This case study looks at how a secondary mathematics team reflected on their experience of Assessing Pupils' Progress (APP), including how changing priorities affected teaching approaches.
Although the APP project was limited to 20 pupils over a period of six weeks, the mathematics subject leader felt that the priorities of the team had already begun to change as a result. There was much more focus on identified learning objectives in the planning of lessons. Teachers were starting to ask more searching questions in their teaching and there was a noticeable increase in more 'imaginative' creative lessons, with less reliance on the textbook. The teachers involved were more ready to explore creative ideas that focused on the pupils’ identified learning needs rather than simply 'delivering' a mathematical topic.
In my planning I have tried to be more aware of the level of the work.
Mathematics teacher
APP has supported my 'planning for learning' rather than 'planning for just doing'.
Mathematics teacher
The feeling in the team was that there were fewer repetitive exercises set, lessons were more active (and certainly noisier) than before and there was an increase in pupil participation in and enjoyment of mathematics lessons.
