23 October 2025
In this episode Fran Watson chats with headteacher John Mortimer about how education research has transformed teaching practice at his school. He explains how staff work together creating a culture of shared responsibility and continuous improvement, inspired and supported by experts from near – the Devon Maths team – and far – visiting international practitioners.
Download transcriptResources mentioned by John in this episode
The descriptions and hyperlinks below provide optional follow-up information for listeners. Their inclusion here does not imply any endorsement of these resources by Cambridge Mathematics or by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, nor are Cambridge Mathematics and Cambridge University Press & Assessment responsible for any content within them.
Principles of instruction: Research-based strategies that all teachers should know1
10 research-based principles of instruction, along with suggestions for classroom practice.
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Image © American Federation of Teachers 2012. Used with permission.
Teaching WalkThrus
Evidence-based teaching strategies available in a variety of digital and print forms to support teaching staff and school leaders.
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Collaborative Lesson Research – UK
A group that advocates for every teacher to have access to professional development through lesson study.
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Image © Geoff Wake 2025. Used with permission.
NCETM Sustaining Mastery Work Group
Collaborative professional development for schools to ensure that a teaching for mastery approach is implemented with fidelity.
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Image © NCETM 2025. Used with permission.
Structured Number Lines project
A project run by the Devon Maths team to support teachers and children in understanding the use of structured number lines as a resource.
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Use of this image licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Understanding Structured Number Lines
Dr Ruth Trundley shares recent research, undertaken with Stefanie Burke and Helen Edginton, that ran in two parts from September 2018 to July 2020, with pupils from EYFS to Y6 focused on understanding structured number lines as a representation of the structure of the number system.
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Image © Ruth Trundley 2026. Used with permission.
Counting Collections
Counting Collections is an early mathematics approach developed by the University of Nottingham to teach young children about number and offer professional development to practitioners.
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Image © University of Nottingham Counting Collections research project 2025. Used with permission.
- Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of instruction: Research-based strategies that all teachers should know. American Educator, 36(1), 12–39.