West Twyford Primary School
Ealing, UK

In their own words

Our Maths — No Problem! journey

At West Twyford, we understand that teachers are our most valuable resource, and we heavily invest in CPD. So, when we first started with the MNP Approach in 2015, four members of our staff, including the head teacher and the assistant head teacher, attended a full three-day maths mastery training course with Dr Ban Har Yeap.

We were highly impressed by the training and subsequently trialed the textbooks, workbooks and online resources in our school. Before the trial period ended, we could already see that the pedagogy and strategies employed by the approach provided an environment for our learners, teachers and children, to question, explore, investigate, tussle, play and enjoy Maths.

We decided to send five additional members of staff for another three-day intensive with Ban Har. Then, in September 2016, we organised for a Maths — No Problem! training consultant, to come and train all our staff, including the teaching assistants.

Our team was quickly enthused by the approach, with some commenting: “It was the best training we have ever had.” We now employ an intense training programme for all new teachers and provide opportunities where they can observe outstanding practitioners. This approach has drastically accelerated the development of teacher skills and subject knowledge.

Our highly skilled, knowledgeable and passionate team of teachers are providing the children with excellent thinking and inquiry skills, as well as mathematical fluency through which they can better articulate their thinking. And we’ve been sharing that impact. We offered our services to the West London Teaching Alliance last year and have since trained many Ealing senior leaders, teachers and NQTs in developing their own maths mastery programmes. This training programme was designed around the principles we adopted from the mastery approach. We have also been working with the Fox Maths hub for two years, who have commended us for the work we are doing to embed the mastery approach.

Teachers from across Ealing have come to our school to observe our teachers deliver the Maths — No Problem! approach. And they’ve made changes in their schools as a result of the outstanding teaching they witnessed. We received extremely positive feedback for all the training we’ve delivered with 100% grading the training as “very good” or “excellent” and all attendees said they would recommend our courses to others. One delegate wrote, “Very inspiring and I hope to bring elements of this style of teaching Maths to my school.”

Maths — No Problem! in our school

The Maths – No Problem! approach to teaching is at the very heart of how we teach at West Twyford Primary. As educators, we have an immense passion and enthusiasm for the subject at every level in our school; the senior leadership team, all teachers, parents and children have a love of Maths and we put that down to the way the Maths – No Problem! lessons are designed and delivered.

In addition, we have seen an improvement in the academic standards across the school. In particular, 25% of our children, on average, are achieving the greater depth standard. In KS2, this figure is 33%, and 38% of our current Year 6 are predicted to achieve greater depth. In one of the Year 6 classes, 50% of the children have been assessed at the greater depth standard. We attribute this success to the implementation of the Maths – No Problem! approach, consistent and effective CPD, team teaching and an ethos of collaboration.

Our teachers have found that by using a whole-class teaching approach, our children are able to articulate their mathematical reasoning to a high standard. In particular children, who would otherwise struggle with mathematical concepts, are given time to ‘talk out’ the problem. As a school we have high mobility, which provides an additional challenge; however, this whole-class approach is so effective that even children who join us in UKS2 are able to catch up and exceed their peers due to the CPA model. As an example, a child joined us in Year 5 with very little English, no experience with school in the UK and had a very low starting point. After a year, he is achieving greater depth in maths.

We now provide an on-going programme of in-house staff training delivered by our Maths Leads. This, so far, has involved looking at the pedagogy and theory of Singapore Maths, the MNP lesson structure, journaling, differentiation, the teacher as a facilitator concept, effective questioning and bar-modelling. Next year, we will build on our understanding of how to teach bar-modelling, fractions and geometry and have a series of Inset days specifically for Maths.

We are committed to improving our practice and are passionate about disseminating the expertise and knowledge that we have acquired from the Maths – No Problem! training, the on-line video library, teacher hub and self-study. We are proud to be leaders in how Maths is led, taught and learned.