Teach-Secondary-Issue-14.5

techniques to the numbers they’re presented with. This is what’s core to making learners more fluent and flexible mathematicians. Fluency in action In their endeavour to ensure every single student achieves at least a grade 4 in GCSE maths, theWatford Grammar School for Girls adopted HFL Education’s ‘Making Fluent and Flexible Calculators’ programme to address number fluency issues among their low attaining students. According to Sue Harris, the school’s head of maths, “ Since the changes to the maths curriculumwere introduced, we’ve definitely seen students struggling more. We used to have a two-tier system, with students working towards either the higher or foundation GCSEmaths papers, but we now have a three-tier system, as some students don’t have the necessary skills or understanding to access the GCSE curriculum at all .” Maths teacher Emma Clay adds, “ COVID has definitely contributed to a decline in maths skills and knowledge for some students starting Y7. Studying primary maths on and off for two years, as it was for many children during the lockdowns, isn’t enough to lay strong foundations. Maths relies on daily practice, and being able to shore up skills before moving on. That maths maturity and depth of knowledge is nowmissing in some of our students because of this .” The Making Fluent and Flexible Calculators programme was rolled out over a term to two bottom set maths classes, initially targeting 16 of the school’s weakest Y7 students who had unsuccessfully tried other interventions before. As Emma explains, “ We don’t have data to quantify the improvements made, but as teachers who know our students and their abilities well, it was very clear to see that they have definitely become better at calculations. We can see they’re using strategies more often to solve numerical problems, which they weren’t before. “Some of our students that struggle the most still count on their fingers. With this programme we’re providing themwith the skills to mentally complete calculations faster – but also understand how and why those calculations work, so that they can apply those same strategies to more complex problems. “I’ve learned a lot about the teaching in primaries, which has enabled me to better support students transitioning into Y7 .” ABOUT THE AUTHOR Paul Jenkins is head of secondary curriculum services at HFL Education; the Making Fluent and Flexible Calculators programme is currently being trialled by the Educational Endowment Foundation in 120 state secondary schools – for more information and details of how to join the trials visit tinyurl.com/ts145-FM1 IN SUMMARY Secondary schools can meet the needs of struggling Y7 mathematicians by: • Revisiting foundational skills to embed number fluency • Securing different basic arithmetic techniques • Banishing counting on fingers from the secondary maths classroom 63 teachwire.net/secondary M AT H S