Subject leadership has changed quite a bit since I became a teacher, just over 20 years ago.

In the autumn term of 2003, in my second year of teaching, I remember tidying the drawers that held the RE posters (in the days before interactive whiteboard screens), and the shelves of books and items relating to various RE topics taught across the school. I had become the RE coordinator and was keen to get started.

Maybe it was my inexperience, or maybe it was the different expectations at the time, but it didn’t occur to me that it was also my role to know what topics each class taught in RE and how learning built over time and across the school. I was pleased I had tidied the resources. This was a job I could tick off my list and say I had done for my subject. Teachers could just find and use what they needed, couldn’t they?

Skip forward a few years to 2007/8, and I was now maths subject leader in another school. My understanding of subject leadership had grown. I was just beginning to feel responsible for the quality of teaching in my subject across the school, and so I was keen to provide support for staff, leading staff meetings and sharing ideas/resources. At the time I also remember a push to have curriculum days to ‘raise the profile’ of a subject and dreaming up whole school ‘challenges’ to motivate and engage pupils.

My thinking had developed, and I was focused on teaching and learning as well as pupil engagement and enjoyment, but the penny hadn’t fully dropped yet, so to speak, about the link between teaching and learning, curriculum, and assessment.

If you were asking me now, what should a subject leader focus on, I’d suggest these three key interlinked areas:

 

 

Whatever subject you lead within a primary school, one or more of these three interlinking areas are likely to form the focus of the majority of your work, currently.

Whether you are considering how to develop assessment tools and strategies to explore the extent to which pupils have secured and/or retained learning, or whether you are focused on developing the curriculum for your subject, so that the core purpose is threaded through it and key milestones are worked towards, it ultimately often comes back to one of these three areas.  

But, we should acknowledge that this requires deep thinking and is hard work. As the role has evolved, I would argue that the expectations on those leading the subjects have increased. It’s not an ‘easy’ job, like tidying the resources cupboard.

Having been a maths adviser for several years now, and recently becoming lead adviser for a range of foundation subjects, my thinking on subject leadership is constantly being challenged. My reading and interactions with others cause me to think about what exactly a subject leader might want to focus on to have impact on the quality of education in their subject in their setting.

When you read the purpose of study for mathematics in the National Curriculum (for England, 2014), it talks about maths being a ‘highly interconnected discipline’ that is ‘essential to everyday life’ and ‘necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment’. It also talks about a high-quality maths education providing ‘a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject’. 

So as maths subject leader, I would want to ensure that the curriculum we offer to pupils is organised and structured in a way that facilitates pupils seeing how interconnected it is as a subject (for example how fractions and decimals are part of our number system, which build on our counting skills and show us that there is more than the whole numbers we first encounter).

The sequencing of learning would help these ideas build over time, the pedagogy used within teaching would allow for exploration, and assessment tools would help me understand when pupils are ready for the next learning to be layered on, based on whether previous steps had been understood and retained.

Similarly in geography, the purpose of study section in the National Curriculum talks about ‘inspiring a curiosity and fascination about the world and it’s people’ and that teaching should equip pupils with ‘knowledge about diverse places, people…’ and ‘deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes…’  

So as geography leader, I might explore how our curriculum progresses across year groups, for example in the use of fieldwork and maps, to build pupils’ understanding of physical and human features, feeding pupils’ curiosity to know more about the world around them.  

Each subject is unique, but subject leadership has some common aspects. Here are some of the questions subject leaders might like to explore:

Caveat – the aim is not to have a perfectly prepared answer to each question, but to go through the process of thinking and talking about your subject, to identify where you are and what you might want to focus on:

• What is your overall aim for the subject across your school? What is important about your subject?
• What do you intend for pupils to learn and by when? What are the milestones?
• How is content sequenced? What came before this learning and what comes next?
• What do you intend for pupils to retain and transfer to long term memory from within a unit/topic/year group? How do/will you check?
• What formative and summative assessment tools are used along the way to identify and give feedback on learning to enable pupils to reach milestones?
• How do you facilitate retention of learning, e.g., points where previous learning is revisited and used?
• What do you do to cater for pupils who have not yet attained the expectations?

I hope the above list of questions is helpful to leaders, giving a metaphorical steer. It isn’t designed to be an exhaustive list, and you may choose to explore some questions but not others.

My ideas around subject leadership are likely to continue to evolve, and I look forward to continuing to share my thinking as it develops.

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It is a new calendar year and at this point, I always turn my attention, excitedly, to the annual Year 5 Mathematics Challenge. It is always a pleasure to design and run this competition. Last year, over 250 teams entered from across Hertfordshire and England, and we are looking forward to the same number of competitors this year too.

The HFL competition is a little different from other challenges. It is designed around the skills we believe make great mathematicians. The pitch is matched to the demands of the year 5 curriculum.

Challenge is served up through the style of questions and how they are presented, and teams will have a range of options to consider. Challenge is also experienced in the limited time to solve each question so teams will have to work quickly through steps to solve the problems. This is why we offer guidance to teams in their preparation. Namely, how to assign tasks, how to work separately but together and how to work as a team to negotiate, reason and agree.

The rounds

The challenge has been running for a few years now and is always a highlight. In previous years, the heats and the final were held in person. But more recently and again this year, the competition is being run remotely. Although this means I no longer enjoy the full pleasure of devising new tasks for the estimation round (2019 – estimate the grains of rice in a bag), it is still great fun designing the four rounds:

1) knowledge

2) visual estimation

3) memory

4) knowledge

 

 

You will find guidance and the full range of free practice materials for each round here:

HFL Education Annual Year 5 Mathematics Challenge

The competition

The competition is open to all Year 5 pupils. Schools enter teams of 4 pupils into one of the after-school heats (3.30-4.30pm) and as the 6 ‘heats’ are accessed remotely, teams can take part from their own classrooms. There are 6 February heats to choose from and schools can enter as many teams as they like and on different dates. 

