The maths department at The Totteridge Academy has made a name for itself as one of the most inspirational and successful maths teams in the country, after dramatically turning maths GCSE results around in the summer of 2017.

Maths results in 2018 then further surpassed expectations by achieving a progress 8 score of +1.34 compared with the previous year’s +1.12. The school’s maths GCSE results in 2016 were in the 78th percentile, moving up to the second in 2017 and then the first in 2018, with the department seventh in the country for its progress.

The judges said the school “really stood out in an incredibly impressive field” after noting the team’s pedagogical ambition and that strategic learning takes place without rows of tables, lecturing or silent textbook work, and without quick-win shortcuts to solving problems.

Students are explicitly coached in team work and held to account for the academic conversations they have during lessons: no group is deemed successful unless all the students can solve the designated problem.

They are encouraged to become autonomous critical thinkers and to develop into non-judgemental, democratic young people. The maths team believes it has a duty to teach the students these core characteristics, alongside fostering a love of the subject.

The judges said: “Students love learning: there are tales of group work and maths chants as much as there are stories of grade 9s. And not content to keep its strategies to itself, the maths department offers whole-school continuing professional development so that other departments can tap into this success.”

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