Mathematics

996,772 Mathematics Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock

Intent: What are we trying to achieve in our Curriculum?

At St Bede’s Catholic Primary School, we believe that mathematics equips pupils with a uniquely powerful set of tools, through developing an ability to calculate, reason and solve problems. It enables children to understand and appreciate relationships and patterns in both number and space in their everyday lives. Through their growing knowledge and understanding, they also learn to appreciate the contribution made by many people to the development and application of mathematics.

It is our aim to develop:

A growth mindset about ability to learn mathematics
A positive attitude towards mathematics and an awareness of how fascinating elements of mathematics can be
Competence and confidence with numbers and the number system and other mathematical knowledge, concepts and skills
Problem solvers, who can reason, think logically, work systematically and apply their knowledge of mathematics
An ability to communicate using mathematical language
An ability to work both independently and with others

Implementation: How is our curriculum delivered?

At St Bede’s Catholic Primary School, we embed the Mastery Approach to teaching Mathematics using the White Rose Maths Hub schemes of work and planning materials. Learning will be deepened through the use of NCETM and NRich resources. We deliver high quality maths lessons using some key principles. This approach has mathematical problem solving at its heart and has three key principles:

Use spoken and written language with confidence and clarity to explain and justify mathematical reasoning. Every lesson involves children explaining mathematics.
Have a deep conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts. This is achieved through covering fewer topics in greater depth. Pupils master concepts rather than learning procedures by rote. They do this using concrete objects and pictures before moving to abstract symbols (numbers and signs).
Develop mathematical thinking, including generalising, classifying and comparing, and modifying.

Structure of Lessons

Lessons will follow a six-part structure to allow for continuous Assessment for Learning:

Sticky knowledge (3-5 minutes of quick retrieval).
Starting Point (A short task or question on the board for the children to be thinking about)
Sharing of the learning objective and modelling of the new learning
Partner/small group Talk Task – A mixture of short tasks, working with partners, discussions and modelling are all key parts of the lesson delivery.
Independent Work
Reflection and next steps

Quick Maths Fluency

Daily fluency sessions of quick maths should last for 15 minutes, delivered independently from the main lesson and include, times tables, number bonds, 4 operations and arithmetic.

Mastering number is a programme focused entirely on number fact teaching in Reception and KS1. It provides number facts, teaching children to achieve fluency, addition and subtraction facts. The children develop factual fluency in order to make it easier for them to access the rest of the curriculum.

Revisiting Concepts

We always encourage revisiting concepts through other topics across the year.

We incorporate quick questions covering something from the previous lesson, last week and then topics from earlier in the year – maybe even last year! – into our daily fluency sessions and to fortnightly arithmetic lessons.

‘It’s okay to make mistakes! – that’s when we learn best! The best maths involves lots of discussion and sharing of strategies’

Differentiation

Differentiation of tasks is done in various ways:

Open ended questioning and activities which allow more able children to offer more sophisticated mathematical responses.
Resourcing eg. Use of cubes, 100 squares, number lines, mirrors to support.
Independent work often involves some focused, targeted group work from the teacher which are flexible based on the needs of individual pupils.

Vocabulary

Developing children’s language and vocabulary is absolutely essential.

In all lessons attention is given to whether key vocabulary has been learnt.
Key vocabulary is visible on the Maths Working Wall during lessons and instantly added to as new words arise.
Paired talk activities are used to encourage children to talk about their mathematics.
Teachers insist that children mirror the language they hear the adults using.
Where appropriate, children are encouraged to answer using STEM sentences. “eg. I have ____ groups of ____ and ____ remaining.”
Children are required to provide justification and reasoning for their answers. For example, ‘I know the shape is a square because….’

Impact

At St Bede’s, we strive for all pupils to achieve their full potential and this is reflected in our pupil outcomes at each phase. Our pupils achieve highly, and make good progress from starting points. Teachers promote a positive attitude towards maths and have high expectations of all pupils, providing challenge and engagement through quality teaching and learning small step sequences. Children are supported to develop both collaborative and independent skills as well as developing a growth mindset. A range of assessment, monitoring and moderation is undertaken as well as intervention when necessary to ensure the success of all children.