Resources and features from the NCETM in 2020/21

At the NCETM, over the challenging year of 2021/22, we’ve supported teachers by creating resources for immediate use in unforeseen situations, and also for longer-term planning.

Here we highlight some of the things you might have missed, but may still be useful as your thoughts turn to next year.

Resources

After providing an immediate response to the first school closure period in March 2020, the NCETM’s approach in 2020/21 focused largely on supporting pupils back into school and helping teachers identify how to prioritise the most important bits of maths to learn in the reduced time available.

Our Primary Curriculum Prioritisation materials, so popular for summer-term planning, have now been expanded and resourced for the classroom, in time for the autumn term. Prioritisation is based on the DfE ready-to-progress criteria, and draws together the relevant classroom slides and pedagogy from our Primary Mastery Professional Development materials.

This summer also sees the launch of a big programme in number fluency for 5-7 year olds, called Mastering Number. The programme will run for all of the next school year, and combines high-quality CPD with materials and equipment.

Also launching this summer are Checkpoints activities, our new resources for secondary teachers. They include diagnostic assessment activities for Year 7s and provide suggestions for activities where gaps are identified from primary school.

Podcast

Our podcast series continued to interview teachers as they returned to school in the autumn, opening doors to all their pupils, but under restrictions that impacted on teaching. There were some interesting reflections including Martyn Yeo talking about using online manipulatives, Simon Ball on simultaneously teaching post-16 students in front of him and others at home, and James Cresswell discussing teaching all-attainment classes for the first time. As we went into lockdown again in January, and schools became more proficient at remote provision, this was reflected in the experience of our guests.

Features

We know how busy it’s been this year. You might have missed these features published previously, but which have lasting relevance:

• Representations in our primary video lessons
• Teaching maths in the pandemic
• Which KS3 topic are you teaching next?
• Understanding students' mathematical wrong turns
• Five activities to make maths department meetings worthwhile
• Whole-school approach to learning times tables.

Keeping you up-to-date

Over the course of the year, our NCETM Qualifications and Curriculum Twitter feed kept you up-to-date with all the latest changes from statutory bodies and exam boards. If you haven’t yet visited, you can find out why you should from our article Five reasons to visit the NCETM Q&C Twitter account.

Our Tuesday night Twitter chat #mathsCPDchat has been busier than ever, with teachers eager to discuss the strategies they have used in the ever-changing worlds of the real and online classroom. At other times, they have enjoyed the opportunity to discuss purely pedagogical topics, particularly while chat in school is largely Covid related. Our feature Twitter discussions about teaching maths in all phases gives an overview.

CPD: Maths Hubs’ high-quality provision continued

As schools got better at remote provision, Maths Hubs reflected this in facilitating Work Groups online. Sharing expertise, they have become increasingly good at emulating the face-to-face experience, without the hassle of travel and with more flexibility over time. Read about the experience of three hubs in this article.

The programme of Maths Hubs CPD is already out for next year – have a look and see what you might get involved in.

And if you know an NQT starting next term, or someone early in their maths teaching career, make sure you point them in the direction of our article, Early-career teachers - what you need to know, for a quick tour around what we’ve got on offer on our website.

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