Mathematics
Intent: What are we trying to achieve in our Curriculum?
At St Bede’s our intent for mathematics is to ensure that all children become mathematicians. This is through the teaching of a rich, balanced and progressive curriculum using Maths to reason, problem solve and develop fluent conceptual understanding in each area. As stated in the National Curriculum, we aim for all children to be fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. We aim for all children to be able to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language. Also, we aim for all children to be able to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
Implementation: How is our curriculum delivered?
At St Bede’s, maths is taught on a daily basis. As a school we have several materials to refer to for short-term planning including Abacus, NRICH, White Rose Maths and NCETM Teaching for Mastery – these are used across KS1 and KS2 allowing children to be exposed to a variety of different types of learning and problems. Teachers also implement the schools agreed calculations policy for progression in written and mental calculations. Formative assessment is incredibly important at St Bede’s where we focus on challenge questions, analysis of learning and extension work. There is coherent progression seen in planning within each unit and activities in EYFS develop knowledge and skills of key learning.
Mathematical vocabulary is explicitly written within each year group’s weekly planning – this is discussed with children who are encouraged to use it independently. Children are given opportunity to reason and solve problems regularly; learning is varied and allows for deep and secure understanding. Parents are informed of and encouraged to be involved in our school mathematics implementation through weekly and Curriculum newsletters, homework, parent’s evenings and yearly reports. Teachers are also all available for parents to speak to both before and after school.
Teachers develop fluency through practicing key skills, repeating, reinforcing and revising which is all built in to formal planning across school. Children are given time to practice and perfect their calculation strategies including giving pupils opportunity to make appropriate decisions when estimating, calculating and evaluating the effectiveness of their chosen methods. Feedback including our whole school ‘next steps’ system is designed to ensure pupils are well informed and making visible progress.
Discussion is essential to our learning and time is planned into lessons for this, task types are varied to suit different pupils and their learning preferences whilst reasoning in writing remains one of our key focuses. Investigative tasks are designed to allow pupils to follow lines of enquiry and develop their own ideas, justifying and proving their answers. Children work both collaboratively and independently solving problems, which require them to persevere and develop resilience.
Impact
The impact of our mathematics curriculum is that children understand the relevance of what they are learning in relation to real world concepts. We have fostered an environment where Maths is fun and it is OK to be ‘wrong’ because the journey to finding an answer is most important. Our children have a growth mindset and they make measurable progression against their own targets. Our maths books are packed with a range of activities showing evidence of fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Our feedback and interventions are supporting children to strive to be the best mathematicians they can be ensuring a greater proportion of children are on track.
Our school standards are high, we moderate our books internally every term and carry out lesson observations throughout the year. This is to ensure that progress is being made in year groups and across phases. It allows us as a school to identify strengths and areas for development in the subject and ensure that children are deepening their knowledge and understanding and building on skills which have been taught in previous years.
Useful websites
Supermovers https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/supermovers
BBC Maths http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/numeracy.shtml
Oxford Owl http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/maths-owl/maths
Maths 4 Mums and Dads http://www.maths4mumsanddads.co.uk/index.php
Nrich http://nrich.maths.org/frontpage
ict games http://www.ictgames.com/resources.html
I love maths games http://www.ilovemathsgames.com/
Maths is fun https://www.mathsisfun.com/index.htm
Maths zone https://www.mathsisfun.com/index.htm
Topmarks https://www.topmarks.co.uk/
Everything multiplication https://www.multiplication.com/
Primary games http://www.primarygames.co.uk/
