Building maths leadership through trust and Maths Hub collaboration

In our Find Out in Five series we ask five key questions to discover what’s happening to improve maths in a school or trust. Hear from headteachers, senior leaders, classroom teachers and others who are embracing the professional development and classroom resources available from the NCETM and their local Maths Hub. In just a two-minute read you can learn what works, why and how.

Jane Dhillon, Regional Director of Education at the Diocese of Salisbury Academy Trust speaks to Heidi Whitney, the NCETM’s Deputy Director for System Leadership, about the impact of working with Jurassic and Mobius Maths Hubs to improve maths across the trust’s 28 schools.

1. What is the relationship between the trust and the Maths Hub?

The Diocese of Salisbury Academy Trust (DSAT) comprises 28 schools which span Dorset and Wiltshire, so we work with Jurassic Maths Hub and Mobius Maths Hub. All schools in the trust have begun and furthered their teaching for mastery journeys, and have done so thanks to a clear, coherent and dedicated relationship with the Maths Hubs. We firmly believe in professional collaboration, so we have system leaders within the trust who also have roles in the hubs: the trust has two Mastery Specialists with Jurassic, two with Mobius, and three currently in training. We also have two NCETM Professional Development Leads with Jurassic, and with Mobius we have two headteacher advocates.

2. What are the trust’s internal systems for developing maths?

DSAT is a research-based trust that invests in collaborative professional learning, all of which is underpinned by EEF and NCETM materials. There is a strong mastery-based approach to the teaching of maths. We have system leaders for maths at all levels within the trust: teachers, headteachers and trust leaders all take on maths leadership roles. A trust maths steering group plans, prepares and leads all collaborative professional learning and supports ongoing school-based implementation. Steering group members all have roles within the Maths Hubs. When staff work for both the trust and the hub, it is important that there is clarity around their role; we understand that they have a role not only within the trust but also in terms of what they contribute to schools outside the trust.

To complement and enhance the work that trust schools do with the Maths Hubs, there are termly maths conferences. In between these, teachers and leaders complete gap tasks which are then revisited and built on at subsequent conferences. Each year there is an enquiry question that focuses professional learning; for example, a recent question was ‘How do we enable all children to think mathematically within mastery lesson design, and how do we implement this effectively?’

Regional Directors at DSAT have geographical areas they cover. Part of their responsibility is to enable improvement and to know about the impact of professional learning in these schools. This involves looking at both trust professional learning and Maths Hubs Work Groups. Their work ensures there is consistency, equity and measurable improvement for all.

3. What are the trust’s expectations for its schools and the Maths Hubs?

Our expectation is that all our schools engage in at least one Work Group with the Maths Hub each year. This year, it has been challenging as there have been significant budget and staffing constraints. However, we have ensured that all our schools have participated in Mastering Number, which has been very important for developing early number.

Some schools in the trust have accessed targeted and enhanced support. This partnership-led approach between Maths Hub and trust leaders creates a strong and intentional platform for improvement.

4. What are the benefits of trust staff taking on system leadership roles with the trust and the Maths Hubs?

When Mastery Specialists lead Work Groups, they get a great deal out of their roles: they and DSAT benefit from them working with the trust’s schools, but they also bring insight back into the trust from their work with other schools outside the trust. DSAT believes it needs to keep learning from looking both in and outwards, and the work of our Work Group Leads exemplifies this.

Mastery Specialists have a huge amount of credibility as they have a foothold in classroom practice in school, as well as engaging in the latest research about maths teaching. Teaching for mastery dovetails with the trust’s teaching, learning and assessing principles, and Mastery Specialists help to embed change, meaning it has the best chance of success.

5. What are the challenges the trust faces when it comes to developing system leaders alongside the Maths Hub?

In DSAT, we have several small mixed-age schools. This can create two challenges: engaging in the support available, and providing the system leadership to ensure the support really sticks. However, the Maths Hubs have come up with a great solution. These schools have been able to engage in mixed-age schools-only Work Groups. They feel they have really benefited from these, as the discussions are relevant and the sharing of best practice can be actioned in their setting.

In our trust, we identify three key challenges to success: having intention and strategy, having the leaders to make it happen, and having the resources to make it so. We know we need to make an investment in all of these. If we invest in our leaders, we grow the teaching and leading of maths. These leaders then improve outcomes for pupils through their increased knowledge and skills, and deep collaboration within the trust helps us make the most of the resources we have. Having system leaders who work with the Maths Hub pays us back many times over.