Involvement with East Midlands East Maths Hub
Involvement with EME We have been involved with East Midlands East Maths Hub since September 2022. We have taken part in the Teaching for Mastery Development Year and are now in the Embedding phase. We have also made use of the Specialist Knowledge for the Teaching of Mathematics (SKTMs) for Teaching Assistants, Early Career Teachers and Early Years practitioners to ensure as many staff as possible are upskilled to be able to deliver high quality maths lessons.
AIM
Maths at my school faced a significant challenge as our progress in implementing a teaching for mastery approach seemed to be slowing and as Maths Lead, I was not sure on the correct direction to take. To overcome this obstacle, we decided to join a Maths Hub Work Group which was led by a Primary Mastery Specialist.
Duration
We have been involved with East Midlands East Maths Hub for approximately 18 months. We have participated in the Primary Teaching for Development Work Group and are currently attending the Primary Teaching for Mastery Embedding Work Group.
Number of staff involved
Myself as Maths Lead, and one other teacher took part in the Teaching for Mastery Development Work Group. Due to staff changes, a different teacher is accompanying me to the Teaching for Mastery Embedding Work Group sessions. We have also taken the opportunity to upskill as many staff as possible: we have a member of staff attending the Early Years SKTM and we also made time for other teaching staff to visit the Primary Mastery Specialist’s school to observe high quality lessons and a teaching for mastery approach.
Experience and Impact
Context:
Church Vale is a one form entry Primary school with a Foundation Unit in North Nottinghamshire. It has 222 pupils on role and 41.5% of pupils are eligible for Free School Meals.
The following case study has been written by Hayley, the school’s Maths Lead.
From the first session I knew I had made the right choice. Being part of both the Teaching for Mastery Development and Embedding Work Group allowed myself and another teacher to learn from other schools within the group. Throughout the year we have visited many different classrooms, observing different teachers which has been invaluable. Based on these observations, we gained many new ideas which we have implemented into our own maths lessons.
In addition to this, our Mastery Specialist has visited our school five times over the course of the Developing year, helping me to collaborate with the school leaders to formulate an action plan for maths that aligned with the overall school development plan. This ensured that the efforts put into improving mathematics teaching and learning were integrated with the school’s broader goals and objectives. We have conducted learning walks around the school, observing mathematics lessons and providing valuable feedback to the teachers. Through these observations, she identified gaps in students’ understanding and areas where teaching strategies could be improved. To disseminate her expertise and knowledge, CPD sessions were organised for the entire teaching staff. She created an open classroom environment at her own school where teachers had the opportunity to observe her teaching methods and engage in collaborative discussions to enhance their own practice. Our Primary Mastery Specialist also helped me to plan staff meetings, (leading the first) focusing on mathematics pedagogy and calculations throughout the school. These meetings provided a platform for teachers to discuss their challenges, seek advice, and exchange ideas, fostering a collaborative culture within the school. Through her guidance, the school underwent a significant shift in our approach to mathematics teaching and learning. The traditional perception of mathematics being the ‘hardest subject to teach’ and one which ‘is the hardest to plan’ gave way to a new mindset where teachers were looking forward to teaching maths and as one teacher quoted “due to strong leadership, CPD opportunities and co production of our maths curriculum this year, I feel the most confident I have ever felt when teaching maths. At the beginning of my career, I feared teaching many aspects of the maths curriculum. Now I feel empowered to deliver them in an effective way which supports the understanding of all learners”.
Our school received the Ofsted call, when were several weeks into the work group and a deep dive in maths was on the agenda. Within the deep dive, the inspector was very interested in our engagement with the Maths Hub and asked me why I had chosen to join the work group to help develop maths within the school. I shared with him the vision for maths that I had completed during the in-school visits from our Specialist and how we were going to achieve it. He made it clear that the targets were right for our school and the work group was a good choice to take us where we wanted to be. He discussed how working with a Mastery Specialist helps not only me as Maths Lead become more confident but how this then impacts the school; he could clearly see an impact after a such short time of being involved in the Work Group.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of what our school has achieved, and I can’t thank the Work Group and Maths Hub enough for their ongoing support. We now see our Specialist as part of our school, and she helps me with any maths query and our staff highly respect her. I can’t wait to see what next year will bring.