As a maths team, we believe the competition is challenging and fun. To find out what the experience was really like, we visited Oakwood Primary in St Albans to ask their last year’s team to share what it was like for them.

What did you think of the competition?

“It felt a bit harder than our everyday Year 5 maths! We did do practice, so we knew what to expect. There were all sorts of questions from different bits of maths – measures, pattern spotting, arithmetic, shape etc. We had to think really hard to solve them.”

“The multi-step questions were tricky. We really had to work together. One of the questions had a few possible answers. So, we had to split up the tasks to get the question answered in time.”

“We liked the memory round. But it was super-difficult. We weren’t allowed to point. We had to use careful words to say exactly what each bit was and where it was on the page.
We tried to do it logically. We thought about splitting the ‘poster’ up. One observer looked at the left part. The other looked at the right. Then we came back and described this section to each of the ‘drawers’.
When we tried to remember the ‘long numbers’, we broke it down into chunks so we could come back and say each part in turn.”

What was it like working as a team?

“We gave each person a role to figure out their part of the question.”

“If we did it again, we would say don’t answer altogether. Allow everybody a chance to say.
And definitely work out your strategy before you start. The practice questions will help you work on this.”

What advice would you give?

“To be successful, you need: teamwork; communication; efficiency in your maths strategies and working together; and listening to each other’s answers.”

“It is worth getting to know the strengths of your team beforehand. Find out what each person is good at in maths and use that.”

“Practising beforehand helps but it is worth doing this with a time limit, so you get used to the pressure.”

Would you recommend it?

“We would definitely advise doing it. It’s a good experience working as a team and going against the clock!”

 

We thank the Oakwood Primary team for sharing their thoughts.

There has been a different winning school in each competition to date. Perhaps it will be your school’s name engraved on the shield in March 2023.

 

 

As I write, tucked up under a blanket with the fire resolutely off, the January rain is hammering on my roof and pouring down my windows in torrents. Let’s face it: the UK receives a famous amount of precipitation and we do like to wonder and complain about it, or even long for it when it disappears for long stretches. As an adult, I seem to have spent my life amassing different words and phrases to describe the weather in all its forms, but perhaps my greatest vocabulary bank is the one that supports the nuances of rain, enabling me to differentiate to any interested party between slight drizzle, a heavy shower or a torrential downpour.  Will the next generation have this skill at their disposal? Where are our young learners on this linguistic journey?

Beyond the obligatory British weather conversation, it’s a given that a rich language store gives us confidence to articulate ourselves clearly and navigate our day-to day life. Furthermore, all educators know the importance of vocabulary in academic success. Many a study has focused on the correlation between language poverty and success at GCSE level. Pupils can lack broad enough general vocabulary for written communication as well as the technical, subject specific terminology needed to fully access the whole curriculum. The vocabulary gap is insidious, getting its claws into many children at an early age and breeding educational disadvantage from the outset. Without multiple word keys at their disposal, word-poor children cannot unlock further vocabulary. So begins what is commonly termed ‘The Matthew Effect’ of the word rich getting richer, the word poor getting poorer, and the vocabulary gap getting wider.

Systematic vocabulary instruction

That gap was already a chasm for some, but the pandemic has exacerbated the issue. Lockdowns meant limited opportunities for under-fives to socialise at a vital stage of language development. Many of our young children are therefore arriving in school with a depleted lexicon, which impacts communication skills as well as early reading development. Children will naturally build language as they interact with the world around them and absorb new experiences. However, for most, this won’t be enough and direct instruction is also key: we need to give children opportunities to learn new vocabulary through activities that help them play, explore, classify, categorise, compare, contrast, detect patterns and construct meaning.

Most schools have, over the last decade or more, built in an element of vocabulary instruction in reading, writing and spoken language activities. Many schools have devised systematic approaches and programmes of study. However, the rate at which children accrue new language doesn’t always match the urgency of the disadvantage some pupils have in this area. Whether this be the ‘30-million-word gap’ cited almost thirty years ago by Hart and Risley (Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young Children) or a more conservative figure, the scale of the problem is undeniable.

Bringing words (back) to life

In 2002, Beck, McKeown and Kucan brought us the book Bringing Words to Life, an indispensable guide to primary practitioners which introduced us to the concept of 3 tiers of vocabulary. These tiers are now part of our teaching vernacular, explaining how we might classify words in terms of difficulty and frequency, with Tier One being everyday core words for naming nouns, actions and so on; Tier Two being alternative words for Tier One and Tier Three comprising technical vocabulary, context specific words that are peculiar to a specific subject. Using my weather theme as an illustration we might have

• Tier 1: rain
• Tier 2: drizzle, shower, precipitation
• Tier 3: relief, frontal and convectional rainfall (and yes, I had to look these up)

If we assume that children will pick up the simple naming terms from everyday communications, and accept that we will probably need to explicitly teach most tier 3 words as and when they crop up, that leaves us with a raft of tier two words to teach. These are typically synonyms of words we already know, pertaining to concepts we already understand. Tier two comprises the literary language that adds breadth and depth to our word store as it seeks to evoke a more specific idea, create a precise image as well as keep our minds active and engaged. These are the words that they will be able to apply in a variety of contexts- words that will enrich their reading comprehension as well as writing composition. Words that build their knowledge and understanding of the world. This is where we place our focus.

