A comprehensive collection of digital resources offering a whole-school solution for achieving maths mastery…
We’ve heard a lot recently about our nation’s alleged ‘anti-maths mindset’. Perhaps, part of the problem is that it can take so much work for teachers to plan and prepare lessons.
For some, there might also have been the issue of converting to the wildly popular White Rose Maths model.
What they need, then, is a complete package that takes a lot of the time and legwork out of creating inspirational maths lessons. And, look! Here’s one!
Noted educational publisher Pearson has created a bundle of digital resources that could seriously reduce the headache-count for primary teachers.
The range of materials is breathtaking, from planning, to professional development, to online pupil practice books and digital teaching tools and games. It is consistent with the concrete, pictorial, abstract (CPA) approach and, because the bundle follows the White Rose Maths small steps (and Power Maths is created in partnership with WRM), you get the sense that teachers would not have to look anywhere else.
The most important thing is that it should free up their headspace enough to improve their teaching practice.
One of my biggest bugbears about the profession has been the way that it demands so much of its practitioners before they even enter the classroom. It’s a wonder that teachers have any energy left to teach.
This maths mastery bundle, however, looks like it could help to return some of that vim and vigour to the teacher’s day.
It is immediately apparent how closely Tony Staneff, founder of White Rose Education, has been involved in this product. One look inside any of the Power Maths practice books will reveal the familiar techniques and illustrations that have proved so popular in helping pupils develop an in-depth understanding of mathematical concepts at White Rose Maths.
Apart from the planning and practice materials, the packed online toolkit includes teacher guides, starter activities, arcade-style games and training videos.
I particularly liked the interactive teacher tools that will no doubt support the explanation of ideas very effectively. There are also e-textbooks and digital versions of the various practice books, which I can see coming in very handy, especially if you have limited storage facilities for all manner of workbooks, etc.
“I particularly liked the interactive teacher tools that will no doubt support the explanation of ideas very effectively.”
Beyond the routine classroom materials, the bundle offers Maths Flex, an intelligent maths practice service for KS2 that uses AI software (don’t panic!) from Pearson partners Century Tech, to provide useful data for the teacher and personalised activities and interventions for the pupil.
Essentially, the AI constantly adapts to a child’s strengths and weaknesses while moving through the activities, thereby saving you time figuring out personalised differentiation for each pupil.
There is also School Jam, which allows teachers to provide Reception and KS1 pupils with fun practice activities they can complete at home, thereby increasing confidence and, hopefully, parental engagement.
The whole package is hosted on Pearson’s ActiveLearn platform, which is easy enough to navigate, so teachers should be able to find what they are looking for without difficulty. It’s just another way that this offer helps to smooth the path to maths mastery.
Altogether, it looks like a powerful antidote to any lingering anti-maths mindset that might be clouding your class.
