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Haydn Primary School: repairing relationships with maths in Nottingham

4 Dec 2024

By Lizzie Green, Communications Officer

In 2023, Haydn Primary School in Sherwood joined National Numeracy’s Parental Engagement Programme, thanks to funding provided by Capital One to support the Nottingham community.

After a year of incredible participation, from both students and parents, Haydn Primary School has achieved the National Numeracy Parental Engagement Quality Standard Kitemark!

Every class from Year 1 to Year 6 received resources provided by National Numeracy – 360 pupils in total. Each student was given Family Maths Toolkit activities and scrapbooks, National Numeracy experts provided workshops for parents and carers, and Capital One employees delivered a ‘My Maths Story’ assembly attended by 240 children.

Read on to hear from Joshua Grimshaw, a maths lead and teacher at the school, about the benefits of the project and the effect it’s had on families and their relationships with maths.

And if you’d like to register interest in our Schools & Families programme, please sign up here.

Why did you apply for the programme? What was your school looking for?

One of the focuses on our school improvement plan was engagement with parents in the wider community. We’re part of a cluster of schools in Nottingham who have maths leader networks and meet up termly. National Numeracy attended a meet-up and spoke about the programme, and it seemed too good to be true!

"It seemed too good to be true!"

Working with the National Numeracy team has been brilliant and really supportive. Every question we’ve needed help with, they’ve been there for. The meetings were all friendly, cooperative, and not too big, and they brought fantastic ideas from industry experts as well as people from different settings.

"They brought fantastic ideas from industry experts as well as people from different settings."

To then have an expert lead a maths meeting with parents was useful because sometimes with parent meetings the pickup is quite slim. But we had about 70 parents turn up to our first meeting, which was fantastic. And it meant that the launch of the Family Maths scrapbooks was embedded already; a lot of the parents knew what was coming.

You used the Family Maths Toolkit and scrapbooks as homework – did the pupils enjoy them?

One child to me said last year, ‘Why is maths homework so easy?’ I looked through their scrapbook with them and we realised it wasn't that it was easy, it was that it was more enjoyable. They felt they'd been tricked! But they were now doing maths for pleasure at home, with their families.

"Engagement has gone up without a shadow of a doubt."

We interviewed the children, and engagement has gone up without a shadow of a doubt. I’m a Year 6 teacher, and it was always hard getting some children to complete the homework, but now we’re at nearly 100% every single week.

Quote from Haydn pupil saying "It helps me with my maths a lot, I didn't like maths at first"

How was the 'My Maths Story' assembly? Did you notice any lasting effect on the children?

It was really, really nice! The children loved it.

The volunteer talked about his journey with maths, and posed questions to the children like ‘What job can you think of that doesn’t involve maths?’ There was such a buzz around it! At break time children were coming up to me saying, ‘I’ve found one!’, and I’d debunk them. It turned maths into something that can be chatted about on the playground. It’s not about working out seven times seven, it’s about the value and confidence you can get.

"It’s not about working out seven times seven, it’s about how it’s valuable and the confidence you can get."

Afterwards I put a display up about computer or maths-based jobs and it started talk around careers. Although we’re far away from that with the children, it was a nice early opportunity for them to see it.

Did teachers enjoy the project and notice benefits? Was it easy to incorporate into their work?

The teachers loved it! It lessens workload, first of all. We were provided with Family Maths Toolkit resources for every year group, which meant they no longer had to dig out what to set for homework. They could choose activities to link to the curriculum or as a revisiting tool. And they could change year group, i.e. if they had a particularly able child they could give them work from the year above.

They also really liked that they were creative. It wasn’t just sitting at home doing a sheet of questions; it was exploring aspects of maths. And if children have siblings in the school we encourage them to work with each other.

"The teachers have really appreciated having a window into what’s going on at home."

Quote from Haydn teacher saying "They are a fun approach to homework and the children have taken to them really well."

The teachers have really appreciated having a window into what’s going on at home. Some of the parents will leave comments on an activity saying it was tricky, and it might take you by surprise if you thought they were a mathematical household. It helps you know who to approach.

The Family Maths scrapbooks have raised the profile of maths within the school and it now means there is a communication between home and families. If a parent had helped previously with homework, we might not know about it. I’m now getting feedback from a good 30% of my class where parents are writing in the scrapbooks. That’s been brilliant.

"It helped them work out what approach to take with parents – the way to talk to them, what issues they might be facing."

A few teachers attended the meetings with National Numeracy, and it helped them work out what approach to take with parents – the way to talk to them, what issues they might be facing. Particularly for our younger teachers, who are earlier in their careers and might not have experience of families and those barriers, that’s the biggest way we’ve seen an impact.

Has there been an increase in parental engagement?

Absolutely. We are a high attaining school – our results are good, and the children in general are strong, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t got families who aren’t confident. If anything, we could be a little bit complacent about it.

With the maths events we started valuable conversations with families about their views. It wasn't ‘come and be told about maths,’ it was ‘how can we support you?’ That change of tact, I think, was most beneficial to them. They’d talk to us about why they feel nervous or what their experience was at school.

"It’s trying to dispel burdens of ‘I’m no good at maths, therefore my child’s no good at maths.’"

Quote from Haydn parent/carer saying "Having the opportunity to complete maths activities as a family has helped with my son's confidence."

It’s trying to dispel burdens of ‘I’m no good at maths, therefore my child’s no good at maths.’ We hear it at parents’ evening, year after year; you don’t hear it with any other subject. We’re trying to correct that balance and help them understand that their journey can be different. And we really started to see that happen.

We got fantastic feedback from the events. We had families asking if they could take a pack of cards or dominoes home, so we also put together resource banks for them. It wasn’t about doing maths lessons or learning times tables, instead it was exploring numbers and being more comfortable. We’re going to carry on doing them this year.

What overall impact has it had on the school, students, and parents?

The main one is approachability. Schools can feel like a no-entry zone, and the parents don’t come in very often, so it’s an opportunity for them to come to us for advice.

The talk around maths is so much more evident now. Children will come up to you and talk about maths. They’re proud of their scrapbooks. It’s made children more comfortable to give things a go.

A child that wasn’t particularly engaged is no longer seeing it as a chore – it’s doing something with their mum, together, having fun at home.

Quote from Haydn pupil saying "It's nice to work with your family instead of working by yourself"

"It’s made children more comfortable to give things a go."

We’ll definitely carry on with the Family Maths Toolkit, scrapbooks, and the parent events – the take up has been fantastic.

The programme has absolutely improved the attitude towards maths across the school.

Thank you to the organisations whose funding makes our Schools & Families programme possible: Barratt Foundation, Capital One, CISI Future Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, Kartesia, London Stock Exchange Group, Squarepoint Foundation and Vanquis Banking Group.

Would your school like to work with us?

Our Schools & Families programme is open to primary schools across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and we are regularly recruiting schools.

If you would like to register your interest in the Schools & Families programme, please sign up here: https://nn.typeform.com/to/Qu1hZDiQ

Please contact [email protected] if you would like further information.

Interested in funding our work?

Our partners play a crucial role in tackling low number confidence and skills in the UK. Together, we create positive change for individuals, communities and society through the transformational power of numeracy.

National Numeracy's Partnerships Team is dedicated to creating purposeful relationships that meet shared goals, tailored to an organisation’s strategic priorities, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) aims. Partners can expect bespoke support, unique opportunities and high impact.

If you’d like to support our Schools & Families programme or would like more information about broader partnership opportunities, please get in touch via [email protected]

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