Introduction
Even as I wrote the title to this blog, I decided that I didn’t like it. “So why didn’t you change it, Muppet?” Well, I wanted to make a point in the introduction, which has now really turned into a conclusion. A school shouldn’t just have a clear mathematics culture in their school, they should have a clear learning culture. Then, everything else will come along with it, as children will be inquisitive, imaginative and resilient. Otherwise, the school will ‘flip-flap’ over the years from a literacy priority, to a mathematics priority, as one makes headway and then the other dips. Almost as if you are stuck in Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. Overall school learning aims are great, if you want to change a particular aspect of your school; however, subject leads (middle leaders) can be used to make any particular subject changes. All four key subjects (Mathematics, English, Science and IT) need to have strong middle leaders, who will push forth the necessary changes, or continue to see that certain strategies are used, whilst a school development plan needs to have a whole school teaching ethic. Will I continue to write this blog, even though I might have now already discredited myself? Yes, because I think there may be some good tips for a mathematics lead.
A starting point
I was appointed mathematics lead three years ago. At the beginning you need to start to understand two things. Firstly, what do the children at your school think about mathematics in lessons and generally as a subject. Secondly, what do the teachers think about the subject: are they confident in how to teach it, and in how to assess a child’s knowledge and competence within the subject, and do they know where their learners need to go and how to get them there? A pupil voice/teacher survey is the most productive way of doing this. Whilst these can produce false data through children misunderstanding questions or teachers feeling that they need to give certain answers, it, I would argue, still produce important data.
You need to immerse yourself in the subject and get a ‘feel’ for what is happening in all the classrooms before making any alterations or changes. Those who have ‘survived’ a change in leadership at a school will know, to their cost, how frustrating it can be if too many new ideas are implemented, in a short space of time, and with little regard to current, working strategies.
Working in conjunction with others
Once you have a good understanding of where your school is, in terms of mathematics, you then need to decide where the issues are and what solutions you will put in place to solve these. A look at the school’s data and context will also help to ascertain these points. In my school we call it an ‘Action Plan’, your school might not, but they all do the same thing; you fix key action points, give yourself a solution and a timeline and then put ideas into place.
A few months after being appointed mathematics lead, I started the MaST course at the University of Hertfordshire. This is a two-year course, which immerses you in what mathematics teaching could be all about. You have to do a number of different projects over the years, firstly within your own classroom, and then with a broader impact as the years progress culminating in a whole school project for your dissertation. This again is a great opportunity to talk to other mathematics teachers and to learn from some super mathematics lecturers.
Staff meetings are another easy way to get messages across to people, and give people the opportunity to be interactive with mathematics. In these, the CPA approach was slowly introduced. If you wish to know more about CPA, there are a multitude of websites devoted to it and many scholarly articles and research been done to describe and investigate it. The best place to start is with Bruner (1966) with his book, Towards a Theory of Instruction. I plan to devote another blog to this concept in the future.
Team planning and team teaching was probably one of the most influential ways that mathematics teaching across our school was improved and changed. Without this, I think things would still be the way they were, and not one of the new concepts that I introduced would have survived. This idea of ‘working together’ is one that I am keen to explore more this year, with the introduction of ‘Lesson Study’. This Japanese idea, is a professional development programme that involves teachers working in small groups to plan lessons that address a shared learning goal for a set group of pupils. The teachers then deliver these lessons while their peers observe, and refine the lesson plans based on feedback and review.
An often undervalued resources, is that of Teaching Assistants. Therefore, in the previous year, I carried out a number of sessions with the teaching assistants in my school, in order to help them understand the concept of bar modelling (this will be covered in another blog) and how it can be a vital tool for helping low achieving learners to access a problem.
