Maths
Subject Leader: Mr Linford
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. Using stem sentences allows our children to clearly hear good modelled speech and use it in their own reasoning, along with key vocabulary and mathematical thinking.
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. The use of varied resources allows children to develop seeing problems in new ways by changing how they view them.
Intent
Our mathematics curriculum is designed by the NCETM 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 through the use of stem sentences 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. This is supported by our use of modelled stem sentences to support deeper thinking by reducing mental load.
Our curriculum is designed in line with the NCETM Curriculum Prioritisation Materials alongside using resources from the Oak Academy.
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 the use of concrete, pictorial and abstract (CPA) representations, along with 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.
Concrete:
Pictorial:
Abstract:
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. These tasks are organised into the “CDES” stages or “Check, Do, Explain, Solve” in order to ensure that each mathematical idea is embedded before moving the children on to more challenging questions and contexts.
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 (oracy). 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 through the use of stem sentences. 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 efficient method for the task at hand and to apply a skill to multiple contexts.
In KS1, Number Sense is developed within lessons through the use of Mastering Number, 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.
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 or targeted interventions in the classroom. 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. The school is currently working closely with the MathsHub in Sussex to further develop our maths teaching in all year groups.
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. Children should be able to talk about their learning by using key facts and ideas to help them explain what is happening in their maths lessons.
Maths Calculation Policy 2024-2025
How to support your child at home:
- Practice your times tables! Any practice is good practice. Even just counting out your tables as you come to school.
- TTRS competitions for years 2 – 6 encourage children to develop their fluency with multiplication.
- Topmarks - Hit the Button is great for having fluency practice with doubles, halves and times tables!
- Topmarks - Maths Games: This website has lots of different maths games which help support a variety of different mathematical concepts.