area: https://www.strava.com/activities/11918197797 34km, or you can shorten it at Bwlch: https://www.strava.com/activities/11882925362 (29km).

There is then just the Brinmore tramroad climb which you could cycle up and then ride the first part of the gap route, but cut it short and come back along a fire-road towards Talybont: https://www.strava.com/activities/11540869844 This might be your best option given the distance parameter you have set. You end on a pretty boring five mile fireroad, but at least it’s all downhill! I guess you could do this route in reverse.

Hope that helps a little!

Hi, Maths teacher here. There are some really interesting responses in this thread and it’s helped demonstrate to me how emotive the issue of setting is! Some points to think about:

1) The setting is supposed to help the child work at a level that they find comfortable. Some of the posts above are implying that the set is dictating the student’s grade, where in reality it should be the other way around.

2) A student should get the same grade no matter what set they are in, assuming the sets are properly considered.

3) The teacher should not have said they don’t agree with the decision. This is undermining the HoD. The decision to change sets should have been based on test performance AND some teacher input.

4) The test grades you’ve provided don’t give the full picture. It would be more useful to have the raw score or a percentage.

Good luck getting an outcome that you’re happy with.

Hi Snownrock, are you able to say which shop gave you the upgrade to the 2023 model?

I bought a Topstone last year, delivered to my house no problem. I had to deal with their warranty dept and they were good, investigated the problem, liaised with Cannondale, found no fault but still gave me £25 goodwill voucher. I would buy from them again.

I bought the Prime Orra wheels in June. They were £399.99 when I bought them. I have used them for several hundred kilometres and they have not had any issues. I’m 80kg and ride a mixture of terrain so they’ve had a good test. I like them, they are a lot lighter than the original wheels that came on my Alloy Topstone and I upgraded the ratchet in the hub so they make a nicer noise! They are not as light as some carbon wheels but not bad. Because they were so cheap (compared to other wheels) I also upgraded to lighter Shimano disc rotors and lighter tyres, so the total weight loss was significant.

This is a ridiculous price! Thanks for the PSA.

A wheel is not essential. They have done a good job of implementing the controller steering. I did have a wheel and found it was advantageous on certain tracks (eg. Monza) but other tracks I was faster with a controller. I can also do OK in the online mode, currently have a DR of a high B. The controller usually gives higher tyre wear as well, which is a disadvantage. I sold my wheel/seat/VR setup for the same price I bought it for second hand, so you can always buy it to try it out and it should hold value. I found that I just preferred the ease of picking up the controller for a quick spin, rather than the chair which took up space, and the VR headset which made me hot! Having said that, the immersion with the VR and wheel/seat is amazing.

Sorry, closer to rally! I meant all racing together, rather than a point to point stage like rally. Quite nice scenery though! Haven’t tried the licences, will try them later.

Had a go this morning on the new track. It’s just another rallycross stage but I’m not sure what I was expecting! Being able to see the progress percentage of each race series is a good idea, made me realise how much I have still to complete! The weekly races might keep me coming back to the game more regularly as well. Apparently there was a new opening movie as well, but I skipped that!

I have seen some students at A level who have  two calculators: one permanently set to degrees and one permanently set to radians. What a luxurious setup!

Another favourite ‘joke’ is turning the contrast of the screen down to zero so it looks like the calculator isn’t working- hilarious!

Amusingly that calculator is the latest model from Casio but has been widely panned by maths teachers as being worse than the model it replaced. If you are getting one for your child, I would recommend the older model (FX-83GTX), or the FX-991EX for A level. Great to see some calculator chat on stw!

Ah I see. Thanks for your replies, both! This is what the freehub looks like, kind of looks like it doesn’t have the Anti Bite Guard (no steel in sight):

Happy to help if you need more advice. It does take a little time to get used to writing sort of legibly on it, but with practice it’s fine. Some software will also smooth your writing for you, such as Smart Notebook, and Microsoft Whiteboard, which can make it look neater.

I am a maths teacher and this is what I use (as TheBrick mentions above):
Wacom One medium size tablet

You just plug it into a USB port and it just works. I find it works better if you don’t install the proprietary drivers that come with it.