Perhaps the ‘others’ referred to in this particular paragraph, should not have been left so far down the list: the parents. Without a doubt, a child’s learning and mathematical appreciation and learning will stem from what happens at home. Unfortunately, many parents disseminate a fear of mathematics to their own children, stemming from their own school days. To counter order this, my mathematics team created a series of parent workshops, (Calculations and Cake), where we explained how our school teaches the four operations. We had only a small uptake last year; however, I am hoping that this year things will grow, as parents will have talked about what happened. Anecdotally, I have some evidence to support this, as one of the most powerful tools you have in creating a mathematics culture in your school. A parent (whose child was in the year group below me last year) attended these mathematics workshops and clearly enjoyed them. This year, she keeps telling her daughter that she is in the right place to learn about mathematics and be supported, and consequently, her daughter, who struggled last year, is now full of confidence and thriving in mathematics lessons. I believe this is all because her mum keeps telling her positive things about mathematics! To continue to support parents with access to mathematics teaching in our school, social media is highly effective – YouTube videos, Twitter shots and school website resources. It is by no means the only way, as apps, such as Seesaw, can do the same job, but on a more personal scale for each family.
Along with other members of the Senior Leadership Team we visited a number of school local to us, who were well-known for using a particular concept well. I remember quite clearly visiting a school who had spent a lot of money on making sure that every classroom was equipped with concrete resources.
I was lucky enough to attend Hertfordshire’s Mathematics Conference in London a couple of years ago which had a keynote speech by Professor Jo Boaler. This had quite an impact on my ideas and the importance of not only an investigation rich mathematics curriculum, but also how one of the main stumbling blocks in mathematics teaching is not the teaching itself per se, but the lack of confidence in the learner. She advocates actually teaching children that mistakes are one of the key learning routes for the mathematician and learner as a whole.
When your school is ready, a mathematics Hub (an idea run by the NCETM: http://www.mathshubs.org.uk) is a superb next step and there are many across the whole of the UK to join. This will bring you closer to expert mathematics teachers and to resources that are right at the pinnacle of mathematics teaching at the moment in England.
Resources
An absolute must have, if you intend to teach the CPA approach in your school.
An absolute must have, but at a great cost.
Without manipulatives, children, both high and low attainers, will be unable to access a full and stimulating mathematics curriculum, and therefore, will not perceive mathematics as being a ‘fun’ lesson. Some mathematics resources can be accessed through various websites; however, this is not a replacement for ‘hands-on’ mathematics learning. http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/mathematics/ebook_assets/vmf/VMF-Interface.html and https://mathsbot.com/manipulatives/placeValueCounters are the best that I have come across, and are both free!
Other resources, such as books, and lesson plans, and activities, need not to be so expensive, but they can be. For example, White Rose Mathematics resources are absolutely free through the TES website. However, the government recommend Singapore mathematics books, Maths No Problem, cost a lot of money. Nrich, again is absolutely free, and gives you access to thousands of low ceiling, high entry, problem solving activities. Whilst ‘Classroom Secrets’ charges a ‘small’ yearly fee, for some well thought out lesson plans and PowerPoint slides.
Excitement!
My final thought really, to continue to engage children in mathematics throughout your school, is to promote some whole school mathematics activities. There are many to choose from, some will work in my school, but not in yours. But the key to sustaining mathematics in the fore front of children’s minds and its approach to helping children learning, is to do something little, but often.
So, for example, you could do mathematics starters in assembly (https://www.transum.org/Software/SW/Starter_of_the_day/ – is a great resource for this, as the problems are often easily accesible for all year groups). Or, have a weekly/monthly/half-termly mathematics question for each key stage, with prizes on offer! Or, with a nod to Times Table Rockstars (@TTRockStars) develop a whole school approach to teaching and learning times tables with a competitive element. This works really well, as we found some Year 3 children can be just as fast as Year 6 children when completing times tables on this website!
Introduction
“Well, I’m changing it!” said Frog. (from Oi Dog! by Claire Gray and Kes Gray).
If we accept what is happening, and things clearly aren’t improving, it is imperative that we change what is happening.
I started with a conclusion, so I’ll end with an introduction. Here are my thoughts on creating a mathematics culture in your school. You’ll never reach the end of the journey, but if you enjoy the journey itself, your time will be well spent. Many thanks for reading (scanning it) and your thoughts are always welcome.
Kinkajousreadtoo 
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