“Seven of these schools have signed up to take part in this project. In Brighton & Hove, these are Bevendean Primary School, Carlton Hill School, Coombe Road Primary School and Hertford Junior School. These are joined by Harbour Primary and Nursery School and Breakwater Academy both in Newhaven and also Dudley Infant Academy in Hastings.”
Tony Bloom, Chair of the Bloom Foundation, said: “As one of the UK’s largest providers of education and training for teachers and other learning and development professionals, the University of Brighton’s School of Education is very well positioned to deliver professional development projects such as this.
“Aligned with our mission to support important community initiatives in the Brighton area, the Bloom Foundation is delighted to be part of this project.”
Professor Debra Humphris, the university’s Vice-Chancellor, helped secure a grant from the Bloom Foundation after meeting Tony Bloom and discussing shared concerns about attainment in primary schools.
Professor Humphris said: “The University of Brighton remains committed to raising attainment in local education through our teacher training provision, academy sponsorship, wide-ranging outreach and now this Continuing Professional Development intervention. It is wonderful to partner with Tony and his family foundation on this project.”
A spokesperson for Harbour Primary and Nursery School said: “We believe that this new project is going to widen our horizons, providing us with experience, expertise and opportunities to develop the use of reasoning and embed it more thoroughly within our school. We are very excited and looking forward to networking with colleagues and seeing how our pupils will benefit.”
The project will use a ‘video club’ model for professional development – one that is easily adaptable to other subjects beyond mathematics.
With support from the university’s Senior Lecturer Lesley Hope, the teachers will plan lessons that offer opportunities for pupils to reason mathematically. These lessons will then be delivered in class and one of the learning activities filmed. Clips from these films will be selected for the next project group session for review, discussion and analysis.
It is hoped that, as a result of this six-month project, the teachers taking part will be able to use the same approach to further enhance the teaching of other subjects in their schools.
According to Lesley, this model is so effective because: “The use of video to analyse children’s responses to carefully planned activities gives teachers a deeper understanding of where learning has happened and reveals any gaps and needs. This allows teachers to more effectively address these needs and to ensure that the intended learning is taking place.”