Adventures in Mathematics Erasmus Project

Project Title

Adventures in Mathematics

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for Schools Only

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Pedagogy and didactics; Key Competences (incl. mathematics and literacy) – basic skills

Project Summary

Context: Our teaching staff have a strong commitment to a creative curriculum which supports both pupil achievement and well-being. Previous Comenius and Erasmus projects have contributed significantly towards school development priorities that achieve our ethos and aims. We have participated in projects that explicitly focus on developing a creative curriculum and on promoting pupil well-being. Evaluations of our provision led us to reflect on how well this creativity was embedded across the curriculum and questions were raised about how approaches to learning in mathematics compared to other subject areas. It became apparent that cross curricular links were less well embedded in mathematics and that lessons were less likely to have exciting contexts or to be taken outdoors. We, therefore, set out to audit provision and to plan for improvement.
Strandskolan, a strong partner school, were also reflecting on their Mathematics provision. During an Erasmus KA1 mobility, on leadership in education, our staff began the discussion which led to our joint application for our project ‘Adventures in Mathematics’.
Objectives:
• Share and review pedagogy and approaches in mathematics with the aim of improving teachers’ competencies
• Develop creative and cross curricular approaches in mathematics to improve children’s motivation and attainment
• Develop strategies that raise the self-esteem and attainment of vulnerable groups of children in order to close the gap in achievement
• Develop provision that caters for the needs of all children and ensures full participation
• Create outstanding contexts that promote high achievement and a love of mathematics
• Use new technologies as a tool to enhance learning and to raise attainment
• Share teacher learning and ideas widely through eTwinning and blogging
Profile: Two schools were involved in our project, Russell Street School and Strandskolan.. We have collaborated on previous projects together and have developed shared practice and provision in our schools. Both schools have recently gone through a period of change which has involved a change the demographic of our pupils. Russell Street has expanded and now includes a larger group of pupils from areas of deprivation while Strandskolen now serves a wider community of refugee families.
Main Activities: at the beginning of the project we collected our baseline data using questionnaires, observations and analysis of pupil achievement to assess staff, pupil and parent attitudes to mathematics. We then had a focus for curriculum development over each school term of our project. These included: models and images, mathematics outdoors, mathematics across the curriculum, mathematics through story, mathematics through ICT and mathematics in social contexts.
Partnership meetings took place termly: with each school taking turns to host; each school hosted 3 meetings and each travelled to 3 meetings. The meetings included: lesson observations, job shadowing, sharing resources, modelling approaches, sharing planning and curriculum. After each meeting the teacher participants led a meeting back at their own school to share learning and to review which approaches could be used to improve their own practice. The host school also shared key events and learning from the visit on eTwinning and via the project journal. During each visit a mathematics day was organised based on each term’s study focus.
Results and impact: questionnaires filled in at the beginning and end of the project show that attitudes to mathematics amongst pupils became much more positive. Attainment of pupils in national tests was above national expectations for both schools. Staff feedback was extremely positive. All felt that they had benefitted from high quality professional development that had impacted on both their mathematics teaching and on their wider practice. Feedback sessions were highly reflective and led to sustained change and improvement in provision, both in mathematics provision and in other areas. Parent information sessions were well attended and received excellent feedback. Parents were interested in both the schools’ approaches to mathematics and in the collaborative learning that the project facilitated for staff. The project was celebrated in the local press and shared at local community meetings by headteachers. At Russell Street we have shared the project learning more widely through Global Partnership and have been accepted onto an Enigma Hub project on Maths Mastery where we will continue our development of mathematical pedagogy and provision. We have also successfully renewed our International Schools Award.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 24900 Eur

Project Coordinator

Russell Street School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Strandskolan