Textbook Project
Overview of the Project
The Inspire Maths Programme has been selected by the Department of Education and
the NCETM to be part of the year 1 and 2 textbook project currently running in 32
Maths Hubs Nationwide. Our Maths Hub (Yorkshire and Humber) is currently trialing
the Textbooks in year 1 at: Moortown Primary School; Oakfield Primary School;
Outwood Primary Academy Lofthouse Gate; and Outwood Primary Academy
Kirkhamgate. In addition to this Outwood Primary Academy Kirkhamgate, Outwood
Primary Academy Lofthouse Gate and Outwood Primary Academy Ledger Lane have
invested in the Inspire Maths textbooks in years 1-4.
The purpose of the project
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To develop a mastery approach to teaching maths
To develop teachers understanding and subject knowledge.
Develop best practice and share with the wider field.
To measure impact and prevent a gap from emerging.
To change the mid-set of both teachers and pupils.
Overview
Inspire Maths is a whole-school primary maths programme that provides everything
you need to support a mastery approach to teaching and learning mathematics, and
meet the higher expectation of the 2014 National Curriculum.
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Based on the leading Singapore Maths series My Pals are Here, used in 100% of
Singapore's state primary schools.
Accessible pupil textbooks introduce concepts in a highly scaffolded way,
enabling all children to develop critical thinking skills, make mathematical
connections and become confident mathematicians.
Supported by high-quality, face-to-face professional development.
Why does Inspire Maths work?
A major strength of Inspire Maths is its robust structure, based on best-practice principles
and methods of teaching and learning mathematics, including the concrete-pictorialabstract (CPA) and scaffolding approaches, and a systematic teaching pathway. This
comprehensive pathway emphasises mastery – with continuous, active reinforcement of
concepts to help children assimilate and accommodate their learning – followed by
extension, challenging children to develop and practise the thinking skills that will enable
them to become confident, critically aware and independent learners. The textbooks from
which Inspire Maths is adapted have also been informed by continuous evaluation of their
success in the classroom, through a process of school visits, classroom observation and
programme review. Because of this, Inspire Maths gives you a proven framework for
supporting children of all abilities to achieve success. Inspire Maths is based on wellestablished constructivist ideas of learning, and the views of internationally-renowned
educationalists including Jerome Bruner, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Richard Skemp and
David Ausubel. Constructivism underpins the programme’s approach to learning
mathematical concepts and skills through assimilation and accommodation, and their
reinforcement through reflective activities such as journal writing and error correction. This
perspective is also reflected in the programme’s emphasis on mastery learning and building
children’s confidence. More particularly, Bruner’s three modes of representation are
mirrored by the concrete–pictorial–abstract learning progression which is central to Inspire
Maths. Bruner’s ideas parallel Piaget’s stages of development; essentially, children’s
understanding of mathematical concepts depends on their stage of development. Learning
in the early stages is achieved through concrete representation. Then, when ready, children
can move on to pictorial representations – such as the bar model – which in turn provide
them with a bridge to the abstract stage, and a flexible, fully independent understanding of
the abstract, symbolic language of maths. Though it cannot be used to tackle every problem,
the bar model has a particularly significant role in helping children at the concrete and semiconcrete operational stage (Piaget’s developmental theory) to approach and solve problems
successfully. Skemp’s ideas about instrumental and relational understanding are also an
important part of the pedagogy underpinning Inspire Maths. Skemp suggests that learning
mathematics by relating ideas to each other (relational understanding) is more meaningful,
and therefore more effective, than memorising facts and procedures (instrumental
understanding). Building on these ideas, Inspire Maths is designed to develop children‘s
lasting and profound mathematical understanding which they will continue to extend and
apply. I would like to congratulate the UK schools and teachers who have made the choice
to use Inspire Maths. I am confident that your children will experience similar success to
that seen in other countries who have adopted this approach.
Features
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Provides complete coverage of the key concepts across a year
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Helps to build mastery as topics and concepts are frequently revisited
Includes an easy-to-follow teaching sequence for each unit
Includes long and medium term planning guidance
Provides frequent practice to develop fluency
Practice tasks encourage pupils to use concrete materials to support and deepen
learning
Activities and games promote mathematical conversations and exploration
What does the scheme include?
Pupil Textbooks- to scaffold new learning
Inspire Maths Pupil Textbooks present new learning clearly and consistently, providing
a highly scaffolded framework to support all children. Mathematical concepts are
presented visually, with specific and structured activities, to build firm foundations.
