Planning a Primary Maths Curriculum Review –

A Deep Dive into Maths

This pack is designed to support you as a subject leader to find out what is happening in your subject area.
It contains advice and templates that you can use to support a curriculum review into maths, using a format similar to an
Ofsted deep dive.
By gathering and triangulating the evidence suggested in this pack, you will have information ready to support any
conversation with your school leadership team, local authority advisor or Ofsted inspector.
This pack contains the following supportive documents:
 Making the Most of Lesson Visits
 Hosting an Effective Teacher Panel
 Facilitating an Informative Pupil Panel
 Carrying Out a Work Scrutiny and Evaluating Curriculum Plans
 Analysing Evidence and Triangulating Your Findings

Curriculum review and workload

First, it is important to consider your own workload when carrying out any curriculum quality assurance (QA) or review.
Make sure you have non-contact time available to do this and that you are supported by your senior leadership team
(SLT). It is useful for all involved if the SLT is included in the curriculum review process and able to take part in some
of the evidence-collection processes.

Next, consider the workload of your colleagues who will be affected by your curriculum review. Think about the best
way of collecting evidence without creating extra workload and unnecessary pressure for staff. Think about
scheduling evidence-collection tasks over several days/weeks to minimise the pressure. Ensure that your own
curriculum review timetable doesn’t overlap with the quality assurance of any other subjects, or with other dates in the
calendar that could impact staff workload.

You may decide to carry out a one-day deep dive to quickly gather a snapshot of maths provision in your school; if this
is the case, make sure it is planned well in advance and staff are aware of the date so that they have sufficient time to
prepare for it. Again, make sure that your selected date doesn’t conflict with other curriculum subject reviews or
important/time-consuming events that have been planned into the school diary. For example, do not schedule a deep
dive for the same week that assessments are due to be carried out, or when a parents’ evening is scheduled.

Drawing up a timetable
Once you have established the time frame for your review and considered how long it will take (with your own and your
colleagues’ workloads in mind), the next step is to draw up a timetable that will allow you to gather all the evidence
you require, in an ordered and logical way.

If you have regular subject leader release time, consider how this can be used effectively to accomplish your maths
curriculum review; you may choose to collect your evidence over a half-term or a term. If you are requesting release
time to carry out your review, you may be better to ask for a whole day and collect all your evidence in one swoop.
Collecting evidence in one day is intense for everybody involved and requires fidelity to timings but is an efficient way
to gather a quick snapshot. This one-day approach works best in smaller schools; in a larger school, it may need to be
split over two days or have more staff involved.

Page 1 of 4
Example timetable of a maths curriculum review over a half-term in a two-form entry primary
school

Date Activity Location Who is involved?

Week 1
Maths lesson visits in years 2, 4 years 2, 4 and subject leader, curriculum lead,
Wednesday
and 5 5 classrooms headteacher
1:30-2:30 p.m.

subject leader, curriculum lead,

Week 2
Teacher panel for years 2, 4 year 2 teacher
Tuesday staff staff room
and 5 year 4 teacher
meeting time
year 5 teacher

1pm EY & KS1 pupil panel, with

subject leader,
Week 3 maths books/learning journeys intervention
EY & KS1 group of pupils,
Wednesday p.m. 2pm KS2 pupil panel, with room
KS2 group of pupils
science books

Week 4 Work scrutiny of previous pupil subject leader

SLT room
Wednesday p.m. panel books curriculum lead

Week 5
Evidence triangulation and
Tuesday staff SLT room subject leader
findings
meeting time

Example timetable of a one-day curriculum review deep dive in a two-form entry primary school

Date Activity Location Who is involved?

Evaluate curriculum plans and

work scrutiny, using books of
subject leader, curriculum lead,
9:00 a.m. children from pupil panels staff room
headteacher
(subject leader to collect books
before 9:00 a.m.)

EY & KS1 pupil panel, with maths intervention subject leader,

9:45 a.m.
books/learning journeys room curriculum lead

KS2 pupil panel, with maths intervention subject leader

10:15 a.m.
books room curriculum lead

year 5 and 6 subject leader, curriculum lead,

11:00 a.m. Year 5 and 6 lesson visits
classrooms headteacher

subject leader,
curriculum lead,
11:45 a.m. Year 5 and 6 teacher panel SLT room
year 5 teacher,
year 6 teacher

Page 2 of 4
 12:00 p.m. Lunch

reception,
Reception, year 1 and year 2 year 1 and subject leader, curriculum lead,
1:00 p.m.
lesson visits year 2 headteacher
classrooms

year 3 and 4 subject leader, curriculum lead,

1:45 p.m. Year 3 and 4 lesson visits
classrooms headteacher

subject leader,
curriculum lead,
Reception, year 1 and year 2
2:45 p.m. SLT room reception teacher,
teacher panel
year 1 teacher,
year 2 teacher

subject leader,
curriculum lead,
3:00 p.m. Year 3 and 4 teacher panel SLT room
year 3 teacher,
year 4 teacher

Please see the end of this resource for editable versions of these timetable templates.

