Suffolk’s maths guru Chris Dale reports on the county’s innovative work to engage students and wants to hear your ideas as well

Chris Dale

Government failing to meet maths teaching targets.” “Less than half of all maths teachers studied the subject at university.” “Maths exams have become too easy.”

Some recent headlines regarding secondary maths teaching tell an interesting tale. They highlight a story of gloom and doom where the subject is being “delivered” to pupils in a didactic fashion by so-called “non-specialist” mathematics teachers and where improvements in standards are solely down to the dilution of examinations.

So what impact does this reporting have on the profession as a whole and how closely does it represent the true picture of what is happening in mathematics departments in our secondary schools?

I currently work as secondary mathematics advisor in Suffolk, so my role involves visiting a great number of our secondary schools and supporting and challenging departments. I have become increasingly frustrated with the manner in which work within the secondary mathematics community is reported.

This came to a head during a recent heads of department conference. The afternoon involved feedback from two collaborative in-school research projects. The first focused on the development of a set of resources designed to “hook” pupils’ interest and inject pace into lessons, the other provided an electronic topic breakdown for each GCSE grade with links to online tutorials and targeted exam questions and answers.

Both the projects displayed enthusiasm, innovation, collaboration and in no small measure, excellence – yes excellence! Now how often are these attributes used in headlines about mathematics?

I was recently involved with the delivery of a series of Royal Institution masterclasses for talented year 8 mathematicians within Suffolk. The pupils had an opportunity to visit the Royal Institution in London and work with other pupils from around the country on demanding problem-solving activities. Shortly after, I received an email from a Suffolk participant. The email ended with: “The lectures were inspiring and everyone got involved.

It was so great and the memories will be treasured for life.” Inspiring? Treasured? Again not often heard in the media.

Our mathematics departments in Suffolk are currently developing new approaches to teaching and learning to meet the needs of the new curriculum. At key stage 4, we have a large number of schools running Study Plus from this month and also have a number of institutions engaging in the development of functional skills. We have a large number of departments participating in exciting collaborative planning projects to look at how the new key stage 3 MPA (mathematical processes and applications) objectives can be met.

In-school research projects are regularly undertaken by Suffolk teachers with high quality outcomes that are readily disseminated through the secondary mathematics community. Mark Greenaway, an advanced skills teacher (AST) from St Albans High School in Ipswich, has taught in four Ipswich schools over the past 22 years as well as working with many others in his capacity as an AST.

He said: “During that time I have seen genuine progress in the teaching of mathematics. There has been a real move towards a collaborative and sharing approach to teaching and the development of resources. I also attend a termly meeting for local heads of departments and organise one for those teachers with less than five years’ teaching experience.

“All of these meetings have inspired me to question my own teaching and there is a real sense of colleagues working together across the county. I link a large number of teachers through email and through the county maths website.

“Teachers can’t control the examination system or how the government measures success, but what they can do is to constantly seek improvements in their teaching and in the experience of their students.”

So then, is the object of this article to celebrate all the good things happening in Suffolk? I am confident that reading this article thus far, you will have said things like “we do that as well, what’s the big deal?” and “our school has been doing that for years” – but this is my point.

These activities within Suffolk are not exceptional. In my experience, within the exciting, challenging and rewarding environment we work in, this kind of activity has largely become accepted practice, but how surprised would the man in the street be about the dynamic, organic nature of the day-to-day work of mathematics departments? I would argue, very surprised!

I am the first to admit that there are some difficulties that schools must overcome to ensure engaging, inspiring mathematics teaching. In some areas, schools do find it difficult to recruit and retain high quality mathematics teachers and this can clearly have an impact on pupils’ progress. However, some schools have used this as a catalyst to broaden the delivery of the mathematics curriculum by using a wider range of adults in the “teacher” role.

When most successful, this has resulted in pupils engaging with a relevant curriculum and seeing mathematics in a range of contexts. The title “non-specialist mathematics teacher” is a crude and clumsy label and I can categorically say that some of the most talented teachers I have ever worked with could have held this nebulous title.

All this percolation of thought has led me to the following conclusion – we need to be far more proactive in promoting all the current good work that goes on in mathematics departments.

With this in mind, I am going to run a positive publicity campaign throughout this academic year. It will highlight inspiring and excellent work in schools while also showcasing people whose life chances have been enhanced through the study of mathematics in Suffolk schools.

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has attempted similar campaigns in the past or who shares similar views. Please contact me. 

• Chris Dale is the secondary mathematics advisor in Suffolk. Email him at chris.dale@educ.suffolkcc.gov.uk

Further information

Royal Institution: www.rigb.org