Research School Network: Evidence Informed Practice Really Does Get Results – A MAT Case Study The Aspire Educational Trust are in the Top 10 MATs in England for KS2 Progress in Maths – how have they done it?

We recently received a letter from the DfE saying that our MAT – The Aspire Educational Trust (a Trust of 10, soon to be 11, primary academies in the North West) – is in the top ten MATs in the country for progress in Maths from KS1 to KS2.

It prompted us to reflect on our journey from 2009 when we began the journey of transforming Ash Grove Academy in Macclesfield, the original school in the MAT, to now. The school is in an area with high levels of deprivation; levels of attainment in 2009 were very low and the school threatened with closure.

Until 2009, it’s probably fair to say that my classroom practice in the schools in which I had worked was led by what each school’s ​“normal” practice was and, as a Headteacher of two schools previously, often by what seemed to be successful in neighbouring schools.

As the Maths lead in the school, my first introduction to the idea of evidence informed practice and evidence informed change was as part of the Maths Specialist Teacher programme (MaST). Here, I was introduced to the idea that there was research which had been conducted on aspects of teaching maths and on effecting change in the way in which it is taught.

The staff at Ash Grove avidly trialled different approaches in those early days, with much success. A few years later, we were introduced to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the idea that change in classroom practice should be informed by the ​“best bets” suggested by research – to this day, that remains an absolute core principle of the work of the Trust and all of its schools.

In 2016, we were proud to be designated as one of the EEF’s first five Research Schools.

By 2013, Ash Grove had been judged as ​“outstanding”, attainment was high and we began to grow into a small primary focused multi-academy trust.

As the MAT Director of Maths, (along with my counterpart for English, Megan Dixon, now seconded to work with the EEF), I worked with schools new to the MAT on evidence informed approaches to teaching maths. We awaited the EEF Guidance Report – Improving Maths in Key Stages Two and Three eagerly and with some trepidation. Would our approach be justified? Were we reading the right research? Was our interpretation of the evidence sound?

To our relief, we were in line with most of the eight recommendations – on assessment, the use of manipulatives and representations, on developing problem solving strategies and rich tasks, seeing maths as a connected subject and using evidence informed interventions along the lines suggested by the EEF Guidance Report – Making best use of Teaching Assistants. We had long held a passion for one aspect of Recommendation 5 – without helping to improve children’s motivation to learn maths, improving other areas would be much more difficult.

We were pleased that our decision not to simply follow trends but to study what they were about, read the research about them and adopt the parts that seemed most valid and fitting to our circumstances was justified.

However, the report definitely also pointed us in the direction of some improvements that we needed to make. We needed to strengthen areas such as feedback and to begin to look at what was meant by metacognition and we have started this work with a structured MAT-wide implementation plan (following guidance from the EEF’s Schools Guide to Effective Implementation guidance report).

We recently worked with Maths and English Subject Leaders (together, in the same room!) on understanding evidence and how to spot ​“red flags” when looking at claims of different approaches. As a Teaching School, our approach to initial teacher education is becoming evidence informed with trainees. The first School Direct session of the year was about what is evidence and how we might use it and the EEF Toolkit and Guidance Reports form part of the backbone of the locally taught content.

The DfE letter was keen to see how we might support schools outside our trust. As well as supporting some other academies and local authority schools with maths, we are currently leading the maths part of a project covering two local authorities funded by SSIF based on the guidance report recommendations (more to be shared about this in a future blog post).

It’s nice to get a letter from the DfE. But it’s also great to look back on the hard work, dedication and increasing understanding of research evidence by teachers and teaching assistants that has transformed the lives of children in our MAT, particularly those from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

We are really looking forward to the publication of the maths guidance report for Early Years and Key Stage One and getting going on implementing its recommendations.

Mark Avis – Director of Mathematics and ITT for the Aspire Educational Trust/​Aspirer Research School and Aspirer Teaching School