17 May 2024

Let’s talk Maths. Last week, the teachers reviewed where we were at with our Maths programmes against 9 key areas of practice: 

From this, a number of areas for schoolwide next steps and individual team goals have been determined. In the big picture, our Maths data is good, strong for many children. Many of our children find themselves in the Maths 'extension' activities and clubs at EBIS. Maths data has been consistently stronger than Writing data.

Literacy tends to be highlighted more often - not just in our schools but also the media. Maths does feel not as connected to big ideas or as connected across the curriculum as Literacy...... just to highlight a few thoughts!

For many years now, we have tried hard to dispel the myth of the 'don't worry, I wasn't good at Maths at school either' conversation and build that Growth Mindset towards Maths. We have teachers attending Maths leadership learning and investigating the latest Maths teaching research.

We are anticipating further direction as to curriculum changes for Maths and Statistics coming as part of the Curriculum Refresh, at this stage due to be implemented in 2025. So you can anticipate hearing a whole lot more about Maths!

Jo Boaler is a British education author and Professor of Mathematics Education at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and has been one of the leading lights in the area of building mathematical communities. I came across this article a couple of weeks ago and it was a timely reminder of the different schools of thought that exist when leaning on research. I always come back to - one way does not suit all and, just like Goldilocks, we have to try different bowls, chairs and beds to see what is going to make a difference for a child. Anyway, here is the article, if you are interested.

Yes, let's talk Maths!