Sir John Barrow Primary School, Cumbria
About the School
Sir John Barrow School, Cumbria has been recognised by Ofsted as a good and rapidly improving school. The school’s motto, “succeeding, enjoying, belonging” is at the heart of everything it does. In September 2017, the governors of Sir John Barrow won a National Governance Association’s Outstanding Governance Award, recognising the significant impact they have had within the school.
The Challenge
Matt Connell, Senior Leader at Sir John Barrow shared the reasons why they chose to implement Big Maths: “Back in 2012, we needed to develop a consistent approach to teaching Maths across the school, increase teachers subject knowledge and increase end of year groups results. The Head Teacher and Maths Subject Leader attended a Big Maths conference and within half an hour we knew it was perfect for our school. We were so impressed with the Big Maths conference that we arranged training for all staff a few weeks later with Ben Harding.
Favourite Features of Big Maths
“We like the fact that teachers know exactly where their children are in Maths and what they have been taught the previous year. We no longer get the ‘but last year we were taught it this way’ as everyone is teaching the same content.”
What Do the Children Think?
“Children now enjoy Maths. They don’t say maths is hard anymore and enjoy the daily routine of CLIC lessons. Children love beating their best ever score on the challenges and always ask when they are doing it come Friday. There is a huge smile on very child’s face when they get ten out of ten on a challenge.”
Has Big Maths Saved Teachers’ Time?
“Big Maths gives teachers the small learning steps that they need so that they don’t have to break down the larger National Curriculum objectives, saving up to five hours per teacher of planning time each week. With a click of a button, teachers can print out any of the resources and weekly challenges.
The PowerPoints and Lesson Planning section of Big Maths also saves teachers hours of time making their own resources and planning lessons from scratch.”
Managing Classes and Tracking Progress
“The Big Maths Progress Drives give meaning to children’s learning whereas previously National Curriculum levels didn’t have clear enough detail. With the Big Maths tracking system being online, teachers, senior leaders and teaching assistants can all check any child’s or classes’ progress throughout the school.”
Talk to Us About Big Maths…
Big Maths is the way forward when it comes to teaching mathematics in your school. Contact us now to arrange a call to discuss how to move forward with the best implementation for you. Take the first step towards changing the way you teach maths. It’s time to rip up the rulebook and teach different.