Vocabulary activities to try out

Sticking with my weather theme, here are a few wintery ideas designed to build upon children’s Tier Two vocabulary:

• A graphic of a thermometer adding words rather than figures will help children to articulate the nuances of how warm or cold they feel: plot out boiling and freezing and encourage pupils to discover and order words and phrases to fit in between these extremes. Include less formal words and idiomatic expressions such as ‘a bit nippy’ or ‘stone cold’. Are there any regional phrases that are commonly used in your area? ‘Taters’ and ‘brass monkeys’ were used in my childhood.
• In the lead up to Christmas we ran a Twitter campaign entitled #WinterWonderWords, which explored the etymology of some seasonal language and provided activities that could be done based on each of the featured words. These wintery words still feel relevant this side of the festivities, and might be used as five-minute activities to spark word awareness.
  Winter Wonder Words (pdf)
• As well as through explicit teaching of specific words and phrases, much of our vocabulary learning can also be acquired through indirect life experiences. Arguably the most powerful of these is reading. The world of literature gives us access to a vast storehouse of words. Through broad, deep and frequent reading we build our knowledge of the unfamiliar, including the expansion of our vocabulary in the context - and upon the foundations- of the language we already know. Consider creating a wall of seasonal literary quotes. I have included a few of my favourites but you’ll have more of your own, I’m sure.
  Wintery quotes (pptx)
  Ask the children to imagine each word costs £1 and you have given them £10. Which words and/ or phrases would they choose to buy? Why?
• Can the children ‘magpie’ words and phrases to use in their own writing? Setting descriptions are a great way to encourage children to paint a picture with words- to bring an image to life. Describe a familiar location such as the school grounds, a local park, a riverside, a balcony in summer and then contrast with a description of the same place in winter.

 

 And just like that, World Book Day is fast approaching. Over the years, we have showcased a mixture of specifically maths themed books, as well as some childhood classics that can be given a mathematical twist.

Here is an A to Z of some of our favourites. Which ones do you have sitting on your bookshelf at home or in the classroom?

A is for Anno: ‘Anno’s Counting Book’ by Mitsumasa Anno

This beautifully illustrated book shows a village over twelve months with opportunities to count, see quantities being combined, find the numbers that live inside other numbers and to subitise. For the month of January, alone in the snow, stands one house in front of one tree, with one child building one snowman. Later, it is June with six buildings, split into three pairs, by pathways with six ducks walking in two rows of three. Early number sense is the focus here, learning about quantity, but there is also plenty of scope for developing positional language and ordinal numbers too.

B is for Belong: ‘Which One Doesn't Belong?’ by Christopher Danielson

The first page of this book proudly states: ‘All of the answers are correct!’ With 101 reasons why each shape could or couldn’t belong, there are endless opportunities for talk and discussion. With countless possibilities including size, shape, colour, angles, symmetry and orientation, this book really can span all ages. There is just one question – Which one do you think doesn’t belong?

C is for Cat: ‘The Tangram Cat’ by Maranke Rinck and Martijn van der Linden

Part of the charm of this book is the tangram illustrations, rendered as animal companions created for the Tangram Cat. At the back of the book is a set of tangram pieces for children to use so that they can re-create the animals made by the boy.  Tangrams are a seven-piece Chinese puzzle that allow learners to explore the properties of shape and consider how larger shapes can be created from smaller shapes.  Composition and decomposition allow them to become more geometrically fluent. Can they make another animal? Can they use the pieces to make a boat for the cat to escape from the crocodile in?

D is for Dinosaur: ‘Prehistoric Actual Size’ by Steve Jenkins

This book creates awe and wonder as it allows you to come face to face with the ten-foot-tall terror bird or imagine a millipede that is over six foot long! It provides a plethora of measurement opportunities: recreating full size measurements outside, converting from one unit to another (cm to inches etc), comparing and sorting animals.

E is for Eeyore: ‘Return to the Hundred Acre Wood’ by David Benedictus

Christopher Robin was at school. But during the summer holiday, he returned to the forest to visit his friends Piglet, Tigger, Pooh Bear, Owl, Eeyore, Rabbit and Roo and they had lots of adventures. Look at the map:

 

 

If Christopher Robin started at his house, he would have to walk 6m + 2m + 3m + 11m + 16m to Eeyore’s House. This is 38m.

• How far would he have to walk to visit each of his friends from his house?
• Who lives the furthest distance apart?
• Where would you like to walk?

F is for Freddie: ‘Freddie and the Fairy’ by Julia Donaldson

A delightful tale in which Freddie is rewarded with wishes after rescuing Bessie-Bell the fairy. In the story, Freddie receives some ‘unexpected’ gifts from Bessie-Bell the fairy. Can you estimate the size (height or length, whichever is greater) of all the different things Bessie-Bell gives Freddie?

• How could we show that in a graph or table?
• Which type of graph would be most appropriate?
• What could the scale be? Which unit of measurement?
• How else could we order them? (e.g. weight, most ‘wanted’ pet – class survey)
• Can you think of other ‘gifts’ that Freddie could have asked for?

G is for Geometry: ‘The Greedy Triangle’ by Marilyn Burns

Here, we have the captivating story of a young triangle who is discontented. By visiting his local ‘Shape Shifter’, he is gifted another side and another angle.  Lo and behold the triangle is transformed into a quadrilateral! This book naturally links to practical exploration of polygons, their properties and generates lots of maths talk. Be sure to stop and give the children time to observe and comment about, ‘What is the same? What is different?’.

H is for Holes: ‘Holes’ by Louis Sachar

Stanley gets wrongly accused of stealing a famous baseball player’s trainers and gets sent to Camp Green Lake Juvenile Detention Centre. However, there is no lake, just desert, and his punishment is digging holes. 

The holes that Stanley has to dig have to be exactly the same size as his shovel – his shovel is 5 feet (150cm) long. If the hole he digs is the same depth, width and length as his shovel:

• What shape is his hole?
• What is the area of the base of his hole?
• What is the volume of the hole he digs?

I is for Infinity: ‘Infinity and Me’ by Kate Hosford.

The maths in this book is not incidental but it is wonderfully philosophical, due to the main character’s quest to make sense of infinity.  Uma travels through different ways of thinking about infinity by asking for and considering the views of others.  This may allow discussions about how we listen and try to accommodate different ways of seeing and that by considering other viewpoints, we might better discover our own. Infinity comes to life in a sequence of beautifully conceived illustrations.  Which of the illustrations makes most sense to the children?  How would they describe infinity to Uma?

