Whenever I meet people that read this blog, one of the first things most people will say is that they think I’m brave saying the things I do (or words to that effect!) and they go onto say that sometimes I write about the things they wish they could say in public (it didn’t start out like that by the way!). I don’t think I’m being anything other than “me” … I must assure you that I don’t sit ranting to myself when I’m typing because I’m aware that the way some of you may interpret some of the posts in a different way to what they were intended. I don’t intend to be controversial (I hope I’m mostly not!) and neither do I want it to come across as confrontational … because I am neither (or at least I try not to be!). I suppose my perception of “me” may be different to the way that some of you perceive me … wow! That’s deep for a Saturday night!!

Anyway, in a previous post (HERE ) I wrote about the Maths Hubs and mentioned their priorities and promised to put some more “meat on the bones”. I really don’t mean to be negative and am hoping that this can as a minimum provide you with something to think about instead of blindly believing the diet of “gumph” we are fed through the media when stories, statistics or even sound-bites are selectively chosen to support a particular point. In no particular order:

According to the Maths Hub website ( CHECK IT OUT )  they are working on “engagement events” intended to explain their work and recruit participants in projects. I know that some amazing work has been done including the recent Celebration of Maths and there are some other events that have got some exposure on Twitter … and therein lies an issue. I have only heard about them through Twitter … and it’s not just me! I have spoken to lots (and I mean 100’s of teachers/Heads of Departments) who can attest to the fact that they have received nothing inviting them to events or making them aware of their local hub school. Obviously this doesn’t apply to every hub but there are certainly geographical pockets where it is an issue. (Please don’t send me an invite to a Maths Hubs event just because I blog – whilst it’s flattering I don’t want any preferential treatment and it should only happen as part of my day job)

Some of the arguments I’ve heard are to do with the issues of getting through to the right people or SLT not forwarding on to the head of maths. OK lets deal with the first matter – on a regular basis schools have to complete a census and that includes making sure their email address is correct … I know that this isn’t the same as getting through to the head of maths but it would be a start if this information was passed to the Maths Hubs. I know that if an email is forwarded to me from my gaffer I will always, always, always reply to him letting him know what the outcome was, and I also know that anything that is vaguely “Mathsey” that gets sent to the general school email it gets forwarded straight to the department to deal with. Regardless of that … what about good old fashioned “snail mail”?

The fact is that I am being told by really “forward thinking” teachers that the only way they have even heard about “Maths Hubs” is through Twitter and this makes me sad. There has to be a way to get through to those at the coal-face.

Putting that all aside …. What we really need is some clarity as to the “coverage” of each hub … is it based on geography? Or is just the partners of the hub school that are involved? Or something else? A few people have told me that they have heard nothing from their hub (i.e. no contact has been made) yet they are within 4 or 5 miles of the hub and have heard that other local schools have been invited to get involved as they are part of the hub schools “Teaching Alliance”. If the intention is to produce an elite network of schools (and partners) that only work with selected schools for whatever reason (a bit like the teaching alliances) then it would appear to be working, but there is a bigger opportunity here.

Looking at the priorities of the Maths hubs – they are split into “National” and “Local Projects”. When schools applied to be a Hub many of them had noble ideas and intentions, however I have been made aware that some of “their” ideas that they perceived to be local priorities and on the back of which the won their bid to a hub were subsequently overruled and they were “given” priorities to work on. Don’t get me wrong I know that there really is some sterling work being done and the more vocal hubs are telling me that they are spending more time on their local work than on the national projects, which is brilliant to hear. I really do get the idea that there needs to be national co-ordination and collaboration, but I’d like to know who the ultimate decision maker is about the focus for specific hubs/projects.

One of the National Projects is listed as “Post 16 Participation” – I just know that someone, somewhere will make the claim in the future that X amount of £s have been pumped into increasing post 16 participation through the Maths Hubs but let’s make it clear it is not only Hubs that are working on this. Lots of other schools that aren’t Hub leads or even part of a Hub network are part of the Core Maths trial and yes I know they’re receiving funding for it (and it is only part of the picture for the Maths Hub) but I’d like to know that for some schools they aren’t being “double funded” for doing the same thing. (i.e. as a hub and also as a pilot school).

When you look in detail many of the local projects are the same for many hubs and there are a few of them that have projects that going back only a few years ago were managed through the network of local authority subject specialists or the LA itself. I just get frustrated that whilst some would argue the loss of LA support was no biggie, a hole has been created and now some media guru will put a massive positive spin on some of the things being done, when in fact all that’s being done is a “reinvention of the wheel”. Spend some time looking at the projects of some of the Hubs – it’s really interesting (no! it is!) – a few only appear to be working on the National Projects and some minor local projects that I know some of you would argue we should be doing as teachers anyway.

I genuinely believe in collaboration. I don’t have all the answers … in fact most of the time I don’t have any answers and more recently I’m starting to think that I want to focus more and more on my own teaching. One of my best bosses ever (Hi John!!) in the corporate world was a Stephen Covey fan and used to tell me to focus on things that I have control over. He used to “whitter” on about stuff being in my “circle of concern” (as all of the things that worried me) – and then said that there is a smaller “circle of influence” that only contains stuff that I can actually control. His point was that I should expend my energy on stuff that I can do something about. Right now as we approach the Summer exams I know where I need to be focusing my energy!

 Maybe in a few years’ time, when I’ve done a couple of “cycles of change” that appear to happen in education I’ll take it all a bit more in my stride and become one of those people that say “oh it’ll pass … we’ve been here before when XXX was introduced. Just ignore it – that’s what we’ve been doing for years and it’ll go away eventually”.

Sometimes I do feel that point getting closer … but … I’m not yet there.