Hawksmoor Primary School and Morden Mount Primary School are both based in the London borough of Greenwich.
Hawksmoor is three forms of entry and, situated in the Moorings Estate in Thamesmead, the school serves a community experiencing high deprivation and has a significantly high proportion of pupils with English as an additional language. Many children experience barriers to learning and Hawksmoor prides itself on being inclusive.
Morden Mount has two forms of entry, and serves a pocket of deprivation just north of Lewisham town centre. With 67 per cent Pupil Premium it is the second-most deprived school in Greenwich. Ninety per cent of pupils have English as an additional language and there is high mobility. However, children make exceptional progress to achieve above national averages.
Each school within the partnership has its own distinct set of characteristics, however they are united in their approach to the curriculum. Executive headteacher and National Leader of Education, Briony Brammer, explained that “staff and pupils have worked on joint projects enabling them to learn from each other and raise standards”. Collaboration breeds consistency.
High expectations have been embedded across the partnership and the leadership team is encouraged to “catch people doing the right thing and reinforce positive messages among staff and pupils”. This nurturing environment is modelled through distributed leadership and is complemented by school-wide support for high achievement.
Leaders at all levels have the opportunity to take part in coaching and through a professional dialogue teachers are encouraged to reflect on their practice. In addition to being observed by senior leaders, teachers are observed by their peers. In both settings, teachers at all stages of their career have found this invaluable.
Accountability is recognised as an integral part of school improvement – subject leaders are expected to thoroughly interrogate the data and identify areas for development. This culminates in a detailed subject analysis report at the end of each summer term linked to the school improvement plan.
Success for all
Hawksmoor Primary and Morden Primary also share the same values and core principles, ensuring all children succeed irrespective of their starting points. Having led Hawksmoor to an outstanding Ofsted judgement in 2012, Ms Brammer was then asked by the local authority to join Morden Mount when the school was judged to have serious weaknesses in 2013. In only four terms, Morden Mount achieved an Ofsted grading of good with outstanding leadership and management and behaviour and safety.
Each term a “narrowing the gap” meeting takes place which provides the senior leadership team with an opportunity to identify which pupils are not making sufficient progress. This enables the SENCO to act swiftly, creating interventions where appropriate and advising teachers on how to support children in class.
Ms Brammer explained: “There are 104 pupils attending part-time in the nursery in Hawksmoor. Sixty per cent of pupils experience language delay and a significant proportion of pupils enter foundation stage operating below national expectations.
“It is essential that from the moment our pupils enter school, we work collaboratively to identify their need, put the appropriate support in place, and ensure all pupils reach their full potential.”
A commitment to lifelong learning
Pupils at Hawksmoor and Morden Mount are set on a path to life-long learning. This is effectively modelled by adults through the CPD in action across both sites. The relentless drive to improve standards and analysis across subject areas means that children enjoy a broad and balanced curriculum. Ms Brammer added: “Children enjoy a rich curriculum but not at the expense of standards.”
Regular performance analysis coupled with a detailed understanding of staff and pupils, ensures leaders seize every opportunity for pupils to succeed. Hawksmoor Primary is committed to supporting teachers and pupils beyond their own setting, and teachers are encouraged to lead by example and explore new pedagogy.
For example, year 1 pupils are currently taking part in an Inspire maths pilot with Open University and teachers will be sharing their practice with the rest of the partnership.
The partnership has also been working with the “Singapore method” of teaching maths, which has contributed to raised standards across the school and helped lead to exceptional results at the end of key stage 2.
The Maths Hub
In keeping with the partnership’s desire to share best practice, Hawksmoor also forms part of the London South–East Maths Hub. The Maths Hubs are run nationally by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics.
For Hawksmoor, the hub is an opportunity to bring together educational professionals from a national network, each locally led by an outstanding school or college, and in partnership with neighbouring schools, colleges, universities, CPD providers, maths experts and employers. It is an exciting vision: to harness all maths teaching expertise within an area, to spread excellent pedagogy and ensure pupils make maximum progress.
The national dimension of the programme is made possible by the hubs collaborating as a national group, pooling experience, expertise and ideas as a network, and meeting once a term at the National Maths Hubs Forum.
As members of the maths hub, teachers at Hawksmoor have had the opportunity to take part in a teacher exchange programme. Staff have visited schools in Shanghai to learn from colleagues and deepen their understanding of the mastery teaching approach and the school is delighted to be hosting colleagues from Shanghai later this term.
During their first year, the maths hub has been focusing on improving maths achievement and participation rates, improving problem-solving and conceptual and relational understanding.
In addition, the hub works collaboratively to offer CPD opportunities for leaders, teachers and support staff, recruitment and retention support and opportunities to take part in classroom research.
To further consolidate the school’s exceptional work in maths, Hawksmoor has worked closely with an international maths consultant who has worked with leaders to develop a number of maths resources.
These include a “Passport round the world” enabling pupils to “visit” different countries around the globe using their maths passport. Pupils practise their mental maths skills Monday to Wednesday and then have the opportunity to use and apply problem-solving skills at the end of the week, before travelling to the next country.
The opportunity to rehearse and refine core mathematical skills each morning has had a direct impact on attainment for pupils of all ability as they strive to beat their personal best.
Hawksmoor Primary is also one of only eight phonics hubs in the country. In recognition of their strong track record of leading improvement, they received £10,000 to develop models to improve phonics teaching and support schools in the Medway Towns.
A learning environment to learn from
One of the most striking things about Hawksmoor is the inviting learning environment. Children take pride in their work which is proudly displayed on the wall, but teachers and leaders strive to ensure that the classroom walls are not simply there to be decorated.
Instead they are an additional learning resource, with dedicated working walls in each classroom, and consistent vocabulary and learning resources displayed to fast-track learning as children move through the school.
In light of the new national curriculum, revised calculation policies are displayed, translated into “child speak” and broken down into stages to enable pupils to focus on problem-solving. Adults follow the whole-school handwriting policy, modelling and displaying cursive handwriting in all classrooms, helping to embed excellent practice and fine motor skills.
Collaborative learning for all
The opportunity to collaborate regularly presents itself. How we choose to engage, how we lead by example and perhaps more importantly the messages we send to our young people is up to us. Hawksmoor and Morden Mount each have their own unique contexts and school communities, and yet they have formed a successful partnership enabling them to become increasingly outward-facing – sharing best practice across two sites, developing pedagogy, sharing resources and up-skilling staff.
What is interesting, is the way in which pupils across the partnership have adopted this way of learning too. Having understood from the adults they work with that the key to high standards, exceptional attainment and progress lies in collaboration, it is no surprise that the pupils are flying high.
- Laura McPhee is head of primary networks at SSAT. For more information, visit www.ssatuk.co.uk
Further information
Maths Hubs: www.mathshubs.org.uk