Whitegate CE Primary School
Becoming Mathematicians
Everything was accounted for by number and weight,
and the entire weight was recorded at that time.
Ezra 8:34
At Whitegate CE Primary School we grow the children’s knowledge of mathematics, enabling them to make sense of the numbers, patterns and shapes they see in the diverse world around them. Mathematics offers pupils a powerful way of communicating. They learn to explore and using their wisdom, explain their ideas with symbols, diagrams and, spoken and written language. Through our teaching of mathematics, we endeavour to stimulate curiosity, foster creativity and equip children with the skills they need in life beyond school as they shine in their contribution to our economy, society and culture.
Intent:
To develop the knowledge and skills of our learners through challenge, investigation, understanding and calculation and applying these to the real world. To ensure all children become fluent mathematicians who can problem solve and reason confidently, with greater independence each year. To inspire our pupils to have a lifelong passion for maths, seeing the real importance and purpose of it in their everyday lives.
Our aims:
- Provide a purpose and real life context for the mathematical skills being taught.
- Children are engaged in varied interactive lessons and tasks, using a wide range of resources.
- Children are motivated by challenging yet achievable work.
- We develop both mental and written methods – learners becoming more confident in to choosing the most efficient strategies.
- Ensure that children have a strong number sense through regular practise and consolidation of skills.
- Ensure that children read, write and use mathematical language with confidence.
- Provide consistent opportunity for children to reason mathematically – both verbally and in written form.
- Develop a love of learning for all learners within each and every maths lesson.
Our journey for mathematics starts in Reception. We follow a Curriculum Progress Model that covers the six areas of mathematics. In EYFS, we ensure that maths, and particularity ‘number’ is part of their daily diet and give the children a wide range of experiences and opportunities to apply their mathematical skills. The EYFS teacher identifies children who need further support and challenge and address these needs through adult-led activities and carefully thought-out enhancements in the continuous provision. In order for the mastery approach to become successful in KS1 and KS2, by Summer term the children adopt a ‘problem solving’ approach to their lessons, looking at reasoning in different ways, using concrete resources and being challenged through questioning, which enables them to understand and be prepared for what will be expected of them in the next stage of learning.
The journey continues in Years 1–6 through the implementation of the 2014 National Curriculum. We ensure that our children:
- Become fluent in the fundamentals of Mathematics
- Are able to reason mathematically
- Can solve problems by applying their Mathematics
We have outlined the order in which we will teach our units of work to enable us to plan coverage of the entire National Curriculum, whilst allowing us to prioritise the DfE Ready to Progress statements. Teachers consider the needs of their cohort before determining how many weeks they will spend on each topic using the First4maths intent/planning documents as a support tool. The NCETM Teaching for Mastery Assessment questions and DfE guidance questions are built into units of work to enable teachers to effectively assess children’s understanding at a Mastery and Greater Depth level within a unit of work.
Fluency, reasoning and problem-solving skills are embedded within mathematics lessons and are developed consistently over time. By ensuring that children secure their fluency skills before moving on to more complex mathematics we develop children’s confidence to tackle a variety of problems either independently or in collaboration with their peers. All children are given the opportunity to reason at their own level using the 5stages of reasoning, describe, explain, convince, justify and prove. We build in regular opportunities for our children to reflect and evaluate on the skills that they have used in order for them to take ownership and pride in their work. Cross-curricular, outside and active mathematics is encouraged where it enhances and enriches learning.
Our teaching promotes spending greater time delving in depth in particular areas/concepts as opposed to quickly moving through the curriculum and the year group objectives. Everyone is given time to think deeply about the maths, and solve problems in a variety of ways. They are able to challenge themselves and develop a rich mathematical dialogue within the classroom. We feel this develops a positive attitude, encourages resilience and provides a sense of achievement for the children. Lessons are scaffolded to support all learners and rich, sophisticated problems are set to challenge advanced learners.
We ensure that children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) have access to a broad and balanced curriculum. Teachers set high expectations for every pupil, whatever their prior attainment. Teachers are clear on the pre-requisite learning for each unit of work and the progression to mastery and greater depth for each objective. This allows maximum progress to be planned for and then children are challenged and supported through this journey at a pace appropriate to their needs. Lessons are planned to address potential areas of difficulty and to remove barriers to pupil achievement. Such planning will mean that pupils with SEN and disabilities will be able to study the full national curriculum.
Maths at Home
TTRS
We encourage Y2-Y6 children to use ‘Times Tables Rockstars’ at home as this is a fun and progressive way to quickly recall their tables. Teachers can set specific times tables for your child to focus on at home
At the end of Year 4, children complete a ‘Multiplication Times Tables Check’ set by the government which determines which pupils can recall all of their times tables fluently.
NumBots
We also use NumBots which is part of the TTRS family for Y2-Y3. The aim of NumBots is to ensure children develop a core understanding of maths from an early age, establishing a strong mathematical foundation which they can build upon as they progress through their education. NumBots is all about every child achieving the “triple win” of understanding, recall and fluency in mental addition and subtraction, so that they move from counting to calculating.
What our pupils say about Maths:
"Maths is my favourite subject because I get to challenge myself."
"I think Maths is very important because it gets me ready for living in the real world."
"I am proud when I complete tricky problem solving tasks."
"I enjoy playing games in Maths, it is fun."
"I love the 'Big Maths Beat That' quizzes and beating my best score!"
Websites we recommend to explore:
BBC Bitesize KS1: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zjxhfg8
BBC Bitesize KS2: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/z826n39
Maths Zone: https://www.mathszone.co.uk
Topmarks: https://www.topmarks.co.uk
If you have any questions about our Mathematics curriculum, please contact Mrs Ross (subject lead) via the school office. Thank you