The Polesworth School Approach
Courteney Rooke, KS3 Coordinator, is taking the lead introducing the Problem-Solving Schools initiative at The Polesworth School, an 11-18 community school in Warwickshire.
Background
The goal is to strengthen Year 7 students’ problem-solving skills so that they approach unfamiliar problems with increased confidence and become less dependent on the teacher’s prompts.
“Many students didn't yet have a strategy for what to do when they didn't know what to do.”
Implementation journey (so far…)
| October 2025 | Registered as a Problem-Solving School |
| November 2025 | Initial self-evaluation Courteney shared the PSS Charter with members of her department and asked them to complete the self-evaluation individually. |
| February 2026 | Self-evaluation completed on the PSS Hub The department came together to agree on three areas for development:
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| Early March 2026 | Preparation for department meeting A fortnight before a scheduled department meeting, Courteney shared Colin Foster’s article The fundamental problem with teaching problem solving with colleagues, along with the following prompts:
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| Mid March 2026 | Whole department hour-long meeting Discussion of Colin Foster’s article centred around the following key issues:
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“Rather than breaking the mathematics into smaller steps, we wanted to provide support that students could transfer to future unfamiliar problems.”
Teachers then tackled the NRICH problem Unequal Averages, while Courteney modelled the recommended approach to Using NRICH Tasks Richly. This task had featured in a Low Threshold High Ceiling - Maths for All webinar, so Courteney then shared a particularly relevant section of the webinar recording (20:37–25:00) for all to view. Rather than focus on the task itself, she asked colleagues to pay attention to how questions emerged during the conversation, how the ‘teacher’ responded to thinking, and how ideas were linked and built on in the moment. This fed into discussion of how teachers might use this problem with all their Year 7 students - the department wanted problem solving to be something every student experienced.
“Watching the NRICH webinar as part of our CPD helped us visualise what this could look like in practice and provided something colleagues could revisit before introducing the task in their own classrooms.”
Towards the end of the meeting, Courteney introduced the EEF Improving Mathematics in Key Stages 2 and 3 guidance report, in particular the third recommendation, to teach strategies for solving problems, and she also recommended two books, which she has found helpful:
Five Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions
Thinking Mathematically (as a source of metacognitive prompts for students to ask themselves as they work on a task).
All Year 7 teachers left the meeting intending to try the problem with their classes.
| April-June 2026 | Year 7 teachers try Unequal Averages with their students Courteney offered support by way of learning walks and coaching, where appropriate. |
| June 2026 | Meeting to reflect on classroom experiences The department met to discuss the Year 7 teachers’ experiences and agree next steps. |
“Instead of seeing our role as gradually giving more and more helpful hints as we circulated around the classroom, we began thinking about how we could anticipate student thinking, monitor different approaches, select examples to discuss, sequence them purposefully and connect ideas during whole-class discussion.”
Outcomes so far
Every teacher in the department has now tried at least one problem-solving task with one of their classes, and some informal conversations about problem solving are taking place outside the scheduled meetings.
Teacher reflections suggest increased pupil engagement and enjoyment during these lessons, with several colleagues commenting that students were more willing to attempt unfamiliar problems.
“In my own classroom, students also know exactly which questions I'm likely to ask if they tell me they're stuck. Increasingly, some are beginning to ask themselves those questions before I even get there.”
What next?
The three areas for development, identified in the initial self-evaluation exercise, will continue to be the department’s priorities for the next academic year. The department recognises that developing a problem-solving culture takes time. Colleagues have asked for time next year to continue exploring problem-solving opportunities together.
The focus next year will be continuing to build problem solving into Key Stage 3, continuing those professional conversations as a department, and giving students regular opportunities to tackle unfamiliar mathematics.
“Ultimately, this wasn't about teaching a particular problem-solving strategy. It was about beginning to change students' beliefs about what it means to do mathematics and helping them develop strategies for what to do when they don't know what to do.”