If you’re a subject leader, you have to make friends in school strategically. If you’re the head of English like me, you firstly need to befriend whoever guards the gate to reprographics needs the bounciest, sunniest, most dribblingly sycophantic version of you that you can muster. We’re talking bottle of wine at Christmas, chocolate egg at Easter, flowers on their birthday. Because they can do something that you could never do since the highest qualification you’re likely hold is in English Literature (or the one pertaining to your subject), a degree that required you to pontificate on postmodernism for 2 hours a week – they can fix the photocopier, a machine so psychopathic, so actively engaged in the utter destruction of your soul, that it makes HAL 9000 seem like a Care Bear. “I’m sorry James, I’m afraid I can’t do that,” you imagine it says as it mangles your Year 10 mock exams in its hot, metal, inky gob.

Mathematics maestros Happy Numbers have launched Plus, an exciting outside-the-box supplement for the Maths curriculum. Every month, a free challenge is launched - each consisting of a set of age-appropriate problems. As students progress through each problem successfully, the difficulty increases. The challenges are designed to stretch students’ thinking and problem-solving skills.

Learning Resources, a manufacturer and supplier of innovative educational tools and learning aids, have produced a range of engaging products that support the Maths Mastery approach to learning, designed to enhance understanding and enjoyment, as well as raising attainment for all children.

TeachPitch, a website founded by a teacher for teachers to find the most relevant online learning content launched its solution TeachPitch for Schools earlier this month. The product is a digital resources management and discovery system, specifically designed for educational institutions.

For our pupils to become able and confident mathematicians in Primary school, it is essential that they have a bank of key number facts they have learnt stored away, which they can draw on at any time. However, we must work to incorporate new ways to help them memorise these facts so that they have them at their disposal whenever they’re needed.
Number Sense

Education is a field ripe for change. A confluence of influences has altered both our purposes and methods. New technologies have altered what is possible, shifted our interactions with knowledge and allowed for new models of connectedness. The forces of globalisation, and with that the movement of both manufacturing workforces and increasingly routine cognitive labour away from Western nations, is altering the face of work in these nations. Our children will leave school requiring a different set of skills to those that secured them employment but a short time ago.

For schools, getting children to engage with learning is the first step. However, some pupils struggle with this, including disadvantaged and looked-after children (LAC) pupils, with the Department for Education (DfE) finding the attainment of LAC in KS1 and KS2 is lower than it is for non-looked after children; only 63% of LAC at KS1 achieved a level 2 or above in writing in 2015 compared to 88% of non-looked after children. Although this isn’t the case for every LAC, many can become disengaged and their attendance at school may not be as good as their peers, so as a result, they fall behind during lessons.

BP today announced the launch of its annual competition – the Ultimate STEM Challenge – for the third consecutive year in partnership with STEM Learning and the Science Museum. The competition invites young people aged 11 to 14 across the UK to put their Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) skills to the test by tackling real-world challenges. To enter the Ultimate STEM Challenge, teams will need to create a short film or presentation showcasing their project.

Sports Day is one of the most anticipated days of Primary school, giving us fond memories of hot weather and a whole day of outdoor activities. Very few would associate Sports Day with a Maths lessons... until now! Pupils have the chance to think about the Maths in every aspect of life, and Sports Day is no exception.

Primary schools across the country are inviting local teachers in to experience first-hand an innovative, one-to-one Maths intervention that has seen outstanding success at KS1 and KS2 in Primary schools. Over 70 schools are taking part in this programme of showcases. Each of these schools has been using Third Space Learning’s one-to-one tutors on a weekly basis to provide catch-up Maths lessons to pupils in Years 2-6.