Jamie is an inspiring school leader who only wants the best for his school. He and teacher Kelly Holmes feel that Propeller maths resources work very well in their environment. They allow them to carry out constant assessment and strive to achieve more.
| Number of Pupils | FSM | EFL | Last Ofsted | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 226 Pupils | 15.5% FSM | 2% EFL | Outstanding | East Anglia |
“All of our staff have picked up the boards and run with them.”
Working with Oulton Broad has given us some great ideas of how to use our maths resources. Our favourite method is using the Rapid Recall Boards in pairs. One is the ‘solver’ and one is the ‘recorder’. The solver, as the name suggests, solves the challenge and then tells the recorder. The recorder has to question them as to why it is the correct answer before writing it down. We have seen this in action in the classroom and the children use such in-depth mathematical language and questioning. It’s refreshing and we love how the children were mastering the topics.
Video Transcript
Jamie White
I’m Jamie White and I am the Head Teacher at Oulton Broad Primary School.
When I started here we were satisfactory and since then we have gone on to become outstanding. I want to see our school as a beacon school. As a school that stands out amongst others for the standard of education we provide the children, and for the opportunities we give them.
We search out best practice wherever we can find it – we search for the best possible resources, the best possible staff, the best possible people to make sure everything we give the children is the very best quality at all times.
We work out which children in our school aren’t making the progress they should be and we target our resources there in the first instance. So, we make sure as a matter of priority that all of our children make progress all the way through, and we use our pupil premium funding to make sure that all of our children make the necessary levels of progress. We raise attainment for all children. Our pupil premium children here achieve higher than all children nationally and we are very proud of that as a fact as well.
Kelly Holmes
I’m Kelly Holmes and I’m the Maths Lead here at Oulton Broad Primary.
From Propeller, we have got the Rapid Recall Whiteboards which we use twice a week in each of the classrooms from year 1 through to 6 and we are lucky that we have a Mental Maths allocation on our timetable within key stage two classes which means that we can use them on a regular basis to improve their skills across all the different mathematical concepts in the curriculum.
So, the Rapid Recall Boards, when we first got them we let the staff themselves explore them. We had discussions about which numbers were harder and which numbers were easier and how easy it was to follow the instructions. Beyond that, it really isn’t something that needs much training. All of our staff have picked up the boards and run with them. They are brilliant, particularly in the sense of supply cover because any supply cover can pick them the board and understand how to pitch a lesson correctly for that particular year group.
The Cracking Concept games. We use them in each of the different years for fractions decimals and percentages, that being a really important part of the new National Curriculum as it stands now. By practising them on a regular we are able to address the children’s misunderstandings.
With the Cracking Concept games, we let the children explore them themselves and ascertain themselves which ones were harder and which ones were easier and actually evaluate them considering how easy the instructions were, or how challenging, or what strategies were needed to play the games.