Miss Fulker

At Knowle CE Primary Academy, we believe that Mathematics is for everyone and children have a ‘Maths brain’. With ‘Quality First’ teaching, appropriate resources, effort and a ‘can do’ attitude, all pupils can achieve and enjoy Mathematics. We believe our progressive curriculum, our mastery approach and immediate intervention strategies ensure that all children have the potential to deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts. In preparation for everyday life, children become fluent in calculation and make sense of the world around them through developing their reasoning and problem solving strategies. Regular discussion to probe, extend and further cement understanding is a key feature of teaching and learning in lessons. Pupils are challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems to ensure that all mathematical concepts are embedded and mastered

Our curriculum intent – the knowledge and skills we expect our pupils to learn – can be found in our Yearly Overviews (see below)

At Knowle, our mathematics curriculum is based upon the Programme of Study and Aims of the National Curriculum.

We have chosen to make use of White Rose Maths resources for our Long and Medium Term planning: https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/primary-resources/primary-sols/

By following the White Rose Long and Medium Term plans, which set out the objectives taught in each year group, we provide children with regular opportunities to develop their subject knowledge by revisiting the overarching themes of Mathematics: Number: Place Value, Calculation and fractions, Measurement, Geometry and statistics.

We recognise that the fundamentals of mathematics including arithmetic (calculation) and times tables are essential to equip pupils for their future. We have developed a Calculation Progression document, which incorporates our CPA approach to teaching Mathematics.

We teach times tables using the following progression:

Year 1 – Be able to count in multiples of twos, fives and tens

Year 2 – Be able to recall 2, 5 and 10 multiplication and division facts

Year 3 – Be able to recall 3, 4 and 8 multiplication and division facts

Year 4 – Be able to recall 6, 7 and 9 multiplication and division facts

Year 5/6 – application of multiplication and division facts to problem solving

NB: All times tables to be learnt up to 12 x 12

 

In EYFS, pupils develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically.

Pupils are taught in mixed ability groups (classes) and in Key Stage 1 and 2, Mathematics is taught for at least one hour per day (or five hours per week). However, when required, teachers may choose to include additional mathematics lessons in their weekly timetable. Other opportunities for Mathematics are taken within our schools’ curriculum such as during Science and Geography lessons.

The White Rose Long and Medium Term plans are well-structured and provide an ambitious, connected and accessible curriculum. The time-related plans also enable excellent coverage of the curriculum’s content. Teachers use these resources to complete their short term plans. This is supplemented by other recommended sources and most importantly, teachers’ own creativity and understanding of their pupils’ needs.

Teachers write their own short term plans. Teachers plan their Mathematics lessons in a logical step-by-step manner, to cohesively build pupils’ knowledge and skills in mathematics. Across school we use concrete, pictorial and abstract representations to promote a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts in all pupils.

Learning is age appropriate and high expectations are maintained throughout each lesson. Teachers use differentiation carefully and effectively to ensure our curriculum is ambitious and accessible:

• Differentiation by support: Peer support/ Resources / Scaffolding / Small changes between tasks / Sentence stems / Representations
• Differentiation by going deeper: Questions / Explain it / Draw it/represent it / Find more examples / Write your own question / Prove it

Pupils use a Mathematics exercise book to record their learning in an age-appropriate manner. We use a range of resources, including White Rose Premium Resources, to enable all pupils, in line with the National Curriculum aims for mathematics, to:

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics
• reason mathematically
• can solve problems by applying their mathematics

Each lesson follows a consistent structure:

• At the beginning of each lesson, pupils will revisit fundamentals of mathematics (such as Times Tables recall, arithmetic and ‘non-negotiable’ objectives to make learning memorable, relevant and easy to retrieve. Each classroom has a Mathematics ‘Working Wall’ display to support pupils when revisiting and recapping upon learning; teachers are encouraged to reference these during the first part of each lesson.
• The learning objective is shared and explained and this drives the lesson; it is referred to regularly throughout each lesson. When teaching the lesson’s objective, teachers follow a me-you-me-you style of teaching where each stage of the objective taught is modelled and then explored by pupils, challenging them appropriately and using appropriate representation(s).
• Teachers use questioning and pupils are encouraged to talk in Mathematics lessons by repeating key vocabulary, using the taught stem sentences and when completing reasoning activities with peers. Misconceptions are taught.
• Over a sequence of lessons, pupils will master each objective by deepening their understanding through a variety of representations, reasoning and problem solving activities.
• Each lesson ends with a reflection upon pupils’ progress against the taught objective. This may be recorded in exercise books in an age-appropriate manner e.g. purple pen comments.

We inspire and motive pupils by enabling all pupils to experience success and in Years 2-6 we also use TT Rockstars to make the essential learning of times tables fun and competitive.

Assessment for Learning is ongoing and used by teachers to dictate the pace that pupils progress through each step of the short term planning, ensuring all pupils have the opportunity to explore the objective through fluency, reasoning and problem solving activities. Pupils are encouraged to mark their work throughout a lesson for immediate feedback. They feel supported in the safe environment created by the teaching staff; mistakes are welcome in order to promote learning and we ensure a ‘can do’ growth mindset through the step-by-step approach. This enables teachers to pace lessons appropriately, differentiate further, address misconceptions and to provide immediate intervention.

Summative assessment is used periodically throughout the year. The timetable of assessment has been carefully planned to enable our school to track the progress of each pupil at their stage of learning.

For further detail about the teaching and learning of Mathematics at Knowle, please refer to the Maths Policy.