Maths
Our Maths Vision
At Wool CE Primary School, our vision for maths ensures every pupil is given a broad, balanced, engaging and relevant curriculum that takes into account the requirements of the National Curriculum and any other guidance documents.
Every classroom is resourced with the manipulatives that children need to support their learning journey, with a constant reference to these offered on our display boards. The working walls in every classroom share the current learning and the strategies the teacher is using to support the learning objectives for that day or week.
Intent
It is our belief that all children should have:
• a deep understanding of maths and number
• a positive and resilient attitude towards mathematics and an awareness of the fascination of mathematics
• competence and confidence in mathematical knowledge, concepts and skills
• an ability to solve problems, to reason, to think logically and to work systematically and accurately
• a range of learning strategies: working both collaboratively and independently
• fluency in mathematics where children can express ideas confidently and talk about the subject using mathematical language
• an understanding of the importance of mathematics in everyday life
• independent learners who take responsibility for their own learning
Our maths curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:
• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics through placing number at the heart of our curriculum with daily practice to promote automaticity
• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry through ensuring discussion plays a vital role in all lessons. Children are actively encouraged to discuss with peers and teachers. Asking "How? Why?" and using the mathematical language that has been taught and modelled for them
• can solve problems by ensuring problem solving is embedded in every lesson and variation of questions are used to enable children to apply their knowledge to different situations
• rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency are encouraged through variation of questions which can be seen in every lesson and evidenced in the maths books
• challenge is built into every lesson for pupils who grasp concepts rapidly and there are regular opportunities for children to demonstrate their understanding creating their own problems
Implementation
• In school, we follow the national curriculum and use White Rose Schemes of Work as a guide to support teachers with their planning and assessment.
- Pupils are taught maths lessons and these are supplemented through additional, shorter sessions which focus on building number fluency
• To learn mathematics effectively, some things have to be learned before others, e.g. place value needs to be understood before working with addition and subtraction, addition needs to be learnt before looking at multiplication (as a model of repeated addition)
• Our emphasis is on number skills first and these are carefully ordered throughout our primary curriculum
• To ensure there are planned opportunities for children to revisit their learning, teachers allocate time to re-cap and embed learning. This allows for a greater depth of understanding.
- When it comes to maths fluency, it is about choosing the most efficient and accurate method.
Impact
• Children demonstrate a deep understanding of maths. This includes the swift recall of number facts including times tables
• Children display a positive and resilient attitude towards mathematics and an awareness of the fascination of mathematics
• Children show confidence in believing that they will achieve
• Each child strives to achieve objectives (expected standard) for their year group
• The flexibility and fluidity to move between different contexts and representations of maths
• The chance to develop the ability to recognise relationships and make connections in maths lessons
- Be able to quickly use their skills to establish the best way to solve a problem
• Mathematical concepts or skills are mastered when a child can show it in multiple ways, using the mathematical language to explain their ideas, and can independently apply the concept to new problems in unfamiliar situations
Most importantly, maths fluency and automaticity allows learners to understand the relationship between numbers. It means that not only do they get to grips with how they answer something, but they also understand why they’ve reached their answer.