Songs, Smoots, and Spatial Reasoning

Welcome to Episode 16 of The Primary Maths Podcast. This week is one of our shorter Friday editions, where instead of a full guest interview we pick up listener comments, share a little research, and reflect on the big themes from the week. Becky is away, so I am joined by Sally Cole for a lively conversation that takes us from tractors to spatial reasoning.

We start with some fun listener feedback on non-standard units of measurement. Michelle and Karen measure their runs in songs, Dave introduces us to the “Sheppey” (the distance at which sheep still look picturesque), and Eleanor points us towards the “Smoot” – the length of Oliver Smoot, immortalised when MIT students used him as a human ruler across Harvard Bridge in 1958. We talk about how these quirky measures still crop up in culture and what they reveal about the way we make sense of the world.

From there we move into more serious ground, exploring research from the Turner Kirk Centre for Spatial Reasoning in Glasgow. Their findings show that short, additional lessons in spatial reasoning can lead to significant improvements in maths, particularly for girls and disadvantaged pupils, and in some cases can close attainment gaps. We consider how activities like puzzles, junk modelling, Lego and outdoor play connect to these ideas, and how schools might bring more of the strengths of early years provision into Key Stage 1 and 2.

Finally, we reflect on this week’s interview with Tom Isherwood. Together we draw out practical strategies for teachers:

• Collaborative planning as professional development rather than everyday expectation.
• Dual coding with coloured pens to strengthen links between calculations and representations.
• Flipping “I do, we do, you do” to “you do, we do, I do” so pupils are led to discover ideas without leaving it to chance.
• Planning starters at the end of lesson design to ensure they connect directly to the key learning.

This is an episode that combines humour with substance, moving from measuring time in Bluey episodes to the serious potential of spatial reasoning, and finishing with classroom strategies you can try straight away.

If you enjoyed this conversation, please share it with a colleague and leave a quick rating or review. You can get in touch with us at primarymathspodcast@twinkl.co.uk (remember Twinkl is without an “e”), or leave a comment if you are listening on YouTube.