J is for Jack: ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ retold by Ronnie Randall

The beans are ‘planted’ by the children and overnight, the massive beanstalk ‘grows’ in the classroom. They are so excited to see it along with the giant’s footprints across the floor leading to the sandpit. The children put their feet inside the giant’s footprints and talk about ‘how many times bigger’ and ‘how many times smaller’. They also compare their height with the giant. If the footprint is six times bigger than their feet, the giant is six times taller than them, which is shown on a height chart on the wall.

K is for Kindness: ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’ by Onjali Q. Raúf

The empty chair at the back of the class is now occupied by Ahmet.  As the nine-year-old refugee is able to tell the story of his journey from war, his friends make plans to help him. Ahmet helps his friends learn more about him by sharing his escape from war. He draws important parts of his journey to help him tell the story.

• Draw a map of a journey in your home or when you are out walking. Think about the directions you take and how far you travel
• Can you give instructions to someone else to take the same journey?

L is for Ladybird: ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks

The quiet, little ladybird that lives on a noisy farm ends up saving the day when the prize cow is nearly stolen! Ladybirds are a type of beetle which have six legs and two sets of wings. Some ladybirds have no spots and others have up to 20 spots.

• How many spots do you think the ladybird in ‘What the Ladybird Heard’ has? How do you know?
• Can you draw or make your own ladybird?
• How many spots are on half of your ladybird?
• Which page in the book has the most legs on it?

M is for Million: ‘How much is a Million?’ by David Schwartz

Pipkin the penguin goes on a search for big numbers and gets to meet 100 penguins and spots 1000 snowflakes in the sky. The surprise gigantic fold-out poster at the end of the book never fails to produce delighted gasps from Reception pupils and year 6 alike!  

After reading, you could write your own example as a class to link to work on number magnitude, for example: 1 beach, 10 seagulls, 100 crabs, 1000 shells, 1 million grains of sand etc.

N is for Numbers: ‘One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab’ by April Sayre and Jeff Sayre

This book is a great book for rehearsing counting in multiples and for exploring composition of numbers. The numbers are made by combining the feet of the animals. Sometimes, this is a multiple of a single animal (ten spiders make 80) and sometimes, it is a combination of animals (a dog and snail make 5).

O is for Ocean: ‘The Snail and Whale’ by Julia Donaldson

A fishy tale about an unlikely friendship between a rather small snail and an incredibly big whale!  Did you know blue whales can be up to 30m long? How many handprints can you fit along 1 metre?  How many would fit along 30 metres? An adult can often get 9-12 handprints along a strip 1 metre long. How about you?

P is for Penguin: ‘How Big Is A Million?’ by Anna Milbourne

Pipkin the penguin goes on a search for big numbers and gets to meet 100 penguin and spots 1000 snowflakes in the sky. The surprise gigantic fold-out poster at the end of the book never fails to produce delighted gasps from Reception pupils and year 6 alike!  After reading you could write your own example as a class to link to work on number magnitude, for example: 1 beach, 10 seagulls, 100 crabs, 1000 shells, 1 million grains of sand etc.

Q is for Queen: ‘Mariella Queen of the Skies’ by Eoin Colfer

Mariella is a girl whose head is bursting with ideas but there is just one problem – there are not enough hours in the day! This book provides a wealth of opportunities to consider creativity in maths and how it feels to grapple with complex ideas. This book provides opportunities to further consider distance and travelling speed, percentages and expressing ideas as equations. In addition, inside the front cover, there are examples of other women who, like Mariella, have come up with some brilliant ideas.

R is for Rabbit: ‘Guess How Much I Love You’ by Sam McBratney

Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare spend a little time before they go to bed, trying to show how much they love each other. Turns out, love is not an easy thing to measure.

STRETCH! How wide can you stretch your arms?

 

 

• REACH! How high can you reach? How does this compare to other people in your family?
• COMPARE! Have you ever noticed the relationship between your arm span and your height? 
• HOP TO IT! How high can you hop? How far can you hop?

S is for Shmequal: ‘Equal Shmequal’ by Virginia Kroll

This book explores ‘being equal’ using the familiar ideas of a tug-of-war and trying to balance a seesaw. The animals try to work out which teams would balance the seesaw, with each animal jumping on until they get the perfect combinations. By estimating how heavy each animal is likely to be, the children could suggest who should jump on next and on which side. They could also suggest combinations that would not balance the seesaw.

T is for the Twits: ‘The Twits’ by Roald Dahl

A story about the most horrid couple ever who love to play tricks on each other. Mr Twit makes Mrs Twit think she is shrinking by adding disks of wood to her walking stick. If he adds 3mm to them every day, how much longer would the walking stick be after a week, a fortnight, a month and a year? How tall would it be if it started off 600mm long?

U is for Understanding: ‘How Many?’ by Christopher Danielson  

As the subtitle on the front cover states, this is ‘A Different Kind of Counting Book’. Each page has multiple things to count, with the opportunity to discuss different strategies for counting. For example, on the page with a pair of shoes, you may choose to see the 1 box, 2 shoelaces or the 10 eyelets on each shoe which make a total of 20.

V is for Village: ‘If the World Were a Village’ written by David J. Smith

This book takes a unique look at the world as if it were a community of 100 people, making it a clever link to proportion and percentages. The second edition had its information updated in 2017, so that it reflects how the world is changing. It takes you through nationalities, languages, and aspects of the way we live, for example, 85/100 is the proportion of the world’s population who have electricity.

W is for Web: Charlotte’s Web’ by E.B. White

A pig called Wilbur, the runt of his litter, is raised by a girl named Fern. When Wilbur is sold to Fern’s uncle, he makes a new friend in Charlotte; a spider.

Have you ever looked closely at spider webs to see how beautifully they are structured and the patterns they create? I have drawn two of my own webs based on Charlotte’s.

 

 

• One of my webs has 4 lines that cross (or intersect) in the centre and one has 3.
• One of my webs has 3 shapes similar to an octagon that increase in size and the other has 3 hexagons.
• I can also see lots of shapes that are similar to triangles!

