Maths

Here at Ashwicken CE Primary School, we follow the White Rose Maths Scheme of learning to sequence our learning.

Below are the overviews for each year group.

Intent

Mathematics teaches children how to make sense of the world around them through developing their ability to calculate, reason and solve problems.

Mathematics is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

We aim to support children to achieve economic well-being and equip them with a range of computational skills and the ability to solve problems in a variety of contexts.

At Ashwicken, children are encouraged to make mistakes in a safe and supportive environment. They are supported to discuss these misconceptions with their peers and staff alike. Here at Ashwicken, we place oracy at the heart of our learning through shared work and class discussions. Use of appropriate vocabulary is modelled throughout lessons by both staff and children, allowing everyone to ‘talk like a mathematician’. Once a child can articulate their understanding of a concept, they can truly begin to make connections within their learning.

At our school, the majority of children will be taught the content from their year group only. They will spend time becoming true masters of content, applying and being creative with new knowledge in multiple ways.

Aims

We aim for all pupils to:

Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, so that they develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. including the varied and regular practice of increasingly complex problems over time.
Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language.
Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions – including unfamiliar contexts and real-life scenarios.

Sequence & structure

How does the maths curriculum plan set out the sequence and structure of how we’ll teach the knowledge and skills?

We follow the National Curriculum, which sequences and structures the teaching into the year groups. In order to ensure this curriculum is covered in full and in manageable and logical steps, we follow the White Rose planning in EYFS, KS1 and KS2. The progression is clearly structured.

Implementation

Our Maths curriculum provides breadth and balance, is relevant and engaging and is scaffolded to match the needs and abilities of all our children to ensure that all pupils are able to excel.

As a school, we believe in the importance of following the concrete-pictorial-approach as a means to developing a solid understanding and knowledge of mathematical concepts. These can be applied in a variety of contexts through reasoning and problem-solving challenges. Children receive a minimum of 5 hours maths tuition each week with additional sessions devoted to number proficiency and times tables.

From Reception to Year 6, we adhere to our calculation policy which outlines the progression of strategies and methods to be taught and we have an accompanying vocabulary progression document which we also follow. We have created our medium-term plans in line with White Rose small steps. From Reception to Year 6, children follow the scheme of ‘White Rose’ which supports children in learning the fundamentals behind the meanings of numbers and exploring other key mathematical areas. Our maths curriculum is also supported through the implementation of resources from ‘Pixl.’ White Rose and Pixl use ‘small steps’ to break down the teaching sequence into small achievable steps. Where children require additional support, ‘scaffolds’ are used to support children further to ensure that they have secured the knowledge before moving on. These ‘scaffolds’ may be in the form of returning to concrete resources or pictorial representations.

For children who understand a concept quicker, challenges are used to deepen and challenge learners further within the curriculum area. These are evident in children’s books as they are written and responded to in purple pen.

Progression documents such as our calculation policy are carefully used to ensure that children are not being stretched outside their year group but rather deepened within it. Within daily teaching, children will be reminded/taught fact sentences linked to previous/current learning which will constantly be referred to within the lesson. Through the use of spaced learning, they will have many opportunities to apply these fact sentences; modelling will support children in developing their ability to reason and explain their answers using them. Daily assessment is incorporated throughout the lesson through live and verbal feedback. Where children require additional support, ‘Closing the Gaps’ are used to support children ensuring that they are ready for the next ‘small step’.

Termly assessments are used as a diagnostic tool to ensure that teachers are adapting learning to meet the needs of all children and ensure that any necessary interventions are targeted specifically to meet the needs of children following the Pixl scheme of learning. Times tables play an important part in our maths learning, with children developing their fluency and knowledge in rapid recall of tables up to 12 x 12 by the end of year 4. While the rapid recall of times tables are being developed, children are also learning how to apply and manipulate their understanding of this to reason and solve problems. From Y1 - Y6, all morning work incorporates ‘flashback’ Knowledge based questions to ensure that children are retaining previously taught mathematics skills.

Also, at the beginning of each Mathematics session, children are given 15 minutes of high quality arithmetic knowledge based teaching to develop this skill area, which has been highlighted as an across school weakness.

Impact

We hope that as our journey towards embedding the mastery approach continues: We will have teachers and support staff who fully understand and support the pedagogy. We will have children who are increasingly engaged in maths lessons and talk passionately about the subject, making links with other subjects and within the wider world. We will observe children tackling mathematical challenges with resilience, confidently using concrete resources and visual representations. We will have children who are more articulate when discussing mathematical concepts. We will see progress becoming more accelerated due to the way lessons are structured and the impact of immediate, tailored interventions. The impact of our mathematics curriculum is that children understand the relevance and importance of what they are learning in relation to real world concepts. Children know that maths is a vital life skill that they will rely on in many areas of their daily life.

Children have a positive view of maths due to learning in an environment where maths is promoted as being an exciting and enjoyable subject in which they can investigate and ask questions; they know that it is reasonable to make mistakes because this can strengthen their learning through the journey to finding an answer.

Children are confident to ‘have a go’ and choose the equipment they need to help them to learn along with the strategies they think are best suited to each problem. Our children have a good understanding of their strengths and targets for development in maths and what they need to do to improve.

Our maths books evidence work of a high standard of which children clearly take pride; the components of the teaching sequences demonstrate good coverage of fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Our feedback and interventions support children to strive to be the best mathematicians they can be, ensuring a high proportion of children are on track or above. Our school standards are high, we moderate our books both internally and externally and children are achieving well.