There are two Pupil Textbooks for each level. Let’s Learn! to build firm foundations
Carefully scaffolded learning through Let’s Learn! activities in the Inspire Maths Pupil
Textbooks promotes deep mathematical understanding through:
• clearly presented pages to illustrate how the CPA approach can be used to build firm
foundations
• careful questioning to support the use of concrete apparatus
• opportunities for higher-order questioning (see page ix) to help children become
confident and competent problem solvers
• opportunities to assess each child’s understanding and prior knowledge through
observing their use of concrete apparatus and how they approach the activity
• use of mathematical talk to explore and develop reasoning
skills.
Practice Books- to develop fluency and consolidate.
Inspire Maths Practice Books provide carefully structured questions to reinforce concepts
introduced in the Pupil Textbooks and to provide varied, frequent practice. A wealth of
activities develop fluency, build mathematical confidence and lead towards mastery. The
Practice Books are also a valuable record of individual progress. There are four Practice
Books for Inspire Maths 1-3 and two Practice Books for Inspire Maths 4-6.Each Practice Book
includes:
• Challenging Practice and Problem Solving activities to develop
children’s critical thinking skills
• Reviews after every two or three units, to reinforce learning
• Revisions that draw from a range of preceding topics, concepts and
strands, for more complete consolidation.
Teacher Guides- To support planning
There are two Inspire Maths Teacher’s Guides for each level, one per Pupil Textbook. Each
Teacher’s Guide contains:
• information on how to get started
• long-term planning support
• medium-term planning support
• suggested teaching sequence for
each pupil textbook page
• answers
• photocopiable activities.
Assessment Books- to create a record of progress
Inspire Maths provides comprehensive Assessment Books with regular summative
Assessments to create a record of progress for each child, as well as giving children
opportunities to reflect on their own learning. The wraparound assessment provided
through the Inspire Maths teaching pathway in combination with the Inspire Maths
Assessment Books enables rapid, appropriate intervention as soon as a child needs it,
before they fall behind and when they are ready to be challenged. Topics and concepts
are frequently revisited in the assessments, helping to build mastery.
There is one Assessment Book for each level, providing complete coverage of the key
concepts across a year. Each assessment is divided into sections so you can easily break
them down into appropriate chunks to suit your class. For the early levels, you may
choose to assess in small groups, reading out the questions and scribing answers.
Encourage children to use concrete apparatus when they need support to help them work
through the questions.
There are three types of assessment within each Assessment Book:
1. Main assessments: The main assessments cover the key learning objectives from the
preceding two or three units of the Pupil Textbooks. Through the main assessments,
children are given opportunities to apply their learning in a variety of different contexts,
helping you to quickly identify which children are ready to move on and which need further
support. Children may self-mark to reflect on their progress.
2. Check-ups: There are four check-ups in Year 5 which revisit the previous units, drawing
on prior knowledge to encourage children to make connections and apply their learning to
solve problems. These assessments give you valuable opportunities to check children’s
understanding through observing how they approach questions, use and interpret
mathematical language and use heuristics.
3. Challenging Problems: These assessments make use of non-routine and unfamiliar
questions to see how children use their repertoire of strategies to tackle more challenging
problems. Use this as an opportunity to assess children’s mathematical thinking, reasoning
and problem solving skills by looking at their methods and how they approach the problem.
They are particularly suitable for extension and assessing a child’s level of mastery.
Why is the CPA approach so powerful?
From very early on in their school life, we expect children to use and understand numbers,
which are abstract concepts. Many children struggle with this and so their first experiences
of mathematics can be confusing, leaving them with no solid foundation to build on for later
learning. The CPA approach helps children achieve secure number sense – that is, a sense of
what numbers really represent and how to use them mathematically. This is done through a
series of carefully structured representations – first using physical objects (concrete), then
diagrams or pictures (pictorial), and ultimately using representations such as numerals
(abstract).
The film clip below shows the CPA approach in action in a year 4 class.
Has it had an impact?
The link below shows you a short video clip of how Inspire Maths has transformed teaching
in year 1 at Outwood Primary Academy Lofthousegate.
Agenda
8:45am-9:15am- Refreshments in the
staffroom with introduction
9:20am-10am- Observe Mr Horan year 4
session 1 (textbook session)
10am-10:15am- Observe Mr Horan mark and
create groups
10:15am-10:45am- Observe Maths session 2
10:45am-11am- coffee break in staffroom
11am-12pm- Facilitated discussion with Mr
Horan.