About Us

What is a maths hub?

The Maths Hubs Programme brings together mathematics education professionals in a collaborative national network. The Cheshire and Wirral Maths Hub is led by Our Lady of Pity Primary School and Alsager High School, two Outstanding institutions who work together with many other schools, colleges and organisations across Wirral, Halton, Cheshire West and Cheshire East.

Together, we deliver fully funded nationally and locally designed projects and programmes, with a mission to provide sustainable and long-term professional development.

We are already working with a large number of schools, but our goal is to eventually connect and work with every school in the area. We believe that looking after our teachers is the most effective way of ensuring that all our children can enjoy the best possible experience of learning mathematics.

About Cheshire and Wirral Maths Hub

As a Maths Hub we aim to support the development of local leaders of maths education, teachers and professionals from every educational phase. Our work also has a wider impact however, inspiring and motivating learners of all ages, nurturing and developing the mathematicians of tomorrow.

As an ever-growing community, we are working to have a positive impact in three main areas – pupils, teachers and society.

Pupils

We believe that pupils should and can experience school mathematics that helps them develop deep conceptual understanding and an ability to solve complex problems. We believe that this will be a useful vehicle to help develop important life skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. We also believe that doing this in the right kind of way can positively develop pupils’ self-belief and resilience.

Teachers

We believe that teachers should be supported in their professional development so that they can develop their mathematics related beliefs and knowledge. For some, this may mean breaking from tradition and being willing to explore new avenues. We believe that doing this can lead to a greater sense of professional pride, job satisfaction and potential career opportunities.

Society

Ultimately, we believe that by changing mathematics education as described above, we can shift the cultural mindset about mathematics as a subject so that there is less of a stigma surrounding it.

How Will We Do This?

We will support teachers in their professional development through high quality, bespoke, continuing professional development (CPD). A key emphasis here is the word ‘continuing’ – we want to ensure that teachers access development that is sustained, rather than one-off training days. As part of this we will endeavour to engage school senior leaders so that the work being done aligns with school intentions and teachers are given enough time to work together as professionals, both within school and with other schools.

In order to do this we will:

• harness the expertise of teachers across the hub by working collaboratively;
• evaluate our impact honestly and critically and use this to continually improve;
• share our vision in all we do, particularly in developing a teaching for mastery approach.

What Do We Do?

The vast majority of Maths Hub work is delivered using the ‘Work Group’ model. This is an approach based upon research that ensures sustained CPD for teachers and it is expected that those taking part will do a lot of the actual work when back in school, in between any CPD activity.

To find out more, please take a look to see what we are currently offering at each different age phase.