What other spider webs can you design?

Are there any relationships between the amount of shapes that you can see and the number of intersecting lines?

X is for Xterminating the curse: ‘The Math Curse’ by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

When the teacher, Mrs Fibonacci, tells her class that they can think of almost everything as a maths problem, one pupil begins to see the world very differently. From this day onwards, everything becomes a maths problem. Getting out of bed and dressed in the morning, being ready for the bus, sharing cupcakes fairly and counting fingers on the children on different planets provide a rich variety of opportunities to notice the maths everywhere. But this is one maths curse we would highly recommend. Each page provides a rich source of maths to explore. Its final problem provides a great finale to a cleverly and beautifully illustrated book.

Y is for You: ‘You Choose’ by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt

Imagine you could go anywhere, meet anyone and do anything. You choose! Although not explicitly linked to maths concepts, the colourful pages provide endless opportunities to reason, justify and make connections, as well as practice reasoning sentence stems such as:

• I have noticed / decided…
• First, …. next, ….
• If… then…
• I think that…

Z is for Zebra: ‘Abigail’ by Catherine Rayner

This beautifully illustrated book is about a very patient giraffe called Abigail who loves to count. She tries to count several different things but the things she wants to count keep moving or getting eaten! Eventually, her friends suggest she counts the flowers in a field. This lovely book for younger children highlights how difficult learning to count is and some of the tricky bits when doing so.

 

As a member of the HFL primary maths team, I spend most of my days in schools, thinking about and developing teaching and learning.  Particularly through supporting subject leaders with their monitoring, and teachers with their planning and delivery of lessons, I am lucky enough to get to see and talk about a lot of maths teaching and learning across many different schools.  It is through this experience and through reflection with the wider primary maths team, that common themes start to emerge, and the team can start to consider how to best support schools in their endeavours.  

So, what are we noticing in classrooms?  Where might we be able to make small changes to practice that can make a difference?  Our collective contemplation brought us this time to…

… sticky notes.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  Sticky notes – the next silver bullet?  Of course not… but stick with me (no pun intended). Here is my thinking…

How do you plan your maths lessons?

There are two areas that I am regularly noticing in schools where computer-based slides are causing problems.  The first of these occurs at the point of planning. 

Planning expectations can be very different across schools and the maths team have long been advocates for ensuring that the precious time that teachers have for planning is well spent - ensuring that lessons are well structured and focused on building success for all their pupils. 

In some schools, planning has become only about preparing presentations to support teachers with their lesson delivery and whilst this may not cause a problem, there are dangers.  This is probably most dangerous where schools are “sharing planning” rather than undertaking “shared planning”.  What I mean by that is where one person in a school is doing the thinking about planning and providing slides to their colleagues.

Now, I am all for teachers supporting each other and have never been one to “re-invent the wheel”, but one of the keys to successful teaching is thinking about the learning.

It is through this thinking that teachers consider their implementation, the possible misconceptions, the key questions, the points at which particular focus might be needed. 

It is through this thinking that teachers consider the needs of their pupils and what they might do differently to respond to these.  If teachers have not thought ahead about their lessons, it is less likely that their teaching will meet pupil needs.

It is clear in my mind that all teachers need to be drawn back to looking at the focus of teaching so that any provided resources and slides can be set in context – so that there is focus on learning rather than presentation of a slide deck and activities without real thought about the learning they are driving at. 

This is where the simple sticky note can come in.

Why use sticky notes for planning?

At the point of planning, sticky notes can be used to draw attention to key aspects of the planning such as key vocabulary, a hinge question and any likely misconceptions that will need to be exposed and addressed. 

The simple act of reviewing the teaching and identifying these key focus areas leads to teachers being clearer about the lesson focus. I have to admit that I often do this when planning and then take a sticky note with me while I am teaching, just to keep me on track.  I find that the act of distilling the teaching into its key elements makes me much more precise in my modelling and expectations of pupils’ responses.

Some examples:

This Year 5 teacher has used a sticky note to prepare key questions and activities for comparing fractions.

 

 

This Year 2 teacher has used a sticky note to identify resources and manipulatives required for the lesson. Handy for getting prepared beforehand.

 

 

Digital sticky notes are also an option. This teacher has used them to identify concrete resources (manipulatives) to prepare and model with, scaffolds for pupils to use and a guided group teaching plan.

 

 

Are your pupils making connections between models and abstract recording? How do you model that recording?

The second area where computer slides can be problematic, and could be swapped for sticky notes, is at the point of teaching. 

Firstly, I often now see teachers using slides which show representations on them and talking with confidence about what children can see on these slides.  The problem is that what is clear to the teacher, is not always clear to the novice learner. 

Particularly when a process is modelled, it is crucial that teachers draw attention to what is happening and explicitly make links between any models and their abstract equivalent. 

In my experience, this is best done through:

• using the models together alongside each other and through adding new information to the model or showing where the values come from while stepping through the process.

Or…

• starting with a worked example and then unpicking and modelling the steps that led to its development. 

Pre-prepared slides can present problems here, especially if there is not enough room to complete the abstract model alongside a visual representation; if the slide is unable to retain modelling while the next step in the process is animated and if the quality of the interactive writing tool makes it hard to annotate the model.

Why use sticky notes for modelling and making connections?

I am a huge fan of a visualiser to support with live modelling and connection building and the fact that a sticky note can be placed anywhere, removed, and moved around enables me to make repeated use of it to check that pupils are building understanding of what I am teaching.

For example, when modelling “think 10” as shown below, I find it really helpful to place the sticky note right next to the tens frame as we step through the process of regrouping the 9 into 3 and 6 more as shown below.  I can then reuse this sticky note at different points in the teaching sequence, with different pupils around the classroom.  For example, I can start from the sticky note and ask the child to build the calculation and move the counters to show what the model is representing, I can leave the concrete model and ask children to complete their own recording of the calculation and check it against the sticky note.

