Staff at Heathfield Primary School in Bolton have completed their initial Groundwork Maths training, ready to begin using the programme as part of a clear whole-school approach to supporting children with gaps in their mathematical understanding.
Sophie Lord, Groundwork Maths Impact Lead and Sarah Toft, Inclusion Lead at Rethink Maths spent time with the Heathfield team exploring the programme, the resources that had arrived in school earlier in the month and, most importantly, how Groundwork Maths will work in practice for their children.
What stood out immediately was just how prepared the school was to get started.
A clear vision from the outset
Heathfield is already a high-attaining school in mathematics, but the team is clear that strong whole-school outcomes do not remove the need to look closely at the children who are finding maths hardest.
Their aim for Groundwork Maths is very specific: to help close the gap for the lowest-attaining 10% of children in school, ensuring that strong overall attainment is matched by equally strong support for those who need it most.
The team has already identified the children who will take part and thought carefully about how Groundwork Maths will fit into the school day. Children will access the programme daily, combining work from the Groundwork Maths workbooks with regular practical intervention sessions led by teaching assistants.
The next step is to establish exactly where each child needs to begin.
Following the training, staff planned to use the free Groundwork Maths assessments the very next day. The results will help identify the most appropriate starting module for each child, with intervention sessions beginning immediately afterwards.
This sense of momentum was evident throughout the visit. The school was not simply preparing to use a new resource; staff had already considered what effective implementation would look like.
From programme to practice
Before the training had even begun, many of the practical questions that can make or break an intervention had already been addressed.
The Heathfield team had considered when sessions would take place, which adults would deliver them, where children would work and even where the physical resources would be stored.
That level of organisation meant our conversations could move beyond logistics and focus on teaching and learning: how the programme supports mathematical understanding, how children move through the modules and how adults can use the materials responsively.
There was a real sense that Groundwork Maths was being introduced as part of a planned whole-school approach rather than an isolated intervention.
Pedagogy that reached beyond intervention
One of the most encouraging parts of the training was hearing class teachers identify elements of Groundwork Maths that they could see benefiting children beyond the intervention groups.
The Year 4 teacher, for example, could immediately see the potential of the 8 times-table module for many children in the class. Rather than focusing only on recalling facts, the module develops the mathematical understanding behind the times table and the relationships children can use to reason and calculate.
Year 1 staff were particularly interested in the representations and key sentences used throughout the programme. They could see how these approaches could complement the school’s existing Teaching for Mastery practice and support mathematical understanding across the whole class.
Groundwork Maths has been designed to address gaps in learning, but the principles that underpin it – carefully chosen representations, precise mathematical language and an emphasis on understanding – are principles of effective mathematics teaching more broadly.
Building confidence as well as understanding
For Headteacher Mark Thornley, the potential impact is not only about what children know mathematically.
He also sees an important role for Groundwork Maths in building children’s confidence.
For children who have experienced repeated difficulty in mathematics, carefully sequenced learning and regular opportunities to experience success can be significant. By identifying the specific foundations that need strengthening and giving children the time and support to secure them, the aim is to help them see themselves differently as mathematicians too.
What happens next?
This was the first stage of our work with Heathfield.
Sophie and Sarah will return to the school after staff have had several weeks to use Groundwork Maths. The second visit will include modelling intervention sessions, responding to questions that have emerged through delivery and working alongside staff as they refine their approach.
Impact will also be measured in a number of ways as the programme becomes established.
But perhaps the strongest impression from this first visit was that Heathfield already has many of the conditions for successful implementation in place: a clear purpose, careful planning, committed staff and a shared understanding that closing gaps is about much more than simply giving children more maths to do.
We are looking forward to seeing what happens next.
