Derby’s Wyndham Academy has been back in the news, with a focus on children’s mastery approaches to maths. BBC Breakfast filmed segments at Wyndham as part of their new Breakfast Maths series.
Wyndham was chosen to represent the East Midlands West Maths Hub, led by George Spencer Academy. As Wyndham teacher Nicol Winfield (Outstanding New Teacher of the Year, the Pearson Awards) explained, the East Midland West Maths Hub is one of thirty-five across country, and is charged with bringing together the best in national and international maths teaching practice.
The ultimate goal of the East Midlands West Maths Hub is to make ‘every child a mathematician’.
Nicol Winfield explained that ‘teaching for mastery’ approaches have been used to transform maths education across more than 300 partner schools and organisations in the East Midlands West area alone.
Children at Wyndham were happy to explain their maths mastery in detail. They showed how they use creative resources to explore mathematical concepts including ratios and spatial relationships, and how the approach allows them to ‘master’ steps before moving on.
Children work in groups, and are asked to be part of teaching their friends as they progress, resulting in a significant increase in maths confidence.
Lastly, the BBC interviewed local parent, Saima Rizwan, who saw her own confidence with numbers and mathematical concepts increase while learning with her children.
Mrs Rizwan said, “As long as I can remember, my maths has never been great, whenever my kids have asked for help in maths, I have panicked. So getting on the parents’ support programme has made me realise that unless I have a positive attitude towards maths, I can’t help my kids. I am still getting there.”
The BBC visit was the second time in as many days that Wyndham children met media experts on site.
Yesterday, Year 6 had a different perspective on fame with a visit from another trained teacher, Gogglebox’s Baasit Siddiqui.
Baasit has used his teaching background and Gogglebox communications expertise to create a new campaign, Let’s Pitch It, which is designed to close the pupil premium gap by raising attainment through increased confidence. The programme is delivered through creative workshops and a national Let’s Pitch It competition.
With a focus on team working and co-operation, Let’s Pitch It started out as a secondary offer designed to support Year 8 and 9 students through their GCSE choices.
Year 6 pupils loved being invited to try out a new Let’s Pitch It primary offer as one of the Siddiqui family’s local schools.
Baasit said he had a ‘fantastic’ day; later posting on twitter: “I was totally blown away by @DerbyRS_Wyndham school today. Amazing friendly staff and inspiring students.”