VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM


VIEWFROMTHE CLASSROOM


Viewiew from thfro classr omroom


romthe classro


average-sized primary school with 347 puplis.We converted to become an Academy school on 1st January 2012. The proportion of our pupils who are disadvantaged and supported by the pupil p 8


.4 per cent are eligible for free school remium funding is below the nationa


l average; meals.We


welcome families from a wide range of religions and ethnic backgrounds, and have an average proportion of pupils from min


ority ethnic above


backgrounds and with English as an additional language. In 2017, our pupils’ achievements in all levels rose above the national average . Student s were significantly above the national average in reading, writing, and mathematics. Even those in the early years achieve a good level of development above the national avera preparing them for study at key stage something we are very proud of .


1 – ge,


T


from the classroomser es l looking at the exce lentwork schools in the UK are doing every day of the academic year, Education Today speaks to Hannah Bennett, priincipall drian Academ


h smonth in our ever-popular Viewur ever-popular View fromthe classr


his moi nth, in o, m seriesi emy primary ooking at the


ry day of the academic year, Education Today speaks to Hannah Bennett, pr ncipa at Hadr


ry school inin


Dunstable, to find out howthe schoo has gone about improving i its pupils’ key


Tell us about your school Tell us about your school


Hadrian Academy, a single Academy Trust in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, is larger than the


www


Dunstable, to find out how the schooll has gone about improving ts pupils’ key maths skills.maths skills.


excelll ent work schools in the UK are doing every


I knowyou have developed a repu school achievingmaths excellence. this start?


I know you have developed a reputation as a school achieving maths excellence. How did this start?


tation as a Howdid


I think most primary school teachers value aspects of the new maths curriculum.Many elements are good, especially the move away from teaching individual skills towards a focus on pro solving and applying maths to real life


contexts. blem


Despite appreciating the benefits of a problem solving approach to learning, we recognised that we still needed to teach the key mathematical skills, so we started by making maths the first


1 6 www .education-toda y.co.uk.co.uk


lesson of every day, alone maths lessons


We’d realised tha on open ended task pictorial, and then a


but they follow our key belief without fail. These are stand-


that understanding should come before process. Similar to many schools we teach using concrete, bstract.We also have a focus s and explaining thinking. t maths was all too often bject that really should be


taught as a discreet subj


explored through a cross curricula approach. When we looked at what we wanted, which was to teach children by applying maths to every day experiences while finding extra time to teach it , the obvious solution was to bring maths into all areas of the curriculum. Our core strategy can be outlined by three statements:


• Our children understand why maths is important and how they use it in real life • They build a deep understanding of the concepts behind processes


• Our children develop a fluency so that they can complete processes quickly from their long term memory and so that their working memory is free to problem solve .


You aunched a Maths Council to drive u standards at your school.. Can you explain how thiis worked?


You llaunched aMaths Council to drive up standards at your school Can you explai howth sworked


The core idea came to us when we achieved gold status in the Artsmark creative quality standard, which is accredited by Arts Council England. The Artsmart approach to learning involved setting up


Decembe r 2019 2019


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