When setting your timetable, think about the most logical order in which to conduct your maths curriculum review, by
following a lesson visit with a teacher panel using teachers from the lessons just seen. Plan to use the same books for
the pupil panels and the work scrutiny to give you a more complete picture and to save time collecting books.

For pupil panels, you can randomly select pupils in advance and let teachers know who will be needed, what they need
to bring and when it will take place. For the book scrutiny, you will need books covering a range of abilities so may
need additional books to those provided for the pupil panel; make sure teachers know in advance which ability books
you will be collecting and when.

Who should be involved?

It is useful for the SLT to be involved in any curriculum review and QA although they do not need to sit in on every part
of it. Indeed, teacher-panel answers may be more truthful and reliable if SLT are not present. Liaise with your
headteacher and any deputy or assistant headteachers to determine who will support your curriculum review process.
In the examples above, the headteacher visited lessons and the curriculum lead supported other elements; in your own
setting, it will help you to make more accurate judgements if you have another person to discuss evidence with.

Communicating with staff

Once plans have been created, it is important that the staff involved know exactly when and how they will be involved.
Inform any teachers about lesson visits and teacher panels well in advance. Let them know what is expected of them
and when, as it may require them to change their timetable for the day to accommodate lesson visits and arrange
cover for the panel interviews.

Communicate your plans in writing and ensure everybody who needs to know what is happening has been informed.
This includes support staff, as well as teachers, who will appreciate knowing when and why any lesson visits are
happening.

Page 3 of 4
Collecting your evidence
Use your curriculum reviews as an opportunity to collect as much evidence as possible about practice and pedagogy
in maths in your school. Do not, however, ask colleagues to produce documentation that they would not normally use
in the course of teaching maths. The process of quality assurance should not negatively impact the workload of any
school staff.

Things you may like to collect as evidence, with little to no impact on workload:
 Lesson visit notes
 Photographs from lesson visits
 Notes from teacher and pupil panels
 Assessment data snapshots and analysis
 Long and medium-term planning
 Photographs and copies of pupil work

Triangulating and interpreting your evidence

Once you have collected your evidence, it is important to view it as a whole. Triangulate anything you have noticed by
looking across the whole range of evidence. For example, if you have found that teaching about subtraction in lower
key stage 2 is an area for development, investigate what the pupils and teachers in years 3 and 4 have said in their
panel interviews. Cross-reference this information with work scrutiny evidence and notes from your lesson
observations, alongside any assessment data you have about maths in year 4. Use the Analysing Evidence and
Triangulating Findings resources within this maths curriculum review pack to help.

Acting on your findings

Once you have collected, analysed and triangulated your evidence, the most important thing you can do is to share
your findings and plan your next steps for maths.

For feedback to be effective, good practice is to tier how it is shared. Initially, you will have feedback that relates to the
school as a whole - remember to include both areas of strength and any areas for development, keep this general and
avoid highlighting any individual members of staff. Feedback for individual year groups will enable you to praise and
support teachers more specifically and, depending on the size of your school, you may even wish to offer feedback to
individual teachers - keep this short, with a few helpful bullet points that outline the positives, along with any
suggestions for future development in maths teaching. There are template feedback sheets available at the end of this
document to support you in this.

You may also find the following Leaders Team resources useful, to support you in your role as a maths subject
leader:
 Summary: Ofsted Research Review - Mathematics
 Staff Share: Ofsted Mathematics Research Review
 Subject Leader Yearly Planner and Checklist
 What Can Subject Leaders Be Expected to Be Asked during an Ofsted Inspection?
 Middle Leaders How To: Data Analysis
 Data Triangulation for Subject Leaders Poster
 Middle Leader 'How To' Resource Pack

Page 4 of 4
Half-Term Maths Curriculum Review Timetable
Review Term: autumn 1 / autumn 2 / spring 1 / spring 2 / summer 1 / summer 2

Reviewed by: __________________________________________________________________________

Others involved: _______________________________________________________________________

Date Activity Location Who is involved?

One-Day Maths Curriculum Review Timetable
Date of review: ________________________________________________________________________

Reviewed by: __________________________________________________________________________

Others involved: _______________________________________________________________________

Date Activity Location Who is involved?

Maths Curriculum Review – Whole School Feedback
Date of review: _________________________________________ Reviewed by: ______________________________________________

Evidence gathered from: (highlight methods used)

Lesson visits Teacher panel Pupil panel

Year groups involved: Year groups involved: Year groups involved:

Curriculum planning evaluation Work scrutiny Assessment data analysis

Strengths Areas for development