Successful Primary Maths Curriculum Day for Red Kite Learning Trust
Posted 3rd May 2024
On 25th April, Maths Leads from each of the ten Red Kite Learning Trust primary schools gathered at our central office, in Harrogate, to take participate in a Collaborative Workshop looking at our Primary Maths Curriculum.
The session was led by Libby Sims, our Primary Maths Lead and a teacher at Rossett Acre Primary School (pictured right).
Libby said, "The day was a great opportunity for schools to share good practice and collaborate together. As teachers, our time feels so precious so this day of dedicated time to discuss maths was highly valued by all of the subject leaders."
"A great opportunity for schools to share good practice and collaborate together"
Each primary school was gifted a copy of Craig Barton’s book How I Wish I’d Taught Maths and the section on What makes Great Teaching generated lots of discussion about our approach to maths. Liddy added, "It was great to see how much consistency we have across our schools in the way that we teach the mastery of mathematics."
"Dedicated time to discuss maths was highly valued by all of the subject leaders."
One area which many of our schools have been working on is fluency of times tables and our maths leads were able to share their approaches to this and the successes they have seen so far. It is fair to say that there are a lot of competitive children across our primary schools who enjoy challenging themselves to continue to improve their recall of their times tables.
‘What makes maths special at our schools?’ was discussed by the group and a vast array of ideas were shared showing how all of our teachers go above and beyond not only to teach maths to a high standard but also to enhance the learning for all pupils, boosting engagement and creating the foundations for a lifelong love of maths learning. It was fabulous to hear about the different opportunities and experiences linked to maths that children get in our schools. Jaycee Ward from Western Primary shared the areas of maths which she felt should be celebrated following their recent Ofsted inspection. These included her approach to monitoring maths across school and how maths is celebrated ‘beyond the curriculum’ among others.
Will Sadler from Whitkirk Primary School shared the CPD work that he has been doing in school with a focus on his approach to CPD for reasoning. Will and Libby have been approaching CPD at their schools as a programme of sessions rather than a one off, stand alone meeting. Feedback from this has been positive in both schools, showing that a sustained, coherent programme of CPD which includes structured, collaborative activities to refine and embed approaches can maximise impact.
The day would not have been complete without a scattering of maths challenges which promoted deep thinking and created a positive buzz of collaboration.
