Meet Tim Handley- Maths Specialist, Consultant and Author

Tim is an experienced primary teacher, leader and consultant who offers a range of reasonably priced services to schools to help them drive forward improvements in maths.    He is also a respected maths author, writing a range of best selling titles and articles.   Tim is a Maths Specialist Teacher (MaST) and NCETM Accredited Professional Development Lead ​and sits on a range of advisory panels- including a variety of stutatory assessment panels.    He has experience in making rapid improvements to maths provision in a number of different contexts, and has been praised by OfSTED.   

Tim is also the lead organiser for TEDxNorwichED – a popular series of education focused TEDx talks and he has worked with a wide range of organisations.      

Scroll down this page to find out  more about Tim and how he can support you and your school or organisation.

The Latest from Tim’s Blog

Exploring the ‘High Score’ at KS2 Maths- Part 1

There has been some discussion recently about the ‘High Score’ threshold that has been set for the KS2 SATs.  Therefore,  I wanted to write a pair of blog posts exploring the ‘High Score’ and some ways that schools can help children achieve this. [Note- I had been working on a far bigger series of posts about meeting the expected standard- and these will still be published!] In this first blog post, we’ll explore the background to the ‘High Score’, what it means and what information we have about what a child who achieves…
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“The support Tim was able to provide was invaluable in helping to shape our improvement plan for mathematics across the school. His breadth and depth of mathematics knowledge and willingness to work closely with the school led to a bespoke solution that was right for our pupils“

Deputy Headteacher- Moorlands Primary Academy

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Maths Advisory and Consultancy Service

Tim offers a ​completely bespoke ​maths advisory and consultancy service for schools, clusters and academy trusts.   

Often getting an experienced, external ‘eye’ into your school is what is needed to speedily make sustainable improvement that can make a real difference to the pupils and staff within your school.   

Whatever your maths or assessment need, Tim can help.   He has particular experience in helping schools create bespoke curriculums, calculation polices and strategies to embed problem solving and reasoning in your school.    

He will often suggest starting with a maths audit– where he works with senior and middle leaders to take in-depth look at all elements of maths education in your school.  Working together with the school he will then form a clear and prioritised action plan.  Often all schools need is the maths audit, but Tim is also on hand to offer additional support, advice and CPD if needed.

Tim is based in Norfolk, but travels across the UK and internationally.   Having worked in Senior Leadership positions, Tim is aware of the budget pressures in schools, and is committed to ensuring that all schools can access the support and help they need to make ​sustainable ​improvements.  Therefore Tim keeps his rates as low as possible- in fact you can engage Tim for a full day for far less then the cost of 2 days supply.  This  means the help, support and advice you need is substantially cheaper than you may think-  ​and normally cheaper than most other consultants and local authority services.

“The advice and support Tim was able to give our school is greatly valued, and he quickly worked with us to create a clear action plan and way forward, which he is now supporting us in implementing.”

Headteacher

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Maths Authorship and Advice

Tim is  an experienced and respected maths author and advisor, writing for a wide range of publishers and clients.   He is best known for his ​Problem Solving and Reasoning ​series, which he wrote for Rising Stars. This resources aims to support teachers in embedding problem solving and reasoning into daily teaching, and is now used in thousands of schools and is one of Rising Stars best selling resources. 

He has also written on other projects for Rising Stars, including Mastering Maths (publishing in September) and he is the lead consultant for Problem Solving and Reasoning Vol 2 (publishing in April 2017).   In addition Tim has acted as a maths consultant  ​for a range of clients- including software and app developers and TV production companies.  ​

Tim has written various resources for Scholastic alongside other publishers, including for an international audience.   In addition, Tim has written articles on maths education, leadership and assessment for a wide range of publications. 

Tim is experienced in helping take a project from a simple idea right the way to publication and has a range of other experienced authors on hand to help with your project if time pressures mean this is needed.    

Tim enjoys writing and consulting as it is a way that he can support schools up and down the country and he is always looking for new projects to get involved in. 

Bespoke CPD and Training

Tim is an experienced provider of maths CPD- to leaders, teachers and teaching assistants.   He can cover practically any topic, and always ensures his CPD sessions are practical, fun and engaging.  Tim provides a combination of immediate ‘take aways’ and ideas to develop and reflect upon.   Recent ‘popular’ areas for CPD include ​How to create reasoning mathematicians,  How to get children problem solving without even realising it, Teaching the tricky area of… (Fractions, proportionality, algebra, division) and How to support all learners in succeeding  in maths.  

Tim is also experienced in guiding  groups of staff and other stakeholders in creating policies, maths ‘morals’ and curriculums that are bespoke to your school and have a high level of ‘buy in’ from stakeholders.    He also has experience of delivering CPD sessions to an ​international school ​audience. 

Sessions will always be designed with the needs of your school in mind.   CPD sessions can be delivered by themselves, or as part of a wider package of advice and support. 

Depending on the topic, size of group and location, Tim can deliver CPD as whole day, half day and twilight sessions for individual schools, clusters and academy trusts.  Tim can also arrange for favourable rates with an amazing venue in Norwich.  If you want to get a group of teachers away from school for a day, this can often work out cheaper than sending staff on larger, more commercial courses, especially if you work within your cluster or trust. 
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Tim in action in Ghana.

“The materials were easy to follow and the questions were excellent. They challenged both staff and children to think carefully and explore different options.”

Teacher- St Barnabas Primary School

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SATs results not as expected?

Many schools across the country were shocked by their 2016 SATs results in Maths- both at KS1 and KS2, with many finding attainment in maths reduced the all important combined score at KS2.   Many schools and children found it a challenge to reach the higher standard of understanding demanded, and struggled with the far greater problem solving and reasoning element to the assessments.    

Tim is currently working with a number of schools to help put in place a rapid program of sustainable development to ensure that 2017 SATs results show significant improvement- this is not a ‘wallpaper over the gaps’ exercise!  .

Tim is using his skills as an Accredited PD lead, author and  Maths Specialist Teacher combined with his in-depth knowledge of the statutory assessment framework (as Tim is an member of the STA expert review panels for the KS1 and KS2 statutory assessments).   This means he is able put in place a bespoke and measurable plan for each school- without breaking the bank.


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Below are just some of the areas in which Tim can help your setting.

  • Maths audits and reviews– helping you to create an action plan to take maths in your setting to the next level.
  • Help and guidance to ensure children develop a true ​mastery ​of maths.
  • Help in reaching the ​increased demands ​of the maths curriculum and with teaching the ​tricky areas- ​such as proportionality and algebra.
  • Support in creating ​individualised interventions ​for your school. 
  • Guidance in creating a ​bespoke assessment system ​for your school that helps to pinpoint misconceptions.
  • Guidance and support to ensure maths in your setting is OfSTED ready.
  • Guidance and development of a bespoke maths curriculum for your setting.
  • Coaching and mentoring of maths leaders, teachers and teaching assistants.
  •  Work with groups of children, including demonstration lessons and problem solving workshops.
  • Bespoke CPD on a wide range of areas- click here for more information.
  • Support and guidance in creating a calculation policy which maintains conceptual understanding whilst meeting the demands of the maths curriculum.

Below are just some of the articles that Tim has written over the past few years.

Girls and Maths–  Academy Magazine (Issue 4.2)

Fear Not- Creative Maths Teaching (not available on-line)-   Creative Teaching and Learning Journal

How will the new curriculum impact maths teachers? – Innovate my school.

Undertaking the new maths curriculum– SMT Magazine.

Plus many more!
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