Swindon children benefit from the world’s best maths teaching

Shanghai is renowned for its excellent primary maths teaching, producing some of the best results in the world and consistently topping teaching league tables.

Pupils at Swindon’s Gorse Hill Primary School are learning from two maths teachers from Shanghai thanks to an exchange hosted by The White Horse Federation (TWHF), facilitated by the Boolean Maths Hub in Bristol.

Shanghai teachers, Jinjin Wei and Qijing Zhang, are now in the UK for two weeks to share their approach to maths teaching and to experience school life in Swindon.

In September, Swindon schoolteacher Suzanne Mathews visited Shanghai and now her year five class, as well as Nia Price’s Year two class, at Gorse Hill Primary School are benefitting from a different approach to maths teaching.

On 15 and 16 November, this insight will be extended to all teachers in the area at the Shanghai Maths Showcase event.

Across the two days, over 150 primary and secondary teachers will visit Gorse Hill Primary School to see the Shanghai techniques in action and discuss how key elements of the approach could be implemented in their classrooms.

Dr Nick Capstick OBE, CEO of TWHF, said: “It is a privilege to host Jinjin and Zhang here in Swindon and to learn from their approach to teaching maths.

“The Showcase events will provide teachers in the area with a unique insight into different techniques and give them the opportunity to discuss their thoughts with fellow colleagues.  As we also have Swindon Teaching Schools as part of TWHF, we will also be developing teacher training materials so that future generations of maths teachers can learn and develop from this as well.”

The Shanghai Maths Showcase event is the culmination of work between teachers and their counterparts in China to share learning and best practice in the teaching of maths as part of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics’ (NCETM) work nationwide with Maths Hubs.

The exchange is being hosted outside of Bristol for the first time by The White Horse Federation (TWHF) for the Boolean Math Hub’s West of England region.

For more information on the Showcase, click here.

To find out more about TWHF, click here.