Loxley C of E Community Primary School

"If you can't explain it simply, you do not understand it well enough."

Albert Einstein

Intent

Mathematics is a vital part of everyday life: it teaches children to make sense of the world around them. At Loxley, our intent for Mathematics is to provide children with a foundation for understanding number, reasoning, thinking logically and problem solving with resilience so that they are fully prepared for the future. By adopting a mastery approach, we recognise that by nurturing positive attitudes and building confidence in Mathematics, all children can achieve, regardless of their starting point. Through their time at Loxley, children will build on skills from previous years as well as focused objectives from their own year group. We intend that all children leave Loxley CE Community Primary School with an appreciation, enthusiasm, and curiosity for Maths, resulting in a lifelong positive relationship with number.

Implementation

Our Mathematics teaching places an emphasis on a mastery approach through combining fluency, reasoning, and problem-solving activities. By teaching subject specific vocabulary and exploring real life contexts, children’s understanding is further developed. Mathematics lessons at Loxley are engaging and well-resourced using a range of appropriate materials.

Subject specific vocabulary is identified and rehearsed with the children; enabling them to access a range of fluency, reasoning, and problem-solving tasks. Each strand is then broken down into a series of small steps which are sequenced together to best suit the progression of the children within each class.

Teachers use a variety of strategies and resources to enable all children to achieve the objectives for their year group. These include, but are not strictly limited to:

Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract Learning

All children, when introduced to a new topic, are given the opportunity to use a range of physical resources and pictorial representations of the mathematical concepts being taught before moving onto the more abstract ideas such as numbers and symbols.

Fluency, Reasoning and Problem Solving

Each learning session includes the opportunity for children to develop their procedural fluency skills by practising the key concepts as well as explore deeper understanding through a range of reasoning and problem-solving activities.

Interleaved Learning

After a concept has been taught, opportunities are found to revisit prior learning on a regular basis. Tough Ten sheets allow children to recall and rehearse previously taught concepts, so they are further embedded into their long-term memory.

Key Skill Lessons

Key-Skills Lessons are taught on a weekly basis. The focus of these lessons is all children achieving mastery of a key-skill through practising a range of procedural fluency. Regular and brief baselines assessments are used to identify when pupils have achieved mastery of the objective.

Assessment

Through a range of assessment tools – verbal, written, self/peer – target groups of pupils are identified, and a sequence of lessons is built around this. Pupils identified as needing accelerated progress are picked up in a consistent set of interventions used to enable pupils to progress through a clear set of key-skills in order of importance. This can enable teachers to provide teaching to pupils that picks up on objectives and learning not necessarily within their year group objectives.

Early Years

In Early Years, mathematics is valued and promoted through daily direct teaching and purposeful learning opportunities across all subjects and all areas of provision. We follow the White Rose Scheme and focus on mastery of early number. We develop fluent mathematicians who have a deep conceptual understanding of number. We ensure that they are able to provide explanations, give reasons for their answers and tackle future challenges by:

Providing opportunities for children to practise, rehearse and apply mathematical knowledge and skills
Encouraging children to investigate numbers by exploring their characteristics and patterns, understanding how they can be manipulated using different operations
Encouraging them to think logically so that they can make connections and solve problems
Fostering children’s acquisition and use of mathematical vocabulary to justify and explain their ideas.

We deliver our maths curriculum based on planning from the White Rose Hub materials, supplemented by resources from NCETM and NRICH.

Staff take part in training opportunities from the local Maths Hub and work together within school to cascade new practices.

Children from year 1 – year 6 complete the NFER (or statutory equivalent) maths tests termly to monitor progress and assess the children against age related expectations. Staff use the NFER tests to identify children who need additional support.

Children in Year 5 enjoy the opportunity to take part in Maths Quizzes run by local secondary schools and Year 5 and 6 enjoy taking part in the annual Primary Maths Challenge.

Impact

We plan to see the following statements met through our teaching of Maths at Loxley CE Community Primary School:

A mathematical concept or skill has been 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.
Children are confident that they can achieve and are keen to attempt a range of problems; showing an ability to move between different mathematical concepts.
Children can demonstrate a quick recall of facts and procedures including recollection of times tables.
Children are articulate with their reasoning and explanations of mathematical concepts using the appropriate vocabulary.
Children make connections between mathematical concepts.
Children are resilient and independent learners who apply their understanding to a range of increasingly complex problems.
Children take pride in their Mathematics and keen to discuss their learning.

Children’s knowledge and skills develop progressively as they move through the school and are assessed and reported to parents in the end of year report.

Assessments undertaken throughout the year for maths include: