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Mathematics

      

 

At St. Oswald’s C of E Primary School, mathematics is a fundamental part of each day. We believe that maths teaches us to make sense of the world around us and it is integral to all aspects of our lives.  We aim to provide children with the skills to calculate, recall facts fluently, communicate effectively, reason and solve problems. This enables children to create, explore, understand and explain patterns and relationships in numbers in their everyday life.  We wish to promote an enjoyment and a love of maths, success, develop children’s curiosity and develop a ‘can do’ positive attitude so that they leave us as confident mathematicians. We believe that learning mathematical concepts and skills are a very important aspect of maths but that they need to be taught in purposeful and meaningful contexts which make cross curricular links with other subject areas and real-life situations where applicable as we are committed to ensure that children are able to recognise the importance of maths in the wider world. We expect all children to succeed and make progress from their starting points.

      

INTENT

We teach the programme of study that meets the requirements of the National Curriculum 2014. By using the White Rose Scheme of work, we believe all children can achieve in mathematics; we teach for secure and deep understanding of mathematical concepts through the teaching of maths topics in blocks, delivered in small manageable steps. The majority of children in our school are taught the maths objectives from their year group only, so they can be secure in their subject content allowing them to apply, reason and solve problems in multiple ways in order to work at greater depth. We aim to promote our pupils to be confident, resilient, competent and independent learners in maths and aspire to provide opportunities for them to challenge themselves and develop communication and co-operation skills when solving problems. Taking ownership of their learning, discussing, reasoning and trying other methods will equip children with the necessary skills to support them in their adult life. We offer progression within fluency, reasoning and problem solving and aim for all children to be able to apply their mathematical knowledge and skills in purposeful ways, supporting them into their adult life.

It is our intention that our learners become fluent and confident in the facts and methods they most frequently need in order to become successful.  Mental fluency is an integral part of maths teaching throughout our school so our children become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics enabling them to recall (with some automaticity) and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately: Additive facts to 5 in EYFS, additive facts, number bonds/facts to 20 in Key Stage 1 and multiplicative facts and mental calculations in Key Stage 2.

We wish for all children to be able to solve problems by applying their mathematics to various problems, including unfamiliar and real life contexts. We aspire that all children will reason mathematically following lines of enquiries, enabling them to use mental calculations and written procedures to be performed efficiently, fluently and accurately in order to be successful in mathematics. These skills of fluency, reasoning and solving problems are embedded within Maths lessons and developed over time.

IMPLEMENTATION

Planning and teaching is directly linked to the National Curriculum Programmes of Study 2014 in Years 1-6, and the Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage. Fluency, concepts, reasoning and problem solving are taught daily during mathematics lessons which revisit and build on prior learning, make connections and use real life contexts where appropriate.

In order to ensure whole school consistency and progression, at St. Oswald’s we teach maths in Key Stage 1 and 2 by following the nationally recognised White Rose Scheme. The White Rose Scheme of work is a cumulative curriculum, so once a topic is covered, it will be met many times again in different contexts. White Rose teaches mathematical concepts in blocks, that are progressive, through small steps.

Maths lessons are taught for approximately one hour each day. They are planned to provide plenty of opportunities to build fluency, reasoning and problem solving elements into our curriculum. Although White Rose supports a mastery approach, we follow a differentiated approach where each small step objective is pitched accordingly to pupil’s needs. Our children build on their understanding of concepts and procedures using a CPA approach. When introducing a new concept, children have the opportunity to use concrete objects and manipulatives, alongside pictorial representations to help their conceptual understanding and develop ways of recording before moving onto abstract methods. All calculations are in line with the calculations policy.

Maths topics are taught in blocks, to enable children to grasp and understand concepts over time. The teaching topic blocks are broken down into small steps to help children to build and understand concepts better allowing time for practise, reasoning and problem solving.

In addition to White Rose, we have a maths calculation policy that teaches the progressive methods of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We recognise that no one scheme fulfils all the requirements for pupils’ success so we supplement White Rose with other resources.

Before the start of a new maths topic, a pre-assessment is completed for teaching staff to identify gaps in learning and to target differentiated work appropriately. This informs teacher planning of objectives to ensure pupils are taught at the correct level during the lesson and are challenged accordingly. Children are assessed at the end of the maths topic to assess attainment and progression and to identify pupils that need intervention and further support in specific maths areas.

