New partnership to boost maths and science teaching

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and the Kusuma Trust UK will be teaming up to provide schools with the training and support they need to improve maths and science teaching.

This comes following the evidence-based recommendations from the EEF’s Guidance Reports.

Improving Mathematics in Key Stages 2 and 3, published in November 2017, reviewed the best available research to offer schools and teachers practical “dos and don’ts” of great maths teaching. The report has recommendations in eight areas, each designed to support primary and secondary schools to close the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their classmates. Guidance on teaching science in secondary schools will be published this Spring.

The partnership between the Kusuma Trust UK and the EEF will help to bring these recommendations to life in schools through a programme of training and support delivered by the Research Schools Network.

Launched in 2016 as a collaboration between the EEF and the Institute for Effective Education, the Network numbers 23 schools; 12 of these focus their work around the ‘Opportunity Areas’, government-identified social mobility cold-spots. The Research Schools aim to lead the way in the use of evidence-based practice and bring research into schools.

A small group of Research Schools will develop a structured training programme to accompany the Guidance Reports, as well as resources to encourage schools to engage, such as self-audit tools and video clips.

Sir Kevan Collins, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), said: “Generating evidence of ‘what works’ can only get us so far. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how great an educational idea or intervention is on paper; what really matters is how it manifests itself in the day-to-day world of schools. Through our partnership with the Kusuma Trust UK, the Research Schools Network will work with local schools to break down barriers and make sure that evidence from our guidance reports has a real impact on classroom practice.

Dr Balwant Singh, Chief Executive of the Kusuma Trust UK, said: “We are delighted to support the work of EEF to translate evidence into good practice in classrooms, so that pupils from disadvantaged areas and backgrounds are given a real chance to succeed.