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Prior to joining Studley, I was Head of Maths at a secondary school in Sandwell. Wanting a new challenge and an opportunity to broaden my experience, I saw the advert for Maths Lead Practitioner at an outstanding Warwickshire school and knew I had to apply!

So I have just completed two years as Maths Lead Practitioner and time has flown by. I felt it was an appropriate time to reflect on my accomplishments and contributions so far:

The luxury of being an experienced Head of Mathematics, but now being Lead Practitioner, is that I am not solely responsible for data, curriculum development or recruitment/retention of Maths teachers. I am able to support the Head of Maths and the second in department adding value to the department, but also offering support across the school and further afield to other schools.

One area I have been responsible for, is the promotion of numeracy across the school. Creating resources, driving in-house competitions, entering national competitions, developing the student prefects’ Maths ambassador role and working with other departments on cross-curricular projects. The numeracy tutor challenge, accompanied with the literacy tutor challenge, has been able to incorporate other departments and subjects to find different ways to provide our students with a snapshot of cross-curricular links with numeracy. With the excellent support of all tutor groups these initiatives strive to widen student awareness of the importance of Maths outside of their mathematics lessons.

I have also been part of the Teaching & Learning working party with a group of teachers who volunteer to meet up every half term to support in the consistency and development of T&L at Studley High School. Initially this was a great opportunity to meet other teachers but has also grown into delivering workshops on teacher training days and whole school briefings. This could be sharing best practice from across the school, but also sharing new research from institutions such as the Endowment Education Foundation. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/

More recently, I have become a Senior Leader of Education (SLE). An excellent opportunity for me to be able to meet colleagues at local primary and secondary schools and support them in the development of their Maths departments. This is a very challenging and responsible role. I represent the Shires TSA and I am thoroughly enjoying the wide ranging support I have been able to offer so far in this role. Teaching Maths is not easy, and the more networking and support we can give to each other, the more likely this will positively affect the retention of teachers and development of our subject.

You can read more about becoming a specialist leader here:https://www.shirestsa.co.uk/school-to-school-support/leaders-in-education/sle/

Mrs L Wakefield
Studley High School