Meet The Teacher

Meet the Teacher - Nick Hewish

This week I was invited into 4NH, to continue our tour of the school. The first thing that stood out for me on entering the room was the clear expectations that were made available for all students before the session could begin. On a hot Wednesday afternoon, students were commencing their lesson after returning from PE. It was vitally important to ensure maximum time on task could be maintained that students understood exactly what they needed to do. 

Nick was then able to explain the WALT (We Are Learning To…) sort numbers by value.

 Following on from our PVAT assessment last week – pre-test, to establish what students already know, and where gaps may be evident in their learning. Nick and the Year 4 team were able to plan engaging lessons to meet the needs of the students within 4NH. All classes will have an initial focus on place value, as almost all mathematical concepts build on the understanding of Place Value. It's definitely worth your time to get it right! 

Hook – Nick hooked students in with an activity on the floor, all students were asked to write a 4-digit number in their jot pad – a first small piece of formative assessment: does everyone in the class understand what is meant by a 4-digit number? Students were then placed in random groups, and asked to silently move into a number line within their group based on their number they originally wrote down. More formative assessment was on display here from Nick, do students understand the size of their number – students with higher numbers move to one end of the number line, and students with a lower number heading straight the lower end of the line. Formative assessment happens as the learning is taking place, with a teacher prompting many conversations and tasks over a lesson to gain a further understanding of what a student knows, and what they need to know next, without having to keep sitting maths tests. 

As students moved into the Application part of the lesson – the doing part where we apply the skills we have learned and work through some problems. Nick was able to use the information he had gathered both from the pre-test, and the Hook of the lesson to ensure every student in 4NH was challenged in their learning at an appropriate level for their existing knowledge. 

Students explored a number line as part of the compare and order part of Place Value. Students at the beginning stage of their understanding were able to work with 3-digit numbers as they developed their understanding, whilst students who had a more complete understanding of the place value system were challenged to think about using measurement, division, fractions and exactly calculating different portions of the number line. Students were also reminded where the maths resources were in the room, and that any student could grab some concrete materials at any time if they needed them to support their thinking. 

Some great questioning from Nick as students worked through their problems included “does that sound like the right answer?" – by doing this Nick encouraged students to think for themselves about an answer and what they were doing without just simply correcting an answer with no explanation. 

It was wonderful to see students collaborating with their peers across the room, with Nick working closely with a conference group on the floor, and other students finding the best spot for them to learn, talk about their thinking and share ideas. 

I thank Nick and the Students of 4NH for inviting me in today and look forward to exploring Maths Vocabulary with Michelle in 56MC next week.