 

 

Removal of the sticky note also allows me to use the same calculation and to consider how this could be done differently, by regrouping the 7 into 1 and 6 in order to make 10 and 6 more.  And showing the sticky notes together enables discussion around calculation efficiency and choice making.

It may seem like a small change to practice, but being able to move the modelling, completed within a teaching input with manipulatives, to place it in front of a particular group or child, enables easy tracking and encourages much greater focus and pupil interaction with it. 

It is crucial that pupils are interacting with the maths to build their understanding and it is also imperative that I can hear and assess how the learning is developing and the use of a movable sticky-note model can support with this.

To read more about the Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract approach: The ‘CPA’ approach

How do you assess pupil understanding in the moment and recall further from the point of teaching?

My final shout out for sticky notes is to support assessment after teaching, either within independent practice or during whole class rehearsal.   

Why use sticky notes to model explanations within a speaking frame?

In the working wall shown below, you can see how the speaking frame, developed during teaching one day, can be returned to on a different occasion, with a new starting point to cause pupils to refocus on the model and apply what they have learnt. 

This application of learning to a familiar model enables retrieval practice connected to the concept and so supports remembering.  This is also a valuable assessment point, where you can check where pupils are in their learning. 

 

 

Of course, sticky notes are an excellent resource at this point to jot down the initials of pupils where further input may be needed and if you are lucky enough to have other adults in the room, you can make use of their eyes and ears to note down pupils across the classroom. 

Whiteboard work and talk activities are great opportunities for assessment, but it is vital that this assessment information is reviewed carefully and that no child is missed so that learning insecurities and gaps can be closed.

Why not use sticky notes to create an interactive working wall?

Here, Year 6 pupils have added their thoughts to an ‘always, sometimes, never’ question. Using the sticky notes allows them to review and respond to peer responses and provides some quick assessment information for the teacher about security of understanding.

 

 

For more ideas for enhancing your working wall: 4 ways to make your maths working wall work

Of course, it is not actually the sticky note itself that makes the difference, but if you are noticing similar issues across your school, it is probably time to consider the small changes to practice that will enable:

• teachers to think deeply about the learning in their lessons,
• pupils to clearly see the connections between models to deepen their understanding,
• rigorous formative assessment so that no child is missed.

 

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It feels like a while ago now but the Complete Mathematics conference for mathematics leaders and teachers in primary schools in London was only a few weeks ago.  On the day, I was struck by some recurring themes and mentioned in my workshop with Gill Shearsby-Fox, some of the words that I had jotted down that I felt connected them.  In the spirit of the generous collaboration that was so evident on the day, I thought I would share these, in case they help others to reflect too. I have highlighted my key word takeaways in bold below and tried to pull together these threads into wider themes.

 

 

When discussing the maths landscape and what we are noticing in our work with maths leaders, teachers and learners, I was particularly struck by 3 themes:

• relationships
• choices
• implementation

The theme of relationships was two-fold: the relationships that we have with pupils and our unwavering belief that all can be successful in mathematics and the importance of supporting pupils to see relationships within mathematics.  For me, pupil relationships are inextricably linked with implementation and so I will come back to that. 

Mathematical relationships

The first recurring theme of the day then, was the importance of mathematical relationships. Mathematical relationships were considered in terms of:

• building number knowledge
• considering conceptual arithmetic structure
• seeing relationships when we transfer between different CPA models
• development of calculation strategy and considered inherently within approaches to problem-solving.

Non-routine problem solving: 'I know that...I know how...I know when...'

Stephanie Taylor @TeacherTaylorS

I guess it should come as no surprise that relationships were a central theme on a day focused on mathematics education.  As Stephanie Taylor reminded us so well:

“Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline.”

(National Curriculum of England, 2013)

and so of course relationships are integral to understanding and applying mathematics. 

I was particularly struck in her session on problem-solving, with the relationship between fluency, reasoning and problem solving.

Her use of a play script to be explicit in exposing this relationship was genius and I loved how you could hear the voices of problem solving (PS), reasoning (R) and fluency (Fl) as they approached, first a practical problem, and then applied this strategy development to a mathematical NRICH problem.

 

 

To infinity and beyond! Teaching mental calculation strategies for understanding.

Siobhan King @siobhanjking

Gill Shearsby-Fox @FoxShearsby

Within the workshop that Gill and I led, we focused on developing fact recall within 20 and application of this to calculation strategy to build efficiency.  I guess this might have been why relationships were so firmly in my mind on the day. 

The most important message that we wanted to get out there was the importance of developing relationships when building number fact knowledge to enable learning to be secured and allow the application of this to calculation strategy development further along the mathematical journey. 

We noted the problems of pupils getting “stuck” at counting and the danger of pupils who move straight from counting to ‘mastery’ and rapid recall of facts, without truly considering relationships. It is only through an explicit focus on relationships that facts can be connected, and this is what enables learning to be built forward.  

 

 

Teaching and learning maths with real and virtual manipulatives

Bernie Westacott @berniewestacott

Bernie Westacott’s session screamed out relationships when he considered the importance of helping pupils to transfer between different CPA models to build their mathematical understanding. 

What resonated here was how crucial it is that manipulatives help children to make sense of the mathematics. 

Bernie was a font of knowledge and with the focus on the day being virtual manipulatives, he was not only able to signpost where to find these and show how they could be used, but also to draw attention to the fact that it is pupil interaction with manipulatives which enables deep thinking and connection building that is key to their successful use.  This is what enables pupils to make sense of the relationships between the manipulative and the abstract concept that they represent and so build a deeper mathematical understanding.

The next big thing in mathematics education?

Kieran Mackle @Kieran_M_Ed

The whole focus of Kieran Mackle’s session was arithmetic structure – the importance of understanding what the different structures are and how these can be built within curriculum sequences.  Relationships were implicit in this.  What really resonated here was the need to ensure that within teaching focus we explore how the structures are connected and to be explicit in exposing and using this.  For example, whilst building a map of the relationships within additive structures, Kieran was able to identify how augmentation within addition is intimately connected to reduction within subtraction.

