Baines' Endowed Primary School: A Church of England Academy
Summary of school
Baines’ Endowed is a larger than average primary school with approximately 480 pupils on roll. It is part of an academy and is located in the seaside town of Blackpool. The proportion of pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities is above the national average, as is the proportion of pupils supported by the Pupil Premium (33%), which is nearly twice the national average. The percentage of pupils from a minority ethnic background is below average. The most recent Ofsted inspection was in February 2018, where the school was graded as ‘Good’.
When and how they got involved with the Maths Hub
Baines first became involved with the Maths Hub as part of the Cidari working party led by Simon Rusling in the 2019/20 academic year. We got involved to improve the teaching and learning pedagogy of maths in our school.
The school's journey with the hub and where they are now
We started our journey in the 2019/20 academic year. We are currently in the ‘Developing’ stage of our journey, having enjoyed the ‘Readiness’ year. Our journey with the hub has been beneficial to the school, with the CPD proving invaluable. The collaborative approach of the hub means that we have really positive, useful and worthwhile discussions about pedagogy surrounding teaching for mastery.
What was it about the work with the hub that was beneficial and why?
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Collaboration within the teacher research group (TRG).
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Basecamp [an online professional collaboration platform] enables participants to engage in professional dialogue, sharing ideas and challenging thoughts and opinions in a positive environment.
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School visits via Google Meet (during the Covid-19 pandemic) have been beneficial. Clear guidance and support enables us to develop as maths leaders.
Impact on leadership
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Confidence in myself. Enabling me, as maths lead, to develop my own leadership skills.
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Developing the school so it moves to a new mastery approach to maths.
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Excellent CPD for maths lead. Challenging previous understanding and notions.
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Opportunities to develop leadership skills.
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Collaborating with other maths leads has been hugely beneficial.
Impact on teaching
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Up-levelling teachers’ pedagogy.
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Understanding of maths.
"Outcomes for pupils are good. Pupils are developing secure knowledge, understanding and skills from their starting points. An increasing number of pupils are moving towards the higher standards in key stages 1 and 2 in reading, writing and mathematics." - Ofsted, 2018
Impact on learning
Pupils’ attitudes to their maths lessons have certainly changed. From a recent survey, children commented that the lessons have been challenging and that they were enjoying the problem solving. Other comments pertaining to the mastery approach that we have adopted include:
“Getting things wrong is great because it helps us learn.”
“We need resources to help our learning.”
“A good maths lesson is fully understanding the task and [knowing that] the more things you get wrong, the more you learn.”
“Great explanations.”
All of these relate directly to the way we have changed our approach to teaching maths and to our work with the Maths Hub.
Headteacher statement
"The impact in our school so far has been a positive one, although we have been impeded by Covid at times. Our maths teaching is starting to be underpinned by the belief that all children need a deep understanding of the maths they are learning. Staff are starting to spend more time on key concepts that are revisited and reviewed. Devoting time to key concepts is starting to enable us to represent concepts in lots of different ways, teach the processes, then allow the children to apply their knowledge, increasingly rapidly and accurately. This is hopefully starting to commit key facts to children’s long term memory. Our maths team certainly values the Maths Hub meetings and networking opportunities. They leave inspired, full of ideas to improve the teaching and learning at Baines’.