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By now you may have carried out the Spring 1 assessments in the Progress Tests, and the Spring 2 tests may not be far away. This blog summarises the averages from all schools, using the Spring term data in the online Markbook, in case it’s useful to compare. Don’t forget that you can enter scores into the Markbook to track and analyse results against age-related expectations. (Just click the Markbook tile when you log into Power Maths. There’s a walkthrough video here.) 

By Kate Wilson, Senior Director of Humanities at Outwood Grange Academies Trust.

The Special Educational Needs Assessments Standards Committee (SASC) in 2019 defined Dyscalculia as: “A specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers which can lead to a diverse range of difficulties with mathematics. It will be unexpected in relation to age, level of education and experience and occurs across all ages and abilities.”

We asked Pearson colleagues and teachers to discuss their most influential diverse role models. Whether close to home, or looming large in history, the answers they gave were a continued celebration of diversity and shared experiences, revealing the importance and impact of actions, words, and connection.

Dr Ems Lord, Director of the University of Cambridge’s award-winning Maths outreach programme NRICH and recent The Right Angle podcast guest, discusses the how and why of parental engagement in Maths learning.

Emma Darcy, Director of Technology for Learning at Denbigh High School in Luton and the Chiltern Learning Trust, shares her Pearson National Teaching Award experience. 

In the most recent episode of The Right Angle podcast, our guest – Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE – discusses forgotten mathematicians and myth-busting gendered attitudes to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). 

We are excited to hear more from the child prodigy and new Countdown host, who is taking on the role while Rachel Riley is on maternity leave, about her upcoming book She’s in CTRL and her aspirations for the future of maths…

When it comes to low-stakes assessment, the consensus is that it is assessment which is not pass or fail, does not cause added stress or anxiety for pupils (Bain, 2004) (children can make mistakes without a penalty) and aims to get children to retrieve information. This blog looks at how Maths Flex can be used for low-stakes assessment.

On 27 January we held a webinar to share advice from our authors, Tony Staneff and Josh Lury, about how to use Power Maths flexibly in response to the current situation. Many children are not going into each new unit at the usual, expected starting point, and the volume of missed learning is variable. Please watch the webinar if you have time (it’s 1 hour). Otherwise, this blog is designed to sum up some key points.

When it comes to low-stakes assessment, the consensus is that it is assessment which is not pass or fail, does not cause added stress or anxiety for pupils (Bain, 2004) (children can make mistakes without a penalty) and aims to get children to retrieve information. This blog looks at how Abacus can be used for low-stakes assessment.