Do you want the best primary (and secondary) Mathematics Curriculum at your school?

Do you want the best primary (and secondary) Mathematics Curriculum at your school?
As an experienced curriculum writer, I am happy to admit defeat to Connecting Mathematics Concepts (CMC). 

Do you have students in Y11 who this year you worry are going to fail to get a grade 4 in their exam? Has this been happening to you every year? Have you started to accept it as inevitable? Well, there's a way to turn it around. 

My biggest takeaway as a Maths teacher at Michaela was the experience of teaching the pupils who struggle the most to accelerate their rate of learning through Connecting Maths Concepts. It’s a game-changer.

If we want our pupils in primary to graduate with above age-related expectations in Mathematics, then this is the curriculum.

If we want more of our pupils to sit in the higher tier than the foundation tier, then this is the curriculum.

If we want to drastically change our 9-4 or 9-5 results in Mathematics, then this is the curriculum.

If we want a programme that helps our weakest pupils catch up, but also pushes our high-performing pupils, then this is the curriculum.

If you are familiar with the problem that I mentioned earlier, then the solution is introducing CMC to help pupils reach age-related expectations. 

CMC is a Direct Instruction (DI) Textbook series that I taught to some of the children who struggle the most and tested to be in the lowest quartile for attainment at Michaela.

CMC accelerated their rate of learning to successfully pass their GCSE (Foundation) and also led pupils to passing the higher tier successfully. They initially struggled more than their peers, but ended up either performing as well or even overtaking their peers in terms of knowledge retention, problem-solving and results in their GCSE results.

 

We are so excited for the children’s results in 5 years. DI has the potential to genuinely change our students’ life chances in maths and beyond. 

Personally, why do I champion CMC?

1. Students get smarter, and faster! Student outcomes were beyond what I imagined. Pupils were successful in the short run and long run.

2. Teachers teach with greater precision! It’s CPD that changed my teaching to be more precise and concise in my instruction 

3. It’s a coherent, cohesive curriculum designed as a 6-year journey. Each concept is introduced, extended, and systematically reviewed beginning in Level A and culminating in Level F.

4. Higher prior attaining students do well and respond well to highly-structured approaches when they are sufficiently challenged.

A detailed study linked here confirms:

Students in the CMC programme performed better on curriculum-based measures than students in other curriculum-taught classes.

Students in the CMC programme significantly outperformed their previous years' classes. The systematic integration and practice of facts in CMC helped the students achieve a higher level of mastery.

What pupils thought:

“I wish we’d have maths books like this every year…it’s easier to learn in this book because they have that part of a page that explains and that’s easier than just having to pick up on whatever.”

CMC is the best textbook series that I have seen: comprehensive beyond measure, with the volume and quality of practice exercises exceeding the content base outlined by the KS1 and KS2 National Curriculum. 

If we want our pupils to succeed in GCSE Mathematics, we have to get it right in Year 7 first. 

The more I work in education, the more I have realised that this is said by all, but followed through by very few school leaders because Year 11 students have only x months left. But, Year 11s will always have x months left, and if they are struggling it stems from a shaky foundation in Year 7. What do we do now?

 

If you teach in a Primary School, or have a Primary School in your all-through school then Connecting Maths Concepts is your game-changing curriculum for the following reasons:

1. It’s field-tested. Many curriculums say they are research-based and evidence-informed but that doesn’t hold up in value compared to a field-tested curriculum. A textbook that was tested and trailed with hundreds of children, improved, and then sold as a textbook worth purchasing.

2. Explicit strategies to teach both basic operations and problem-solving. The programme provides specific teaching procedures including wording and error correction procedures making this a resource that can give support to our non-specialist teachers and HLTA but also as a CPD tool for our experienced staff. Strategies are systematically presented in a word problems strand throughout the year. Explicit instruction is provided to help students discriminate among problem types so that they know when to apply each strategy.

I’m so excited for our children’s prospects, implementing Connecting Maths Concepts and Corrective Mathematics across primary and secondary schools at Athena Learning Trust. 

Happy, confident and successful students, accessing and succeeding in the higher tier of GCSE Maths. 

Athena Learning Trust and the National Institute for Direct Instruction are running a Direct Instruction Mathematics Conference between the dates of 4-5th and 10-13th July offering training on DISTAR (Reception/Y1 DI programme) and CMC (Y2-Y6 programme) with only 14 spaces available. 

Naveen Rizvi-Boulton - National Director of Mathematics, Numeracy and Development