 

 

Exploring the relationships between the structures of arithmetic, enables pupils to think deeply and therefore development of a richer mathematical understanding.  Importantly, explicit teaching focus on the structures also enables us to force pupils to make choices so that they think deeply about when different structures occur rather than blindly applying the operation of the day.  The importance of thinking deeply about the questions we choose to drive the teaching focus struck a chord.

Choices

Kieran’s session was not the only time where choices became a theme. 

Stephanie’s focus on problem-solving was underpinned by the desire to develop pupils who make choices as this is an inherent part in behaving mathematically.

In our workshop, we drew attention to the danger of pupils who do not make choices in their application of calculation strategies and who therefore do not develop efficiency in their strategy selection.

It was teacher choices that Bernie made me think about.  Absolutely, he gave us a wealth of options in terms of manipulatives to choose from.  But more importantly, he drew attention to the necessity to consider how the manipulatives under consideration related to the target concept so that they could do the intended job. 

The importance of teachers thinking deeply about the mathematics learning and making choices to enable it to be built securely is absolutely at the root of my final theme…implementation.

Implementation

For all the curriculum design and intentions that leaders have, this will only ever be as powerful as the way in which it is implemented.  Documents of intent and vision statements can only be measured in their success through the lived experiences of pupils and the impact of what happens in our classrooms. 

All the conference sessions were thoughtful and practical and had effective implementation at their heart. 

However, Matt Swain’s session stood out as being packed full of this focus on moving from intent to implementation.  

Mastery at primary

Matt Swain @mattswain36

Based on the belief that all children can become successful mathematicians, Matt shared how practice has been developed across five schools to enable every child to succeed.  My biggest takeaway from Matt’s session was his clarity of approach to closing gaps for every child and the systems and structure which have enabled this to be implemented relentlessly and with rigour.

What is needed to support teachers and to enable implementation to be successful?

A few things jumped out from references and connections between the various sessions:

• teachers who appreciate the beauty and power of mathematics and want to build a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about it
• teachers who understand mathematical ideas so that they can help make connections
• teaching that is well sequenced and builds new knowledge by enabling pupils to actively focus on it
• teachers who put pupils firmly at the centre of their learning, enabling them to embody the learning and see relationships to help them make sense of what they know, to secure it and build on it across the whole mathematical journey
• leaders who create the conditions and structure which enable all of this to happen.

Well that’s my thinking deeply about mathematics education that came from the conference. I hope that perhaps it has helped you to make some connections too.

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Further reading:

Why can’t Johnny remember the basic facts?

'It ain't what you intend, it's the way it is implemented, and that's what gets results'

How can we advantage the disadvantaged?

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Making Fluent and Flexible Calculators Project

 

Express an interest in joining the next round of the Making Fluent and Flexible Calculators Project.

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 The Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Early Years provision gives settings and schools a comprehensive external evaluation of their practice and provision. In the first of our guest blogs, Hayley Yendell, co-headteacher at Roots Federation, tells us what the EEEYP experience is like through the eyes of a school leader.

 

 

Describe your school: size, staff numbers and set up.

As the heads of a federation we have been part of not one, but four EEEYPS in the Autumn term of 2022! When we booked them, we did wonder if four was a good idea, but it really was such a worthwhile experience. Let us tell you more…

‘Roots Federation’ is a federation of three maintained Nursery Schools (including one daycare setting.) These are in various locations in Hertfordshire; Muriel Green Nursery in St Albans, Heath Lane Nursery School in Hemel Hempstead and Oxhey Nursery School in Oxhey. The Federation was formed in April 2022 and we now serve over 300 children from the ages of 3 months to 5 years old. Each school has a senior teacher in charge of the operational running of the day with the two heads in charge of the strategic running of all three. All school leaders were keen to identify the priorities for each school from which to build upon so we invested in the four EEEYPs: one in all three schools and one in the daycare in Muriel Green

What made you book the EEEYP service for your setting? What were you hoping to get out of it?

In the face of the current bleak financial picture in education the financial investment in these evaluations was considerable. However, the aim of Roots is to achieve aligned autonomy; a shared ambition across the federation to achieve excellent early years education with the flexibility to keep aspects that are unique to each school and the community it serves. With a staff team over 100 across the three schools with various experience and skill sets it was essential to get an external evaluation of the quality of education. For us, this was the key to identifying priorities across the federation as well as those unique to each school.

 

 

Can you give a description of your experience of the EEEYP in your setting, what day looks like, what your team felt about it etc?

There really is no preparation for an EEEYP; it is all about seeing the school/setting in action and observing usual practice. We explained to our staff teams that we wanted them to do what they usually do with no unusual practice. The staff were understandably nervous but eager to share what they were doing well and understand how to improve further.  

The team arrived at 8am and from that point until the end of the day they worked tirelessly to see as much as they could. There were regular checking in points, with us as leaders, to give incidental feedback and opportunities to share successes with the HFL Early Years team onsite.

During the day the team covered a wide range of scrutiny activities; parents were invited to discuss their thoughts with the team, leaders discussed provision and a few documents had been reviewed prior to arriving. The team were in regular conversation with staff and children and were in the sessions for most of the day; child initiated learning, tidy up time, lunchtime….whatever goes on in a day they will see!

What was most useful about having the EEEYP?

The EEEYP process was incredibly thorough and robust, and the team left no stone unturned. Tenacious scrutiny and uncompromising feedback at the end of the evaluation ensured that school leaders, including governors, had confidence in the strengths and areas for development for each school.

What have you developed since having the EEEYP in your setting?

We were active partners in the whole process; shared observations offered professional development for senior leaders. Since the evaluations our senior staff have developed greater confidence in conducting learning walks. Alongside this immediate impact we have been able to build on the strengths in all schools sharing expertise from school to school and implementing a network of teams.

