This project is no longer recruiting.
What is Stepping Stones?
Stepping Stones is a whole-class programme that trains teachers to explicitly teach metacognitive strategies in Year 2 maths lessons and prompts both teachers and pupils to focus on the learning process. The strategies include models for metacognitive talk, such as ‘think aloud’ and ‘debrief’, which structure pupils’ planning, monitoring, and evaluation of learning. The programme also uses worked examples to support pupils in critiquing approaches to learning. The aim of the programme is to promote children’s problem-solving and reasoning.
The programme lasts 15 weeks, and sessions are designed to take place in addition to a daily maths lesson, for example during a morning maths meeting.
Who is leading this project?
Stepping Stones is designed and delivered by Northumbria University.
What will this project look like in your setting?
Participating teachers will attend three in-person training days: one in November 2026 and two between January and March 2027. They will also receive support through an in-person visit from the Northumbria University team, who will observe delivery and provide feedback.
From January 2027, teachers will deliver three 15 – 20 minute sessions per week for 15 weeks. To support this, the following resources will be provided:
- Weeks 1 – 7: Full session slides and scripts.
- Weeks 8 – 15: Incomplete or blank templates, with teachers encouraged to take increased responsibility for designing sessions. Teachers will be supported through dedicated time for collaborative planning with other participants during the second and third training days. All collaboratively planned resources will be quality assured by Northumbria University prior to use in classrooms.
Sessions take place with classes seated around a visual metaphor of a river, with different steps within each worked example forming ‘stepping stones’ to help focus attention on the stages and processes involved in solving a mathematical problem. There is a strong emphasis on peer and whole-class discussion, and pupils are arranged in mixed-attainment trios to talk through possible approaches to maths problems shared during the programme.
Who can take part?
Primary schools in any North East local authority with at least one Year 2 class (or a mixed-age class that includes Year 2 and no more than one additional year group). Schools must not be taking part in the Northumberland research school evidence into action partnership.
Evidence suggests that approaches supporting pupils to think more explicitly about their own learning are effective in raising attainment for primary school pupils. We also know that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are less likely to use metacognitive strategies independently without explicit teaching.
Stepping Stones was funded as an innovation project through EEF’s Early-Stage Programme Development work, which supports the development of programmes in areas where there are gaps in the evidence. It was delivered in five schools, which provided positive feedback on teachers’ improved confidence and increased use of strategies to support metacognition and problem-solving beyond the programme sessions.
The project will be evaluated by Durham University through a mixed-methods implementation and process evaluationAn IPE is used to understand how and why an intervention has (or has not) been successful. Data is analysed to explore programme quality, reach, adaptation and differentiation, as well as setting fidelity and responsiveness to the trial design.. The evaluation will assess the programme’s evidence of promise, whether it is delivered as intended, its acceptability to schools, and whether it can be delivered at scale.
Research methods will include surveys and interviews with senior leaders, teachers, and teaching assistants, and five case study schools will be visited three times during programme delivery.
Delivery will take place in during the 2026/27 academic year, and the evaluation report will be published in Spring 2028.