Same Day Intervention

Same Day Intervention (SDI) is an approach to teaching maths that was developed by a primary school teacher. Teachers adapt their classroom style based on Shanghai methods, for example using frequent modelling and an ‘I do, you do’ approach in initial class teaching. After a 30 minute lesson, pupils answer some questions independently and then have 15 minutes away from their teacher (attending assembly or a teaching-assistant-led activity) while the teacher marks their answers using a rapid marking code. The remaining 30 minutes of the lesson is an intervention session, where the teacher groups children together based on how they answered the questions so that they can efficiently address common misconceptions. The aim is to use the additional support to ensure that all children reach a certain level of understanding by the end of the day, preventing an achievement gap from forming.

SDI is an approach to classroom teaching, rather than being tied to specific curriculum content. Teachers can either adapt their existing resources to fit the SDI approach, or where teachers require support with content, resources and advice are available.

Training will be provided to Year 5 teachers by the Yorkshire and Humber Maths Hub, which is part of the Outwood Institute of Education (IoE), a large teaching school alliance that operates across Doncaster, Wakefield and the surrounding area. At the beginning of the project, they will provide three training days and some ‘open classroom’ sessions, where trainees observe a Same Day Intervention lesson while a facilitator explains what is happening and why. Ongoing twilight top-up training will supplement this initial training, alongside at least one in-school visit and physical and online resources as required. 

Why are we funding it?

This programme is influenced by high-performing Shanghai schools, where teachers aim to address misconceptions as soon as they arise. It fits with existing toolkit evidence on feedback, mastery learning, teaching assistants and meta-cognition. The developer has previously delivered Same Day Intervention both in schools within the Outwood Grange Academies Trust and schools outside this through the Maths Hub, with indicative results showing the programme is feasible and promising.

How are we evaluating it?

We have appointed a team from NatCen to conduct the evaluation. It will be a randomised controlled efficacy trial, with schools who sign up for the trial randomly allocated to take part or to continue with their normal maths teaching. It will be run as an efficacy trial, designed to test the approach under ideal conditions, for example being delivered by the original developer.

The primary outcome will be maths attainment as measured by a standardised test at the end of Year 5. The secondary outcomes will include a measure of teacher workload, as we expect to see a reduction in this due to marking being completed rapidly during the school day. We will track KS2 SATs results for all students at the end of Year 6 and report these in an addendum report the year after the study.

When will the evaluation report be due?

The evaluation report is due to be published in spring 2020.