Mathematics
We believe that every child is a mathematician. Our curriculum focuses on developing fluency and reasoning, and teaching children how to problem solve. Children have daily practice of key arithmetic skills in our Masters at Arithmetic ten minute sessions. These encourage children to recall and apply key procedures which will enable accuracy and success during more challenging problems they will encounter in their maths lessons.
In our maths lessons, children focus on one single objective for which our is aim is that all children achieve mastery. Lessons are carefully structured to ensure understanding builds on children’s starting points. Maths can often include some challenging, abstract concepts so lessons use different concrete and pictorial representations to underpin children’s learning. Across school, children are able to use resources such as Numicon, Base 10 blocks, and Cuisenaire rods whilst they are developing their understanding in lessons. Teachers model how to complete mathematical procedures and how to reason mathematically. Following the teacher’s instruction, children have ample practice before applying these skills independently. In each lesson, children encounter challenging reasoning and problem solving activities which deepen their understanding of the lesson objective. Teachers intervene daily for any child who doesn’t achieve mastery during the lesson, so that no children fall behind.
Our aim is to build children’s confidence with Maths and so our curriculum contains many low-stakes activities where children can recall and practise their learning. Each week, we have a Masters at Arithmetic Quiz and a Problem Solving Quiz, which build children’s fluency and resilience. We also place a great emphasis on children being able to recall key facts such as number bonds and times tables. We expect all children to be able to answer any times table fact up to 12 x 12 by the end of Year 4. We use Times Table Rockstars for children to develop their fluency, and children love to beat their teachers’ speeds!
Every Friday, teachers explicitly demonstrate how to problem solve so that children can develop the skills and resilience they need to apply when faced with challenging problems. Teachers model the different strategies that we expect children to apply, such as working systematically, using trial and error, seeking patterns, or using bar modelling to represent problems in different ways. We use ‘Reasoning RALF’ as a guide so that children can easily remember the skills they can apply when problem solving.
Find Out More
Please contact school if you would like to find out more information about our maths curriculum.