The verbal feedback and the written report clearly outlined priority areas and gave clear recommendations on how to achieve these priorities. These provided a clear starting point for discussions with each school team and these discussions formed the basis for each school-based action plan. Senior teachers now have far greater clarity on the key actions needed to drive improvements in their own school.

At a Federation level we were able to look at themes across our three schools and these were the springboard for booking shared training, introducing targeted coaching and informing the termly performance appraisal target for the curriculum team.  

Would you recommend other settings have the EEEYP? Why?

The evaluations do require resilience; be prepared for honest feedback and challenge. However, If you want the very best for the children in your school/setting and want external validation of your self-assessment then we would highly recommend investing in an EEEYP.

 

 

If you are interested in booking an EEEYP or if you would like to find out more about the process, please contact us on 01438 544464 or email earlyyearsteam@hfleducation.org.

 

In this, the second of our guest blogs, Simona Kanani at Woodland Magic Pre-school tells us what the EEEYP experience is like through the eyes of the early years professional.

 

 

We are a pack-away PVI pre-school/nursery set in woodland.  We received our Ofsted registration in September 2020 and currently have 28 children on roll with 5 members of staff, 2 of whom are Level 3 apprentices.  I decided to book the EEEYP because I knew we would have an Ofsted inspection within 30 months of opening and, although my deputy and myself had been through numerous inspections my other staff members had no idea what to expect.  I wanted them to have the experience of an external evaluation of our provision and practice so that they would gain an understanding that it is a team effort.

The day started with staff introductions and then completed the learning walk.  After this the joint observation was carried out and all staff had the opportunity to talk with the consultants.  The consultants tracked children and spoke to their keyworker.  They then conducted an interview and looked at some documentation.  After observing in the outside area, they gave their feedback.  My staff were amazed at the thoroughness and the way their knowledge was ‘tested’.  However, it also gave them a sense of pride being able to demonstrate their knowledge.  I think for my staff it allowed them to see why all the staff meetings, training, CPD and supervisions where we share information and reflect is so important.  For myself it highlighted that although we still evidence a lot, (because it helps us), no one needs to see it because the evidence is in what you say and do.

 

 

The most useful part of the EEEYP was having the opportunity to find out what was and what wasn’t working.  We knew some things were not working and being able to talk this through with the auditors and come up with strategies together was so very helpful.  Sometimes you can over-think things when a simple solution is all that is needed.

Since our EEEYP we have developed a rolling snack and changed our daily routine.  This is working so much better, as the younger children have the freedom to explore/learn outside, which is age and stage appropriate;  and the older children have quality teaching on the carpet time and during adult-guided activities.  As these are new changes, we are constantly reflecting on them to ensure they continue to work or can be improved upon.

2 months after the EEEYP and embracing the outcomes it highlighted, we had our first Ofsted inspection.  If we had not had the EEEYP, we would not have been able to move our setting forward as well.  It allowed us to look at things from different angles and in a different light.  It pulled us together as a team and made us all realise the importance of sharing information and working together.  This is why I would recommend EEEYP and so do all my staff.

If you are interested in booking an EEEYP or if you would like to find out more about the process, please contact us on 01438 544464 or email earlyyearsteam@hfleducation.org

 

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Blog guest authored by Simona Kanani from the Woodland Magic Pre-school.

 

 Children start in early years settings at a variety of ages. Some as early as a few months old, and others a little later, at maybe 2 or 3 years old. However, despite the differing ages of when children start in settings, a strategy that many settings implement to help with the settling in process is asking for a family photograph for a family display board or book.

Parents are often asked to provide a photograph as part of the settling in process, or sometimes at those busy drop off and pick up times, and staff dutifully wait for the photographs to either be brought in or to be emailed across. Often, time ticks away and that family picture never arrives. Have we ever stopped to wonder why this is? It is doubtful that any parent is purposefully not providing a photograph.

 ‘Oh, my goodness, I’m so sorry, it’s slipped my mind, I’ll bring one tomorrow’, is a phrase I have heard more times than I can count, but still, that photograph doesn’t come.  Although some might wonder why this is such a big of an ask, I think we really need to consider what are the barriers?

First and foremost, does that family have a photograph of them altogether? Not everyone can afford lovely professional photoshoots and therefore, lots of family pictures include a vital missing person - the one taking the photographs.

What about a selfie then? But selfies taken for social media posts with comedy filters, a little blurry and with someone cut out of the side are likely to be pushed aside by parents as ‘unsuitable’ for the setting family board.

A photograph to be displayed for all to see might cause anxiety for some parents.

Parents who are dropping off at 7.30 a.m. and picking up at 6.30 p.m. might not have the time, physically or mentally, to be carrying out additional tasks, particularly if they are navigating a return to work.

And some families just might not have the facilities to take photographs, or to print or email them to the setting.

 

 

So now we have thought about these barriers, what can we do? If you find that you are not receiving family photographs, could you take a quick photograph at drop off or pick up instead? Or could your board be about your setting family, as children and practitioners? If you are a setting that uses an online sharing platform, could you download a photograph from there and use that for the board?

Reflect on the importance of a child’s family and how underrepresentation can cause feelings of upset, anger and loneliness. All children should feel like they belong and should be represented in their environment. A child without a family picture on the family display is like a child not having a peg or drawer or being welcomed into the setting with a smile. It’s not conceivable that we would allow any of those things to happen.

It might also be helpful to consider how your family board is used with the children in the setting or class? What learning are you hoping to encourage? Is it effective in its current format?

Or are the photographs displayed for children to stumble across?

For younger children, family books are often more successful because children can hold them, look through them, carry them around and share with their practitioners, much like their favourite story book.

I have also seen some lovely examples where the children have drawn themselves and their family members, making a stick puppet or attaching to a wooden block, spoon or peg person. This allows the children to handle them and re-enact experiences and use language.

Families, no matter their make up or size, are integral to a child. If we are choosing to create displays or books depicting and celebrating all families, then all children must be involved. Let’s make sure that all children feel as though their family, and by association the child themselves, matter.