Shaw Education Trust

Shaw Education Trust is a growing multi-academy trust supporting a network of primary, secondary, special and alternative provision schools across England. The trust is committed to improving educational outcomes by providing high-quality teaching, inclusive learning environments and strong pastoral support.

Key takeaways

Cambridge OCR helped Shaw Education Trust create consistency across its secondary schools. A shared GCSE Maths qualification gave leaders and teachers a common framework for curriculum planning, assessment conversations and improvement.
The qualification supports both ambition and accessibility. Its structure helps students build confidence and show mathematical thinking, while still maintaining the rigour needed for strong outcomes.
For MATs, the value goes beyond the specification. Shaw Education Trust used Cambridge OCR GCSE Maths as a foundation for better data insight, more meaningful collaboration and trust-wide teacher development.

When you're responsible for educational outcomes across 32 schools, consistency matters.

The kind of consistency that allows teachers to share expertise, leaders to make informed decisions, and pupils to benefit from the same high expectations – regardless of which school they attend.

That was the reason Shaw Education Trust's chose Cambridge OCR GCSE (9-1) Maths across its secondary schools.

Helen Taylor, Director of Education Data and Insights, saw the qualification as an opportunity to strengthen far more than assessment. It became part of a much wider strategy: creating a shared approach to teaching, assessment and improvement across the trust.

A qualification that supports a trust-wide strategy

Across Shaw Education Trust, no two schools look exactly alike.

Schools serve communities with differing levels of disadvantage, varying prior attainment and significant numbers of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). While every school has its own context, the trust believes every learner should have access to the same high-quality mathematics curriculum.

That meant finding a qualification that could support both ambition and accessibility. Helen believes Cambridge OCR GCSE (9-1) Maths strikes that balance well.

Rather than asking teachers to teach around an assessment, the qualification complements the curriculum they're building.

Creating one language for assessment

Rolling out a qualification across an entire Multi Academy Trust inevitably involves practical changes. Resources need updating, teachers need support and departments need time to become familiar with new assessment materials. What proved more significant was what happened afterwards – the transition became an investment in a more connected way of working across the trust long after implementation.

As Helen says, the biggest impact came from something less tangible.

"It wasn't simply changing resources," she reflects. "It was helping departments understand the style of questioning, how marks are awarded and how to prepare pupils for the full range of demand."

That shared understanding has transformed professional conversations across the trust. Teachers now discuss misconceptions using the same evidence. Heads of Maths can compare approaches across schools. Curriculum leaders can identify where pupils are struggling – not just through headline grades, but through the questions they're answering and the methods they're using.

The qualification has become a common language.

The specification allows departments to build strong foundations first, then develop fluency, reasoning and problem solving over time. It doesn't feel like a qualification that forces teachers into tricks or shortcuts. It supports good mathematics teaching when it's used well.

Helen Taylor

Director of Education Data and Insights

When assessment data becomes insight

For someone leading data and insights across a Multi Academy Trust, Helen believes data is only valuable if it leads to better decisions.

What matters is the story behind them – understanding where pupils are thriving, where barriers remain and how schools can respond. She believes using a common assessment model has given the trust a much stronger foundation for those conversations.

"From a data and insights perspective, the qualification supports better analysis," said Helen. "We can look at performance by topic, paper, question and pupil group. That helps us move away from broad statements and towards more precise action."

Student drawing

Instead of isolated pockets of information, the trust now has a consistent picture across schools, making it easier to identify trends, share effective practice and target support where it will have the greatest impact.

How the assessment is builT

Calculator paper

100 marks

Non-calculator paper

100 marks

Calculator paper

100 marks

Supporting every student

Helen sees the qualification’s ability to balance accessibility with rigour as one of its defining qualities.

The three 100-mark papers give pupils multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding, while method marks reward mathematical thinking, even if the final answer isn't fully correct. The assessment is also designed to boost confidence, with clear paper construction and a sequence that starts and ends with calculator papers, with the non-calculator paper in between. This is particularly valuable for pupils who may lack confidence or have gaps in prior learning, without reducing the level of challenge for higher-attaining students.

Importantly, Helen is careful not to attribute improvements solely to the qualification. Curriculum, teaching, leadership and intervention all play a role in pupil success. However, she believes Cambridge OCR provides an assessment model that supports the trust's wider improvement strategy.

Stronger together

For Shaw Education Trust, the greatest benefit of Cambridge OCR GCSE (9-1) Maths isn't just the qualification itself, but the way it's helped unite schools around a shared approach.

Because every secondary school works within the same assessment framework, teachers can collaborate more meaningfully. Professional development becomes grounded in real classroom evidence. Moderation is simpler. Curriculum conversations become richer.

Rather than operating as individual schools, departments learn from one another. Helen believes that's where the qualification delivers its greatest value.

More meaningful collaboration

CPD grounded in classroom evidence

Simpler moderation

Richer curriculum conversations

For a MAT, the benefit is not just the specification itself. It's what the specification allows you to build around it. It supports shared curriculum conversations, assessment analysis, moderation and teacher development. I would recommend it because it is rigorous, but it also feels human. It recognises that pupils need opportunities to show their thinking, not just produce perfect final answers.

Helen Taylor

Director of Education Data and Insights

Driving trust-wide improvement with ambition and accessibility