Celebrating excellence in subject leadership

Maths - Leeds West Academy - Winner of the BMC Award

The departmental vision was to embed the PTI ethos by ensuring teachers and students were provided with the conditions needed to flourish with Maths. Teachers were provided with the subject specialist support, training and guidance to allow them to teach to the level and standard of the best in the department.

The Maths department leader continually reviews the curriculum to ensure students are stretched and challenged. Schemes of Learning have been designed to meet the needs of each year group, underpinned by effective data systems providing teachers with information about their student’s competencies and allowing them to support, stretch, and challenge in a timely, responsive way.

Student growth and enrichment is a core element of learning and students are exposed to careers and future goals, diversity and decolonization. The department believes all students can become high performing learners, regardless of their starting points. Through a curriculum learning community focus of subject pedagogy, staff are trained and empowered to scaffold and deliver lessons in a way that best meets the needs of students, including those with SEND. The impact of this is that increasing cohorts of students are entering for higher tier at the end of KS4.

High numbers of students are now engaging in subject-based activities beyond the curriculum, ranging from Year 7 students attending a department-created ‘level up’ programme in the holidays, to Saturday School for Year 11s. Attendance to these has doubled in the last two years and continues to grow. The impact of these can be seen in student outcomes and confidence.

CPD beyond the department is highly valued. Engagement with the PTI has proven popular and staff contribute their experiences through department training sessions. The PTI forums have allowed leaders to broaden their current expertise and seek innovative ideas that can be used to develop the area further. Within the department an open culture of development has been created to strive for constant improvement.

Externally, staff have been involved in the Leeds Learning partnership, undertaken apprenticeships with the NCE, taken part in the new NPQs and been selected to participate in the Maths Mastery Development with the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics leading to two members of staff being accredited Mastery Advocates. Staff have also used Higher Education connections to broaden students’ horizons; this is particularly important as the area the school serves is in the bottom 10% nationally for students progressing to HE.

Maths - Hinchingbrooke School - Highly Commended for the BMC Award

The departmental vision was to develop a range of tools to support the teaching and learning of Maths. Through the use of technology to support Maths pedagogy, pupils have been able to build confidence and become enthused about topics.

The teaching and learning landscape has evolved due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the various lockdowns, and as a result has highlighted issues in Maths learning. Matt Woodfine, Lead Practitioner of Mathematics at Hinchingbrooke School, began creating the freely available https://mathswhiteboard.com to address such issues and focus on specific pedagogical techniques as a wider departmental focus.

Since creating the site, it has been used by more than 20,000 users across 120 countries. The site has had a profound impact on how teachers teach Maths using technology. It currently contains 160 topics differentiated in 890 ways. The content has been explored in more ways than other sites with a 6-star system showing the progression of topics. With each star, questions are increasingly difficult, providing learners with a scaffolded journey to each topic and resources to support staff to see the progress of a topic and how it might be differentiated. Across the site, staff can produce resources using unlimited question generators. This feature has not only been embraced by primary and secondary schools but by FE colleges across the country. Adult learners have become passionate about Maths due to the challenge and consolidation of the star system.

One key feature of mathswhiteboard.com is its ability to use Google translate to instantly create resources in other languages. Due to the site being produced through code, it interacts with Google translate to create bespoke resources for students who are EAL.

The site is constantly adjusting due to feedback from around the world, helping to shape what mathematicians are exposed to. The most recent addition is Level Up. Level Up is a programme accessible to all KS2 to KS4 students, specifically designed to enhance basic numeracy skills and contains all the resources that staff need to run the project.

Students are able to easily engage with Maths through the site and it is creating the foundations that so many are missing before a spiral of failure and disenfranchisement leads students away from a successful and rewarding mathematical journey. 

Art - Holland Park School - Commended for the BMC Award

Since taking over the leadership of the Art department just over two years ago, Olivia Burley has redesigned the curriculum and programmes of study to maximise the opportunities for all students to make progress and achieve examination success. Her vision for the department is to develop students’ acquisition of artistic skills by planning and implementing imaginative and engaging schemes of work. The curriculum has also been broadened through the inclusion of a range of contemporary and traditional artists from a diverse range of backgrounds.

The Art subjects are an integral part of the ethos of Holland Park from the Art Scholarship programme and school publications, to the GCSE, A level and Art Aptitude exhibitions in the purpose built gallery. At GCSE, the Art subjects are continually oversubscribed. Photography was introduced 5 years ago and is highly popular among the student body. The course has been particularly accessible and engaging for lower attaining and SEND students, with all students exceeding their predicted grades at GCSE.

The importance of showcasing and celebrating students’ work is highlighted across the key stages. Last academic year, Holland Park’s first Art exclusive magazine was designed, produced and sent to all parents and governors as part of the termly Et Cetera magazine. The success of the magazine has led to it being kept as a yearly feature, which has evolved into the Holland Park ‘Turner Prize’ with an end of year exhibition to celebrate students’ work.

The department has also placed a focus on external collaboration and extracurricular provision; most recently collaborating with The Mosaic Rooms gallery and two other local schools on a 4-week project ‘Lockdown Diaries: Over&Out’. These opportunities offered perspectives and activities not currently covered in the curriculum. The project was delivered by two artists, through virtual sessions, to scholarship and year 12 students. At the end of the course, students visited The Mosaic Rooms and had their artwork exhibited virtually.

