getting the best from the KS3 numeracy strategy

By Diana Hinds

The KS3 numeracy strategy places more emphasis on pupil participation and less on traditional textbooks. But how to get the best out of it? Maths teachers, advisers and consultants give their views.

The government’s numeracy strategies have never caused anything like the resistance from teachers that their close cousins, the literacy strategies have. This may in part be due to the nature of the subject, thinks Phil Waite, maths adviser for Gloucestershire.

“Maths teachers tend to respond better to structure because maths is to some extent a hierarchical subject,” he says. Certainly, nothing could be more structured than the KS3 numeracy strategy, which after a pilot year in 17 authorities, is now bedding down in every secondary school in the country.

But even for teachers who broadly welcome the guidance offered by the numeracy framework, and its clarification of the national curriculum, digesting its 600-odd pages and embedding all or much of this in classroom practice is no mean feat. No maths department can expect to be free of a few teething problems.

The aims of the numeracy strategy
One of the principal aims of the KS3 strategy is to ensure better progression and continuity from maths at KS2. Secondary schools have the advantage that pupils at least will know what to expect, having been taught maths according to the numeracy strategy at their primary schools.

The main emphasis, as in the primary strategy, is on direct and interactive teaching, pacey and varied, with more opportunity for pupils to participate in the lesson and much less reliance on plodding through text books.

Much of its methodology reflects the ways in which good teachers have always taught maths. But for the less experienced, or less confident, the strategy may feel highly demanding, in terms of lesson planning and style of teaching. The advice from the numeracy consultants is: have a go.

“You are almost certainly going to be encouraged by the sorts of responses you get from the children,” says Chris Humble, KS3 numeracy consultant for Reading.

After a year of piloting the strategy, Roz Lobo, head of maths at a Staffordshire comprehensive, agrees: “The biggest thing is that the children have enjoyed themselves much more than they used to.”

How to cope with the planning
Adapting schemes of work to fit a major new framework is a headache for most schools, not to mention finding the time to devise all the new activities required. But consultants advise a gradual accommodation of existing schemes to the new framework, rather than a complete revamping.

The key to successful planning seems to be for the department members to talk to each other more and make strategic discussions a central part of their regular meetings. Paul Harvey, a Staffordshire numeracy consultant, agrees: “It’s much easier to promote a new activity if one person has the idea, and five go away and try it out, and give some feedback.”

Phil Waite, in Gloucestershire, reports “a much greater degree of cooperative planning”, in pilot schools, leading to “better lessons, better units of work and more varied teaching”.

Adapting to the three-part lesson structure
As with the primary strategy, the KS3 strategy demands a three-part lesson, consisting of short mental starter, main activity and final plenary. Many teachers will already be familiar with this structure. Others – particularly long-serving teachers – may find it takes a bit of getting used to.

The length of the lesson may also cause difficulties for some schools. Roz Lobo, a Staffordshire head of maths, was finding a 50-minute lesson too short to divide successfully into three. The school compromised and now runs the three-part structure over two lessons, which has worked much better.

What is a good starter activity?
A bad starter activity is one that drills your pupils in dull and repetitive ways – like testing them every day on times tables. By contrast, a good starter activity not only encourages all the pupils to participate – even with a streak of competitiveness – but also indicates to the teacher where any individual weaknesses are.

Resources are important here – number fans, target boards, mini white boards (if you can afford them), for instance – but should not be allowed to distract from the maths.

“These activities should not be more complicated than the maths they are practising,” says Paul Harvey. “Simple ideas are often the best.” He found that wallpaper from B&Q lent itself perfectly to quizzing children on reflections, rotations and translations.

Sally Lines, acting head of maths at Brockworth School in Gloucestershire, borrowed an idea from the English department about matching up mathematical definitions: “Try to build up a bank of ideas by talking to other departments, and other schools. And if in doubt, get your numeracy consultant to come in and demonstrate a few.”

Getting away from text books
The main part of the lesson should comprise activities which provide the same subject breadth and depth as a text book, but which get the children more involved. More work of this kind means, of course, more resources, more ideas and more planning.

“It’s a chance to be creative, to make things fun,” says Sally Lines, at Brockworth School in Gloucestershire. “We’ve invested in some good resources and are thinking more about practical work,” says Karen Dolan, head of maths at Reading Girls’ School. “It’s about finding out what’s good and what works.”

Look for ideas and examples in the framework supplement. “The more I look, the better it looks,” says Paul Harvey, in Staffordshire. Then adapt these ideas to make more.

Is there time for a plenary?
The plenary is a new element in the lesson for many teachers, and it can be hard breaking off from a main activity to allow sufficient time for this.

But Phil Waite, in Gloucestershire, advises teachers to stick to the clock at all costs: “You must give yourself enough time. Try not to be lecturing the class for the last five minutes, but get them to participate by finding the right questions. Build up to this gradually, starting, for instance, by asking three people to tell the class what they¹ve discovered.”

“Get into the habit, and be consistent,” says Karen Dolan. “It can be really useful as a way of finding out what they’ve understood and whether you need to do more on a topic.”

Will the “catch-up” pupils really catch up?
Like the KS3 literacy strategy, the numeracy strategy has a special strand –Springboard Seven – aimed at pupils just below level four, who have catching up to do.

Opinions are very divided as to how useful the government’s catch-up materials are. Some have welcomed them as an additional resource, others say they are too concentrated and too difficult, especially for pupils still hovering around the level three mark.

The best advice seems to be not to rely on Springboard Seven to meet all your needs. Don’t use it as a self-contained series of worksheets but pick and choose what best suits your school.

“The materials are quite mixed,” says Sally Lines, at Brockworth School, “so we’ve selected what we like, and produced our own booklet for this year.”

What about non-specialist maths teachers?
Non-specialist maths teachers are quite a significant group in today’s secondary schools. How well they fare with the numeracy framework will depend on how much training they get. some authorities are laying on extra training for them, but at some schools the non-specialists are missing out by not being able to attend as many training days as other maths staff.

Heads of maths suggest these teachers work as closely with the maths department as possible and try not to miss meetings. You can also request extra support from your authority’s KS3 numeracy consultant.

Is the strategy working?
Although it is still early days for the key stage three numeracy strategy, some teachers are already concerned that they will be expected to produce improved SATs results in an unrealistic timescale. But some pilot schools are already reporting back positively.

Roz Lobo says pupils did pretty well in the optional tests in the summer (apart from the Springboard Seven group), and “quite a lot of them had made quite a lot of progress.”

Sally Lines, whose school in Gloucester is recently out of special measures, attributes good year nine results, in part, to the strategy. “And the new year eight children – even though their exam results were not very good – are much more confident, which means we can really push them on this year. They are happy to have a go.”

Diana Hinds is an education journalist, writing regularly for the Independent and the Times Educational Supplement on a wide range of education issues.