In their own words
Our Maths — No Problem! journey
Initially, five teachers (including our head, deputy head, and both maths leads) attended an open morning at Three Bridges school in London to see the Maths — No Problem! Programme in action. We introduced Maths — No Problem! to the whole school from September 2015.
Our Year 5 maths teacher and her teaching assistant attended a three-day Maths — No Problem! Mastery Course in London with Dr Yeap Ban Har. This helped us deliver the series more effectively, and we are now thoroughly committed to continuing with the series due to the excellent progress our children are making.
In addition, we held an open morning ourselves for parents who came into classes to view the lessons being taught across the school. This gave them an opportunity to take part in lessons with the children. We have also hosted several training sessions for other schools on how we have implemented the Maths — No Problem! series successfully.
Maths — No Problem! in our school
Every child has a textbook, workbook, and maths journal evidencing their progress. Each classroom has a maths working wall, which displays anchor task sheets, demonstrating learning for each lesson. We also have maths displays in the corridors and a central record of learning in a maths Big Book, which demonstrates our use of the series.
Our pupils really enjoy all Maths — No Problem! lessons. They love working from the books and take pride in their work:
“With Maths — No Problem! it is easy to work out difficult sums. I like the base 10 equipment. I can do decimals, which I couldn’t do before.” – Leo, Year 5
“I love doing Maths — No Problem! because it is great and I literally like everything in it and I learn so well with it. I never find the lessons easy, there is always something where I get stuck, but I work hard and work it out. There is always something which tricks me. Last lesson I was tricked when the question asked for hundredths, not thousandths. It has made me a better mathematician.” – David, Year 5
We continually strive to improve our teaching and have termly staff meetings concentrating on focus tasks, bar modelling, and fractions. We hold coaching sessions where teachers observe each other and work together to improve their teaching. They plan in teams enabling rich mathematical discussions and thorough lesson planning. We have found that our teachers really enjoy the pace of the lessons, and the simplicity of how the books and online Teacher Guides are laid out. Their enthusiasm shines through in the classroom!
