Maths
Subject Leader: Ms Rodway
Our place in the world
We believe that mathematics is a foundational life-skill that children absorb from an early age and continue to build upon throughout their life-time. Through our mathematics offer, we aim to ensure individuals are numerate in order to participate fully in society, with the knowledge that thinking mathematically is life-enriching.
Language and oracy
Mathematics is a language rich subject that has a strong focus on essential number knowledge and mathematical terminology. Through the exploration of mathematical terms and reasoning, we believe it allows children to become fluent and inquisitive problem solvers, with opportunities for the children to discuss their understandings and explain their thinking by: describing, explaining, convincing and justifying mathematical ideas.
Learning skills
Through the progression of our maths curriculum we endeavour to ensure our children utilise key skills through perseverance- by adopting their ‘have a go’ learning attitude, working collaboratively with others- to deepen and build upon their learning, and have exposure to opportunities to be inquisitive, questioning thinkers- allowing them to work creatively to draw mathematical conclusions.
Healthy body, healthy mind
Through the exploration of mathematical learning, we enable children to feel success and develop confidence. We encourage children to inhibit a growth mind-set, to see challenge as an opportunity for growth, and by providing a range of concrete, pictorial and abstract mathematical representations, children can independently explore their mathematical learning in a way that is individual to them.
Intent
" Five out of four people have trouble with fractions." ~ Steven Wright
Our mathematics curriculum is designed to develop children who are curious and confident mathematicians.
Careful and creative planning for teaching of mathematical knowledge, through small interrelated steps, ensures secure understanding of mathematical structures and allows deep connections to be made.
A strong focus on essential number knowledge and mathematical language, allows children to become fluent and inquisitive problem solvers.
This knowledge is embedded, challenged and strengthened by opportunities to reason, which is threaded throughout lessons. We do this because it is vital for individuals to be numerate in order to participate fully in society and thinking mathematically is life-enriching.
Our curriculum is sequenced in line with White Rose Maths, the EYFS Statutory Framework (2022), Development Matters (2022) and the National Curriculum for Mathematics (2013).
Implementation
The principles of ‘Teaching for Mastery’ are used consistently throughout the school. We foster a whole-class teaching approach, during learning opportunities, keeping the class working together to secure a conceptual understanding by all. This is to avoid superficial, surface learning and foster a deep, secure understanding of all the concepts taught.
The learning needs of every child are addressed through skilful questioning and appropriate, immediate intervention – this provides the necessary scaffolding or challenge for all. Opportunities are provided for children to deepen their understanding of a concept further, through the use of challenges.
In the Early Years, strong foundations are built as children work towards the Early Learning Goals for Number, Shape, Space and Measure. A ‘mastery’ approach to teaching is adopted in the Early Years setting, building the principles into the unique pedagogy for the EYFS.
Within the EYFS settings, children have opportunities to use mathematical representations in a variety of ways to make connections and think flexibly. They are encouraged to engage in creative problem finding and solving activities, which reinforce and build upon the concepts taught. They are given opportunities to choose their own resources and use them to record their ideas and explore their own mathematical interests. Communication of their mathematical thinking is promoted, through ‘talk activities’ and ‘shared thinking’ opportunities.
The Key Stage One and Key Stage Two curricula focus on four areas: number, measurement, geometry and statistics. Within these areas, concepts are taught slowly and at great depth to ensure the learning is secure and sustainable.
Included in every lesson are fluency, reasoning and problem-solving tasks, giving the children opportunities to explore the concept being taught extensively before moving on to the next.
Questions are carefully designed to provide intelligent practice, developing and embedding conceptual fluency. We believe in exposing the children to multiple representations of a concept, using concrete, pictorial and abstract examples simultaneously to support the children’s understanding.
We provide rich mathematical learning tasks, which can be project-based or problems linked to the current topic. We feel these real contexts help children to apply their mathematical skills, whilst developing their problem-solving and reasoning skills. We encourage children to select their own resources when solving problems; an opportunity for them to choose what works for them, in order to achieve and feel success and develop confidence.
At St Mary Magdalen’s, we place high importance on mathematical talk. As a result, lessons include regular opportunities for the children to discuss their understanding and explain their thinking, both with the adults and their peers. Accurate use of vocabulary and terminology features prominently in our lessons, with teachers both modelling and expecting it from the children. We believe this will support our children when faced with a range of mathematical problems.
We believe that fluency of number is a key skill to becoming a skilled mathematician. Fluency in maths is about developing number sense and being able to use the most appropriate and efficent method for the task at hand and to apply a skill to multiple contexts.
In KS1, Number Sense is developed within lessons, where teachers teach children how to recall and derive number facts, enabling greater fluency when problem solving. Number sense continues to develop into KS2, to ensure children have secure knowledge of multiplication facts and can use these to derive others and to support calculations with more complex numbers.
“Timestable of the Week” displays in corridors reflect the focus of morning fluency sessions across the school.
Support is offered through a variety of staff intervention, revisiting key representations and using resources to enable children to secure learning before moving on to the next step. Challenges are designed to deepen children’s understanding and are intended for all children, they are introduced throughout lessons and across units of learning.
A wide range of assessment information collated and tracked by staff and children, enables diagnosis of learning gaps, celebrates successes and secures excellent progress to be made by all children. Where progress concerns arise, children are invited to take part in small grouped interventions, using the ‘Power of 2’ programme of study. This seeks to secure core mathematical skills, which need to be in place, for individuals to continue to build upon throughout their mathematical learning journeys at St Mary Magdalen’s.
Enhancing the teaching of Mathematics is an important part of our school’s continual development, and as such, staff receive regular research-based training to ensure that our children have quality first teaching experiences.
Impact
By the time our pupils leave St Mary Magdalen’s they will inhibit our key skills through their maths learning experiences:
- Persevering Penguin: they possess a positive “have a go” attitude towards mathematics and resilience to stick with it when learning gets challenging.
- Creative Thinking Unicorn: they are fluent mathematicians, able to manipulate numbers in order to solve problem.
- Teamwork Meerkat: they can work collaboratively with others to share, deepen and build upon their mathematical learning.
- Independent Polar Bear: they can confidently choose their own resources and representations to develop deeper mathematical learning experiences and connections to support problem solving, know addition and subtraction facts for numbers up to 20, know multiplication facts to 12 x 12 and can use these to derive other multiplication facts and associated division facts.
- Questioning Owl: they are able to reason through inquisitive questioning.
- Communication Monkey: they are able to describe, explain, convince and justify mathematical ideas.
Training, planning and teaching our Mathematics curriculum should ensure:
- Highly knowledgeable and skilful teachers able to formatively assess pupils’ learning through analysis of their knowledge of and fluency with number facts, their ability to reason mathematically and to apply their knowledge to solve problems efficiently and accurately.
How to support your child at home:
- School Learning platform
- Numbots
- Times Tables Rockstars
Login details are available from your child's class teacher.
The Mathematics Coordinator is Ms Rodway, who is always happy to discuss anything mathematical!
In addition to our ‘Progression in Calculation’ e-booklet guide, we endeavour to provide workshops for parents to support their understanding of how we teach maths, how children learn maths and ways in which they can support their children outside of school.