We are excited to share that Year 7 students have now completed seven weeks of the 20-week Thinking Mathematically research project. This innovative initiative challenges our students to explore and solve mathematical problems, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

The students have shown enthusiasm and resilience as they tackle this different style of problem. They are learning when to persevere with a solution and when to step back and approach a problem from a new angle. This ability to “start again” has helped them develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and encourages a growth mindset. It’s been inspiring to see how they are embracing the challenges with determination and confidence.

One of the highlights of the project so far has been the excellent oracy skills the students are demonstrating. They are articulating their thought processes clearly, explaining how they approach each problem, and collaborating with their peers to explore different solutions. Their ability to discuss, debate and refine their ideas has contributed to their individual growth and the collaborative nature of the project.

I have included some examples of the students work below.

Mrs Phillips

Teacher of Maths

Exploring Mastery in Secondary Mathematics:

Insights from TIMSS 2023 and Local Collaborative Learning

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a global assessment that tracks student performance in mathematics, science and reading across over 70 countries. Conducted regularly since 1995, it provides valuable insights into trends in student achievement worldwide.

The latest TIMSS 2023 results reveal England’s performance in Year 9 mathematics, which is divided into three key areas: Knowing (35%), Applying (40%), and Reasoning (25%). These results highlight the areas where students excel and where further development is needed, especially when considering international teaching approaches.

Here is a table of the top ten performing countries in year 9.

One such approach is teaching for mastery, particularly prevalent in Eastern Asia. This strategy emphasises deep understanding and problem-solving skills, rather than surface-level memorisation. An example of this approach is the method of neriage, a Japanese term for group discussions and collaborative problem-solving. In neriage, students are encouraged to solve problems individually first, and then engage in a whole-class discussion to refine and share their solutions. This encourages critical thinking and a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts.

A recent collaborative session at PGHS provided an opportunity for mathematics teachers from local schools to work together on embedding this approach in secondary mathematics teaching. Two mastery maths specialists delivered a live lesson to Year 7 students on the concept of speed, utilising problem-solving techniques. The challenge was to determine which student was the fastest in a race, based solely on their recorded times.

Initially, the students used the times to come up with possible solutions. More information was then provided, such as the distances and times for each student. The students worked collaboratively to solve the problem and discovered that to accurately compare the students’ speed, they needed to have one key piece of information in common—the speed, which could be found by calculating the distance covered in one second. This problem-solving approach mirrored the neriage technique, where students’ individual solutions were shared and refined as part of the whole-class discussion.

This collaborative and problem-solving approach to teaching mathematics aligns with the principles of teaching for mastery seen in Eastern Asia. By focusing on understanding the underlying concepts, such as speed in this case, students are equipped with the tools to solve more complex problems in the future.

The success of the session at PGHS demonstrates the power of collaborative learning and mastery teaching techniques. By continuing to adopt and embed these strategies, we can ensure that students develop a deeper understanding of mathematics, ultimately improving performance in both national and international assessments like TIMSS.

Mrs Bennett

Maths Department

Two students in Year 7 were asked to share their experience of how their Maths lessons have been since they have started at Penwortham Girls’ High School:

In every Maths lesson, the first thing we complete is a silent starter from our starter booklet. Sometimes we have a basic skills starter and sometimes they are problem solving questions (conditional knowledge). One of the first topics we covered in Maths was rounding to 10, 100s and 1000s, rounding to a given number of decimal places and we recently learnt how to round to significant figures.

We have recently started learning how to add and subtract positive and negative numbers and will soon be learning how to multiply and divide negative numbers as well.

Our Maths homework is set every Thursday and for that, it is set on a website called Sparx Maths. We have been given orange exercise books to show our working out in our homework as it is really important to do so. We can also use our exercise books to help us if we are given bookwork checks, otherwise they will come more often if we get them wrong.

Our Maths lessons have been really interesting so far, and we both feel like we are becoming more confident. We’re looking forward to all the different units that we will be covering.

By Crystal I and Dhemica P (Year 7)

This year we are taking part in a research project aimed at increasing the mathematical thinking skills of our Year 7 students.

Thinking Mathematically is a 20-week programme that explicitly teaches students how to tackle mathematical problems. This aims to improve students’ confidence, resilience and ability in mathematical problem-solving through the use of evidence-informed teaching approaches.

Once a week, the Year 7 students will engage in a 20 minute problem solving session, with specifically designed questions, resources and prompts to guide their thinking and a specific ‘debrief’ focused on how and why they tackled the problem the way they did.

The programme was developed by Blackpool Research School, a member of the Research Schools Network, supported by the Education Endowment Foundation.

Below is an example of the questions the students will be given:

Mrs Phillips

Mathematics Department