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Discover ways to help students who need additional support to make good progress in KS3 and beyond
National data indicates that, since Covid, there has been an increase in the number of students not meeting Age Related Expectations (ARE) by the end of KS2, and that the gaps in knowledge for some in Year 7 are wider and deeper than in previous years; this is supported by evidence from a recent NCETM teacher survey. Year 7 teachers are also reporting that they feel insufficiently equipped to teach these students mathematical content from much earlier in the curriculum.
The Ofsted maths report published in 2023 reported findings which indicate that students for whom learning maths is more challenging fail to grasp early concepts, which increasingly hampers their progress through the curriculum. By KS3, these students are unable to understand, let alone apply, new knowledge. This, coupled with a lack of opportunity to reason mathematically or solve problems, results in some students in Year 7 being unable to access the KS3 curriculum, and hence they require substantial remediation to enable them to make progress.
This project aims to provide professional development and resources for secondary maths teachers, so they are better equipped with KS1 and KS2 maths curriculum domain-specific knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge. It will give them the necessary expertise to support students with gaps in understanding content from previous Key Stages.
Teachers will explore foundational concepts and consider effective pedagogy so that their students develop a secure, deep and connected understanding of the maths they are learning.
Participants in this project will gain access to high-quality resources designed by experts in the pedagogy and expectations of maths at both KS2 and KS3. Participants will also become part of a community of practitioners who are focused on improving students’ attainment outcomes by sharing best practice. This professional development opportunity is intended to support participants to develop the specialist KS1 and KS2 expertise to support students who need it most.
Participants should engage with the supporting video material, attend six central online events, and attend regional (face-to-face or online) cohort events. They will also engage with the online community
The centrally produced resources are designed to support teachers and focus on the foundations of mathematical understanding. Each set of resources has a different focus, adapting the most relevant parts of the support available for KS2 teachers so that they build on students’ prior knowledge and prepare them for their study in KS3. The resources will comprise both classroom-facing slides and teacher guidance. Participants who actively engage with the teacher guidance and supporting materials will benefit most.
The intended participants for this project are teachers working with those Year 7 students who have not met age related expectations in maths, particularly students whose attainment is in the bottom 20-30% of the national cohort at the end of KS2.
The project is suitable for experienced or novice teachers who are interested in developing their teaching practice to support students in securing the foundations of mathematical understanding.
The Securing Foundations at Year 7 Work Group is fully funded by the Maths Hubs Programme so is free to participating schools.
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Please complete our expression of interest form below and we will be in touch once we have further information and applications open for 2024-25.