Maths

Maths INTENT statement:

Rationale:

At Buglawton Primary School our Maths curriculum is designed to be accessible to all so that every child knows more, remembers more and understands more. At Buglawton we provide children with the mathematical skills needed for life.  Teachers from Reception to Year 6 follow the Power Maths Scheme of work and also use a wide variety of resources and ideas to provide children with a range of challenges where they can learn to apply their skills. 

Ambition:

Our intent is to:

• ensure that every child has the skills to become a numerate adult
• introduce children to concepts, skills and thinking strategies that are essential in everyday life
• help children make sense of the numbers, patterns and shapes they see in the world around them
• encourage children to acquire a wide vocabulary and understanding of mathematical language

Concepts:

A graduated and sequential approach to the teaching of knowledge and skills ensures that children build on previous understanding. Before a child reaches Year 1 they are able to count up to 20 and understand the value of numbers.  Key Stage one children focus on place value and the meaning of numbers with practical activities and a range of visual representations.  Once place value is secure, the vocabulary and calculations around the four formal operations are introduced and these skills are applied in real life problem solving activities. 

At Buglawton we teach using the mastery approach. Children should all have access to the same curriculum content and, rather than being extended with new learning, they should deepen their conceptual understanding by tackling varied and challenging problems. Similarly with calculation strategies, pupils must not simply rote learn procedures but demonstrate their understanding of these procedures through the use of concrete materials and pictorial representations to ensure fluency and depth of understanding.

At Buglawton, children also need to learn number facts so that they can instantly recall number bonds and times tables. This knowledge will enable children to answer calculations and more challenging problems as well as prepare them for the Multiplication Test at the end of Year 4.

All pupils should become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems. (National Curriculum, 2014)

Mastery approach

At the centre of the mastery approach to the teaching of mathematics is the belief that all pupils have the potential to succeed.  Children should all have access to the same curriculum content and, rather than being extended with new learning, they should deepen their conceptual understanding by tackling varied and challenging problems. Similarly with calculation strategies, pupils must not simply rote learn procedures but demonstrate their understanding of these procedures through the use of concrete materials and pictorial representations to ensure fluency and depth of understanding.

The principle of the concrete-pictorial-abstract (CPA) approach is that for pupils to have a true understanding of a mathematical concept, they need to master all three phases. Reinforcement is achieved by going back and forth between these representations. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those pupils who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.

There is also an emphasis placed on instant recall of number bonds and times tables. These need to be mastered to aid with calculations and more challenging problems as well as in readiness for the Multiplication Test at the end of Year 4.

Number Facts and Times Tables

We also use the Times Tables Rockstars website to support children in the learning of times tables in a progressive way.

All our children would benefit from extra Maths practice at home. As well as Rockstars, there are other online platforms with fun and interactive games to enjoy.

Early Years  and KS1

We use Numicon as a resource to enable children to visualise numbers. Take a look at how it can be used in the early stages of numeracy in the YouTube video at the bottom of this page. The video shows 5 easy and fun ways to build your child's early numeracy skills at home using Numicon. The product used in the video can be bought on Amazon - http://amzn.to/2gVBXjj. 

There are also examples of Jack Hartman's number pairs or number bonds videos which are excellent at improving children's fluency recall of number facts. They are catchy, and also have fantastic use of visual links, such as tens frames and digits to help children build connections. Give it a go!

REAL LIFE MATHS!

Maths is all around us - so you can use everyday experiences to reinforce and develop maths skills and vocabulary. Measurement, fractions, shapes, time and money all benefit from real world application and often can be naturally harnessed as a way to learn maths. You just need to make a habit of it.

Here are just a few ideas:

• Shopping - involve younger children in counting out items, talk about one more, one less, bigger smaller etc. Older children can practice money management, and comparing discounts are a great opportunity for some quite complex mental maths.

• Cooking - always a mathematician's favourite! Perfect for understanding and practising number, measuring, size, shape and time. Fractions can also be introduced in sharing out portions.

• Gardening - most kids love to help out in the garden so it makes a fun and memorable learning opportunity. Counting, measuring, reading temperature, sorting are all easy mathematical activities for younger children. Older children may enjoy planning a gardening project - introducing scale, evenly spacing out seeds, checking temperatures and measuring plants as they grow.

Please view the below documents to see what is expected in each year group.

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