Emscote Infant School
and
All Saints' C of E Junior School
Maths
Curriculum statement - Mathematics Vision
Intent
‘Every child is a mathematician’
Our aim at All Saints’ is for all children to enjoy mathematics. We want to help them develop a secure and deep understanding of fundamental mathematical concepts and procedures so that when they leave us to transition to secondary school they are well prepared for the next step in their learning. We want children to see the mathematics that surrounds them every day and enjoy developing vital life skills in this subject.
Our aim is for all children to think mathematically, enabling them to reason and solve problems in a range of contexts across all areas of the curriculum.
At All Saints’, our Mathematics Mastery curriculum is being developed to ensure every child can achieve excellence in mathematics. Children can experience a sense of awe and wonder as they solve a problem for the first time, discover different solutions and make links between different concepts
Providing pupils with a deep understanding of the concept through a concrete, pictorial and abstract approach helps ensure pupils fully understand what they are learning.
Key features of our Maths Mastery curriculum:
- High expectations for every child
- Fewer topics, greater depth
- The answer is just the beginning – focus on mathematical thinking, language and reasoning
- Concrete, pictorial and abstract resources that are progressive to support learning
- Calculate with confidence – understand why it works and make links.
The National Curriculum is delivered through the use of Rising Stars, which is based on a Mastery scheme of work. Rising Stars identify the objectives for each topic block which are derived directly from National Curriculum. The objectives in each block are broken down in to a series of carefully planned small steps.
Staff development
Our implementation is developed through secure understanding of the curriculum and subject area. Previous DfE funding enabled us to engage and embed a whole school approach with intensive staff training. The maths team continue to provide a bespoke training programme to develop high quality practice following monitoring activities.
- These include in house service training (INSET) delivered by the Maths leads and Maths Hub Accredited Schools.
- Coaching and mentoring (formal and informal support)
- Training courses where appropriate
- Observing outstanding practice in schools through links with our local Maths Hub
- The Rising Stars scheme allows teachers to update their own professional development with a series of CPD videos around a range of maths topics
- The school has also invested in the National College which allows teachers to update their own CPD or watch training directed by the SLT
The maths lead receives regular CPD opportunities through the Gateway alliance and our active Consortium training. This is then disseminated to staff through Inset opportunities.
Resources
Planning is supported by the use of Rising Stars. Teachers are also able to use White Rose, National Centre of Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), NRICH and a range of resources provided by the Maths leads.
The Mastery Approach incorporates the use of Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract methods (CPA approach). This helps children explore and demonstrate mathematical ideas, enriching their learning experience and deepening their understanding.
Teachers adapt the lessons to fit to the objectives they have planned using resources throughout the school.
Role of the Subject Leader:
- Ensures teachers understand the requirements of the National Curriculum and supports them to plan lessons.
- Leads by example by setting high standards in their own teaching.
- Leads the whole-school monitoring and evaluation of teaching and learning in mathematics by observing teaching and learning in mathematics regularly; analysing assessment data in order to plan whole school improvement in mathematics; conducting work scrutiny to inform evaluation of progress; conducting pupil interviews.
- Takes responsibility for managing own professional development by participating in external training, engaging in educational research and keeping up-to-date with Teaching for Mastery developments.
- Keeps parents informed about mathematics issues.
- Ensures that the school’s senior leaders and governors are kept informed about the quality of teaching and learning in mathematics.
- Works in close partnership with the school’s senior leaders to ensure the learning needs of all pupils in mathematics are met effectively.
- Keeps the school’s policy for mathematics under regular review.
Assessment
- Formative assessment is embedded in every lesson using a variety of strategies including observation, questioning, outcomes and challenge. Teachers and TA’s use these to inform future planning and identify gaps in learning.
- Summative assessment takes place at the end of each term or sometimes after a topic of work to monitor and track progress of pupils alongside teacher assessment. Teachers record this on an online assessment system which senior leaders can access in order to track progress from individual children to the whole school.
Monitoring
The maths curriculum is monitored through a range of methods, which includes:
- Book and planning scrutiny
- Learning walks
- Pupil voice
- Pupil progress meetings where identified groups of pupils are targeted
Moderation
Moderation takes place in school and also in locally arranged events with other schools within our consortium.
Work-life balance
Teaching staff only have to produce purposeful resources that will impact on the teaching and learning in the classroom and they are signposted to resources to supplement their lessons.
Using a scheme allows our staff to adapt to the needs of the children enabling them more time to produce valuable resources and reducing workload. It contains opportunities for Talk for Maths and has CPD videos to support staff development and confidence.
Our marking policy has been adapted to help staff reduce their workload but still provide relevant and targeted feedback to those children who need it
To understand the link between decimals, percentages, fractions and equivalents
Year 6 did an active maths lesson, where the children worked in teams to collect individual cards from the other side of the playground and bring them back to their team. The team then had to organise them whilst taking it in turns to collect all the cards.
They were all successfully able to organise the cards and their equivalents however this was not done in a sequential order so we completed the race again. The second time the children had to order the amounts from smallest to greatest and ensure each set was aligned. They really enjoyed this activity and it really helped develop their understanding of equivalents.
Hidden Calculations- Active Maths
After expanding on their skills when completing formal written methods, the children were challenged to find 20 different calculations hidden around the year 5 area. Once they found them, they had to complete the calculations and get their partner to check it before moving onto the next question (these could be completed in any order). These calculations involved addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They included up to 5 digits, decimal places, money, weight and length.
Active Maths Relay Challenge- Ordering Numbers
In groups or 5 or 6, the children worked together to each collect a number card from the other side of the hall. Once they had taken their card back to their group, the rest of them then had to put them in ascending order. We talked about the words ascending and descending and practiced ordering up to three decimal places in both ways. The children worked really enjoyed this challenge and worked really well in their groups to order their decimals.
The children worked in groups of six to try to be the first team to complete the number sentence challenge. They took it in turns to walk to the other side of the hall with a bean bag on their heads. When they reached the other side, they had to choose a card from the tub which would either contain a number or an operation. Once they had taken the card back to their group, the next person could then collect another card to add to their set. As they gained more cards, they had to figure out what number sentences they could make. This involved a lot of rearranging and working as a team.
We talked about the word ‘commutative’ and that although all teams were given the same numbers, they did not necessarily make the same calculations because addition and multiplication are commutative.
They all worked really hard on this activity and Mrs Davies was very impressed with their team work and problem solving skills.