Teachers have the flexibility to seat their children in mixed ability or by ability groups according to what they think will suit the needs of the children best. We ensure there are opportunities to revisit and revise prior learning in every lesson. A typical lesson will include the following elements: correcting errors in books and sharing the learning objective linking with the new learning objective – revising previous learning and misconceptions linked to reasoning and problem solving, oral work and mental calculations, main teaching input (mixture of fluency, reasoning and problem solving), partner work, independent work and a plenary. All levels of ability have challenges to stretch and apply their thinking.

There are opportunities outside of the main lesson for children to practise their fluency facts. Year 2-6 complete Times Table Rockstars and Maths Frame daily to work on their times tables and division facts. Years 3-6 complete on Doodle Maths daily, which is an individualised learning programme which reinforces recently learned concepts. EYFS practise additive facts to 5, additive facts, number bonds/facts to 20 in Key Stage 1 and multiplicative facts and mental calculations in Key Stage 2.

IMPACT

By implementing the maths intent, our children should leave primary school being confident and proficient in:

  • being fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics so that they have good understanding of concepts and the ability to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately
  • reason mathematically and develop justifications using mathematical language
  • solve problems by applying their knowledge and skills
  • be efficient in mental and written procedures, fluent and accurate in maths

Assessment is completed before and after a maths topic is taught. Headstart Assessments are used for teachers to inform children’s independent work judging them as working below year group expectations, commenting, emerging, expected and exceeding within their year group. At the end of the Autumn, Spring and Summer Terms, teachers administer the White Rose End of term assessments to assess the maths content that has been taught in order to identify pupil’s target areas and interventions.

Teachers hold parent interviews in October and February to discuss children’s progress and attainment. Parents also receive a written progress report in December and April, the final end of year report is handed out in July.

The maths lead is responsible for ensuring progression and continuity of maths across the whole school. This is carred out by book scrutinies, learning walks, moderation, tracking and analysing data and pupil voice. Pupil progress meetings are held with each class teacher and SLT. Data is entered into the school’s tracking system ‘iTrack’ termly. This information is used by SLT and the maths lead to track the attainment and progress of all year groups; to  amend intervention groups and ensure those children who are not working at age related expectations are provided with support.

At St. Oswald’s we aim to develop pupil’s growth mindset to ensure pupils who think they are not good at maths or are not naturally good, do perform well and make progress in relation to their starting points. By offering reasoning and problem solving tasks/challenges near to the start of lessons, this ensures that all children are accessing some challenge within maths and pitching work at the correct level will also help to build self esteem and a positive mindset.

Regular and ongoing assessment (in the form of summative and formative methods ) informs teaching and planning, as well as interventions, to enable every child succeeds. We do not believe the mastery approach is right for our pupils as children do not all progress at the same rate. Differentiated work, assessment and intervention help to ensure children attain well and make progress within maths.

When our children leave St. Oswald’s, we expect them to be fluent in the fundamentals of maths which can be applied in various ways for them to reason and problem solve at secondary school and in various contexts in the real

Math’s Scheme of Work

In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 we follow the White Rose primary scheme of learning, which is supplemented with Maths No Problem, Target Maths and Classroom Secrets. Children are encouraged to work with math’s partners and independently in most lessons with a strong emphasis on  reasoning and problem solving, as well as fluency. The link below shows what math’s topics and objectives are taught in each year group and each half term.

Maths Policy

Our Maths policy outlines how we deliver, monitor and assess mathematics across school.  If you would like to read the policy, please see the attachment at the bottom of this page.  

It is very important that children understand and use the correct mathematical vocabulary. Click on the link to see what new maths vocabulary your child will meet in each year group.

Mathematical Vocabulary

Glossary of mathematical terms – click here to find the definition of maths words that are not familiar to you

Calculation Policy

We have a school calculation Policy which is followed throughout the school by all members of staff. It is available to download here.

Fun Maths Resources

There are lots of fun maths resources available online for children. These can be accessed using the links below.

Download the ‘White Rose 1 minute maths app’

 

  1. St Oswalds C Of E Primary School Maths Policy 2024
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