Creative Maths Games
"Horniman is a smaller than average primary school. Its pupils come from backgrounds which are socially, economically and culturally diverse. The proportion of pupils with learning difficulties or disabilities is higher than average. The proportion with English as an additional language is lower than average. The school has an Artsmark Silver award and a Healthy School award."
Ofsted, 2007.
Project objectives
Over 8 weeks from January to March 2010, pupils from Years 4, 5 and 6, worked with creative practitioner Stephen Hall to develop creative Maths games, using photography from their local area as inspiration. Through the project, the school aimed to help increase pupil engagement in Maths, improve teamwork and leadership skills and raise the self esteem of dyslexic pupils with a view to raising attainment.
From the offset, six teams were formed with pupils from across the three year groups, each team tasked to produce their own game.
Pupils within each team were provided with existing maths games to take home and play with their families. This enabled them to explore maths in a different way, learn and have fun with their families and identify how it related to other subjects such as literacy, history and geography. The pupils were encouraged to evaluate the form and function of the games they played and to generate and share ideas and designs that they could use. As ideas were being developed the pupils planned, designed and made things from materials gathered from their local environment, including fabric, cardboard and photographs they had taken. From the outset, pupils realised the importance of using and understanding Maths in the project as they had to produce time plans, design to scale and measure the materials for creating the games.
With teams consisting of pupils with mixed ages and abilities and several dyslexic members, there were many challenges around teamwork and leadership, however this was part of the learning process and was an important aspect of the project that needed to be addressed.
Who was involved?
Stephen Hall is a graphic designer and illustrator with previous teaching experience. Stephen has previously designed a board game and was selected on this basis to work on the project with the pupils of Horniman Primary school.
Impact
Although the project was focused on Maths, pupils explored other subjects such as Art, English, IT and Design & Technology to make their board games. This in some cases, made it easier for the groups as some pupils were more confident in exploring the creative elements of the project rather than the technical which allowed them to remain engaged in the process and to have an input.
Taking the games home to play with families led to an increased dialogue between school and home and brought about more awareness of the project aims and how the school was addressing the needs of the children. In some aspects the project was challenging as there were different needs and abilities spanning three year groups and different learning capabilities, however with the support of the creative practitioner, school staff, parents and local community members, the pupils designed and created their own maths games to share with peers and one another.
Horniman Primary School is one of 145 schools in London taking part in our 2010/11, Enquiry School programme – ‘The Biggest Learning Opportunity on Earth’ - an exciting, London-wide arts and education project, exploring the value of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games for young Londoners.
