Visit to Chicken Shed

I love supporting local charities, so we organised a trip to take our whole school to Chicken Shed’s production of ‘The Adventure to OZ’. It is an amazing organisation – they take children with every kind of Special Educational Needs and they have parts in the show. They also offer courses for children with SEND in their further education that are excellent. They are like our school, totally inclusive.

I was given a list of children who didn’t want to go on the trip and of course I went to see if I could persuade them to go. In speaking to a boy in Year 4, it went a little like this…

“How come you do not want to come on this trip? It will be really good and all of your friends are going.”

“I don’t really want to come.”

“Oh, Ok… how come?”

“Well, why would I want to go and see some poor chickens in a shed?”

With that I laughed and went on to explain to him that there would be no chickens and that the shed is actually a pretty big theatre, we managed to persuade him to go. Unfortunately, the actual show was not as good as usual but we have seen some excellent Christmas themed productions there. Fingers crossed for next Year.

Numicon locks – this is a super practical idea which has lots of scope. Basically the pupils can match the key to the corresponding lock. The lock also has the number of dots drawn on it so the children can see it in lots of different ways. It can also be used for multiplication – the five red numicon pieces equal the two blue numicon ten pieces. The keys at the bottom can correspond with an answer in the lock in numicon. For example ‘1 more than 8’ can correspond to a lock with nine on it which also can improve the pupil’s use of mathematical language.

Monster Adding Machine – I saw this in our Reception class this week and the kids loved it. They were studying the Gruffalo so there was a focus on monsters. The idea is to solve an addition sum by putting the number of fluffy balls in the left hand cylinder (in this case 3) and then putting the second number in the right hand cylinder (in this case 2). The total number comes out of the monster’s mouth for the children count (5). Thumbs up to the Reception teacher.

Getting Maths Right...

I cannot recommend the NCTEM (https://www.ncetm.org.uk/) document and its principles more! Having worked in primary schools for nearly two decades, we are finally getting it right. The documents in the National Centre in the Teaching of Mathematics are excellent. These include a new Maths Hub which provides planning for teachers, an assessment document for each Year Group (that also gives examples for mastery) and useful teaching resources including instructional videos.

The NCTEM believe in promoting future mathematical learning built on solid foundations and that given enough time every  pupil is capable of achieving in maths. They have set a curriculum that has one set of mathematical concepts for all and have set a series of pedagogical practices that keep the class working together on the same topic. “Teaching is focussed, rigorous and thorough, to ensure that learning is sufficiently embedded and sustainable over time”.

And Yes… this works!

The methodology is basic - concrete, pictorial and abstract in that order. Most maths teaching in the past started with the abstract: for example, what is 45 + 17? what is 2/3 of 36? Or 20cm is how many metres? Starting with the abstract has proven not to equal understanding in our kids.

Concrete - This method starts with the use of physical resources to start such as Numicon, Cuisenaire and Base Ten materials. However, you can use anything concrete that you can count.

Pictorial – the pupils actually draw what they have created from the concrete step. This is an important process that the children do want to skip but it visually locks the concepts into their minds.

Abstract – they write the sum and solve it. In reality the kids would have already solved this in the first two steps but writing and saying the sum out loud is perfect for learning.

Things to note though –

• -        This has to be supplemented with a real life problem. For example, there are 4 aliens on a spaceship, they pick up 5 more aliens from Mars. How many aliens are on the spaceship?
• -        Ofsted are not looking for reams and reams of ‘ticked’ work so allow children to complete their sums in their own time. You know the children in your class.
• -        The time for teaching quick fix tricks has ended! It is all about understanding and applying to another example.
• -        Get the children to represent the concrete in a number of ways. Do not allow them to rely on just one resource.
• -     Pupil Voice - allow children time to discuss and explain how they have completed their sum. This is so important to achieve mastery.
• -        Rote learning of times tables does not work for all children. Teach connections! E.g. 2 x 8 is 16 so 4 x 8 is? You can obviously double your answer. Why not then do 8 x 8. Take away 8 from your answer you have 7 x 8. This can lead to learning the 32 times table, the world of maths is your oyster, if you can work out the connections.
• -        I do suggest that teachers teach place value for the majority of the Autumn Term. It is the basis of all maths and you reap rewards for the rest of the year.

This methodology has reformed the practice in our school – the results and rate of progress are amazing. And Yes… this works!