The No. 1 question for school leaders

A conversation with Omar Jennings

Welcome to Maths in Motion - our brand new series celebrating a community dedicated to leading maths education.

In our first edition, we will be diving into the work of Omar Jennings - headteacher at Nightingale Primary School and local leader of maths education at LSE+ Maths Hub - to figure out the number one question all school leaders should ask themselves.

Omar is a maths specialist teacher who started his career at Nightingale Primary School almost 10 years ago as deputy headteacher before stepping into the role of headteacher in 2019. Alongside this role, Omar is a Primary Mastery Specialist and an NCETM-accredited Professional Development Lead. Since his first involvement with the Maths Hub in 2016, Omar has worked with over 50 schools on the Primary Teaching for Mastery Programme and is currently leading a Work Group focussed on developing oracy in maths.

Here is a picture of Omar from his trip to Shanghai with the NCETM - read this article on the NCETM England-China teacher exchange to find out more!

Revolutionising maths at Nightingale Primary School

“We believe that all children can be successful when provided with the right support, environment and opportunities. In maths, we aim to have all our children make progress together and differentiate using a multitude of techniques, not by mathematical content. Whether our teachers use sharp questioning or move from concrete, pictorial and abstract the aim is the same: no child is left behind”.

During Omar’s time as headteacher, Nightingale Primary School has achieved remarkable success in maths - with progress scores ranking in the top 10% nationwide. “What we do in maths is really profound”, Omar explains, “and much of what we have learned from our NCETM Teaching for Mastery pedagogical approach of incorporating metacognitive and gradual release principles to maths is how we have approached just about all aspects of the curriculum because we have seen what the impact has been, year on year”.

A question for all school leaders: “Why?”

Omar stresses the importance of “finding your why” as a school leader, as “it is first important to understand not only what you are doing and how, but why you are doing it”. Simon Sinek ’s books “Start with WHY” and “Find your WHY” are a great place to start if you’re looking to develop a similar approach to leadership.

“Our ‘why’ at Nightingale Primary School is oracy. Being able to clearly explain and identify what is happening with numbers, and making sure children can make connections with different aspects of learning is crucial, and it’s something the pupils have become very used to understanding”.

A large proportion of pupils at Nightingale Primary School are identified as those whose first language is not English. While this can be a challenge, it means “we have one universal language that the parents speak and that is math - no matter where you go it’s going to be consistent”.

What comes after ‘Why’?

Once you have identified the driving purpose behind your actions as a school leader, it’s time to decide on strategic actions designed to achieve results that align with the core values of your ‘why. ' I asked Omar how he approached this step:

“We constantly ask ourselves ‘What do our pupils need and why?’”.

The NCETM recently published an article highlighting the positive impact of teaching for mastery approaches in supporting EAL pupils to fully engage in maths lessons. As a school with a high percentage of EAL pupils, Omar notes “this is exactly why we implemented teaching for mastery and Number Talks”.

Curating maths at Nightingale Primary School

“Our approach to maths is not a ‘one size fits all’ system. Making sure that teachers understand what those core values are is crucial. We have years of clarity in understanding what needs to be taught and how it needs to be taught”.

Teaching for Mastery

Teaching for mastery is primarily an approach to curriculum design, pedagogy and subject knowledge. “I love teaching for mastery, and whenever you go into one of our classrooms you are always going to see elements of teaching for mastery. What I try to convey to other schools is that teaching for mastery is about meeting children where they are at. This is what we are doing at Nightingale with Number Talks, as we are moving toward a more nuanced understanding of number”.

Number Talks

Number Talks describes a collection of daily 10-15 minute activities designed to support pupils to develop good number sense (the ability to understand numbers and quantities, and perform calculations mentally) and flexible thinking. “The reason we use Number Talks is in our ‘why’ - which is oracy”.?

“From Nursery to Year 3, it is very much traditional Number Talks, inspired by Cathy Humphreys . In Years 4 to 6, the nuance starts to come in, so we might use Number Talks to introduce the teaching for a particular lesson or a stand-alone to revisit strategies to multiply 2-digit numbers by 3-digit numbers - especially when there’s halving and doubling that can be used or partial quotients. That’s imperative in what we do. It’s about where are they at, what have they forgotten how to do and how could they be more efficient- that’s where the association with oracy comes into it. This oracy is transformative, it is imperative, and pupils are able to speak confidently about the mathematical concepts”.

Number Talks Special Event

If you would like to see Number Talks in practice at Nightingale Primary School, you can register your place to attend a showcase on Tuesday 18th June 2024 (8-10am) - limited spaces! At this event, you will dive into the practical implementation of Number Talks in the modern classroom with live lesson observations, unravelling effective strategies for fostering mathematical fluency and problem-solving.?

Don't miss this opportunity to join collaborative discussions, share insights, and explore best practices at #NumberTalksLiveLesson.

Find your ‘why’ with Maths Hubs

If you are considering becoming a local leader of maths education or engaging with your local Maths Hub in a different capacity - here’s what Omar suggests:

“Do it.” - what else is there to say?

“I was very passionate and have always loved maths teaching and learning and when I joined the Primary Mastery Specialist Programme I felt like the more I dug the more I realised I knew absolutely nothing. It was frightening and inspiring at the same time. In the first term, you will look at education differently - not just maths but education as a whole. I didn’t expect that to happen but it definitely did.”

“It’s not to say that you couldn't continue to teach without having completed this programme but, to go back to Simon Sinek’s idea of why. I understood what and how but I didn’t know why. What this training does is help you understand the why - from there, I was sold.”

Find out more

A huge thank you to Omar Jennings for taking time out of his busy schedule to discuss his work as a school leader and local leader of maths education. You can contact Omar via email: [email protected]

If you haven’t already, be sure to get in touch with your local Maths Hub to find out how you can support your pupils to achieve excellence in maths.

Want to find out more about the positive impact of teaching for mastery approaches? Visit the NCETM website.

Want to find out more about Number Talks? Register for the event! Omar also recommends the book ‘Making Number Talks Matter: Developing Mathematical Practices and Deepening Understanding’ by Cathy Humphreys and Ruth Parker.

If you want to find out more about Nightingale Primary School, you can visit their website and follow them on X/Twitter.

Author - Katherina Samways