LRGS to lead maths teaching in region

Published on isbi School News dated Monday 23rd of November 2015

Lancaster Royal Grammar School has been appointed as one of 34 schools and colleges in England to take a key role in a network of school-based centres, or hubs, designed to improve maths education for young people across the country. LRGS will be the lead school for the North Lancashire and Cumbria Maths Hub, working in collaboration with The Queen Katherine Teaching School Alliance, Kendal. The Maths Hubs programme, backed by £11 million from the Department for Education, gives schools and colleges responsibility for coordinating and resourcing maths improvement initiatives in their region. A core group of schools, colleges and universities will coordinate professional development and research to provide high quality training to further improve the effectiveness of maths education in primary and secondary schools. The hub has already begun to establish links with local schools and universities. Lancaster Royal Grammar School will work closely with The Queen Katherine School and with Dowdales School, Dalton-in-Furness, whose Head of Maths Alison Scott will be the specialist Maths Lead for the new hub. The Hub will work closely with Teaching School Alliances across our region and with the well-established Cumbria Alliance of System Leaders. Dr Chris Pyle, Head of LRGS, said, “This is an exciting initiative which has the potential to benefit children in schools right across North Lancashire and Cumbria. It puts schools and teachers in the driving seat of professional development. It is also a tribute to the sustained success of mathematics at LRGS. I look forward to working with The Queen Katherine School and Dowdales School, and with a wide range of other primary and secondary schools and partner institutions, to improve maths opportunities and outcomes across our region.” Stephen Wilkinson, Chair of The Local Alliance of System Leaders in South Cumbria adds: “This is a great opportunity to coordinate the work already established across Cumbria, north Lancashire and other areas within Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool to improve the quality of mathematics education. We will have the opportunity to progress a number of national priorities as well as develop initiative to meet to our local priorities.” The Maths Hubs programme, linking all 34 hubs across England, is coordinated centrally by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM). For details of all Maths Hubs, go to www.ncetm.org.uk/mathshubs