Internally, all department members have been encouraged to attend more practical workshops and CPD courses. To develop this further, teacher-led CPD sessions are being incorporated into the department, so colleagues can share different skill sets. Collaboration with other departments has also been encouraged, with the Art and Music departments now working together annually on the annual school production.

English - Little Ilford School - Commended for the BMC Award

The English department at Little Ilford School discovered insufficient attention was being paid to the academic needs of KS2 pupils, resulting in teachers’ expectations of what pupils can achieve being too low. Therefore, the department vision was to develop schemes of learning that ensured layers of depth and challenge were embedded throughout.

This was achieved through placing importance on the transition from KS2 to KS3. Amandip Kandola, Lead Practitioner, developed transition schemes of learning for primary school teachers in the Manor Park Schools Community Partnership. The scheme of learning had a clear focus on spoken language and verbal interaction, and oral language skills. Amandip worked with a group of primary and secondary teachers from Newham to develop transition schemes of learning for colleagues to deliver in the Summer and Autumn term. The planning stage was then opened up to schools, where they could volunteer in creating lessons, or a scheme of learning.

In primary schools where the SOL was implemented, students were given the opportunity to develop pieces of writing, which highlighted what they were capable of achieving and where their abilities lie. This work was then shown to local KS3 teachers. This, coupled with reciprocal visits to observe best practice, shared with the KS3 teachers at the feeder school. This enabled the secondary teachers to see the high expectations that the students are held to, and how they can therefore pitch their teaching and learning at the required level at the start of Year 7.

After the transition process, the department continued to work with the Year 6 teachers to share how the transition books were used at Little Ilford. The continuation of work displayed the depth of challenge in secondary school and the success of the KS2 transition unit delivery by primary teachers. The impact has been that more work, of a higher standard, has been produced; the students have been able to develop their skills, bridging some of the gaps identified as part of the project; there is a higher rate of confidence moving into KS3 amongst the students and they have been able to showcase their abilities even more than previously. It is evident that primary and secondary leaders working collaboratively can ensure prior learning is built upon and that students’ have the best possible start to secondary education. 

MFL - Queen Katharine Academy - Commended for the BMC Award

The Spanish department’s vision was to implement more opportunities for learners to develop their independent and spontaneous production of target language. This included creating staff and student resources, expanding extracurricular opportunities and participating in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) projects.

During the lockdown, the department explored ways that technology and online resources could enhance students’ experiences of language learning. Platforms, such as Nearpod and Genial.ly, have increased student motivation and participation in lessons. The Languages department was selected by the TDET trust to pioneer the use of iPads in KS5 lessons as part of the TDET Transform Project. This encouraged students to become independent learners and also created greater opportunities for students to advance their language skills.

The department has expanded extra-curricular opportunities to engage students and enrich their linguistic and wider skills. KS3 students are offered the chance to take part in the Routes into Languages Spelling Bee and Translation Bee competitions, resulting in students winning prizes at a national level. Cross-curricular projects such as LinguaMaths and a Year 7 Eurovision project are also offered.

One of the greatest impacts on increasing students’ curiosity and engagement came from participating in CLIL projects. Year 9 Spanish groups took part in a project to offer them a unique experience of bilingual education and an opportunity to learn a History-based topic. Teachers from the Spanish and History departments collaborated to devise a sequence of lessons covering the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The lessons were highly engaging and well received. Students were able to expand their range of vocabulary and develop their use of higher-order Spanish language. The CLIL projects have now been extended into a Year 8 Geography module, taught in Spanish, on Dark Tourism. Staff shared their experiences of bilingual education to the Peterborough Association for Languages network and were approached by the organiser of Linguascope Webinars to share their finding with Languages teachers across the country.

The department’s community and international Language Leaders schemes have allowed students to attend training led by the University of Cambridge, providing them with the tools to create and deliver lessons to local primary school Spanish students. The Erasmus+ Language Leaders project has also provided students with opportunities to deliver virtual English lessons to French and Greek partner schools. These schools have in turn taught QKA students about the language and culture of France and Crete. 

Why Holland Park School was shortlisted for the BMC Award

The departmental vision was to increase the proportion of target language used within the classroom. The aim was that this extended to feedback provided to students in their workbooks, the teaching of grammar or written skills which might ordinarily be undertaken in English, and the spontaneous interactions both on the corridor and at the starts and ends of lessons.

The teachers and students developed an understanding that wherever possible, the default position was to avoid using English as the means of communication. If this required mime, images, gesture or repetition, then so be it: the target language was key to enabling students, inspiring their interest and securing their success. To scaffold this transition and support students, the department created ‘speaking mats’ that were placed upon desks in the classrooms. These differentiated aids offered prompts and key phrases that students initially had access to throughout their lessons.

Commitment to the teaching of grammar has been hugely empowering for students. Having invested substantial time in the collation of student views, it was clear from the outset that students’ confidence was key to increasing their speaking proficiency.

Much extracurricular provision has been established including 'Tales in Translation' - an extracurricular activity in partnership with the University of Caen. Students translate documents (such as letters, diaries, and testimonials) from the Occupation which enhanced both linguistic and cultural understanding.

Students are also sent on taster experiences at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge which has raised aspiration and desire to progress to higher education. Last year, two students secured places to study languages at Cambridge and one secured a place at Oxford.