Mathematics is essential to everyday life: in order to unlock our true potential we need to build successful learners and a productive classroom culture. The national curriculum for Mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of Maths, can reason, and also solve problems through their knowledge, skills and understanding. At Allerton Bywater Primary School, these are woven into all of our sequences of Maths lessons and are developed consistently over time, within all age groups. Using the White Rose Scheme of Learning, teachers plan sequences of lessons that replicate the ‘small-steps’ through a unit, ensuring learning is built on a platform of what students already know to ensure long-term learning.
Maths is taught daily in all year groups by class teachers. Lessons consist of 5 x 1 hour sessions through the week. Teachers use a model of “I / We/ You do” to model learning to pupils with guidance fading to increase the independence of pupils over time. Time is given for pupils to engage in independent practice to embed and reinforce learning until it is fluent and secure.Our children are challenged to use and apply their existing mathematical skills and knowledge in order to solve a variety of problems in different contexts. At all ages, children are taught to not just simply ‘find’ an answer: mathematical vocabulary is specifically taught to support reasoning and application to a variety of contexts; to show proof; and to explain their strategy (APE).
Assessment
Targeted feedback and assessment for learning is used to expose students’ thinking and guide learning and inform the direction of learning for individual pupils within lessons. For example: pre-assessment tasks, live-marking, fluid groupings, talk to your partner (TTYP) and application of learning challenges. This information is used to support what teachers need to repeat, what to elaborate and when to move on. Through these, both children and adults are able to recognise the progress being made.
Our school has a range of concrete resources to support the teaching and learning of Maths across the school. When teaching a new Maths concept, teachers carefully select the manipulatives and representations as per our calculation policy. Teachers model how to use these concrete resources to explore and expose concepts as well address any misconceptions. The manipulatives provide support and also extend learning for all children by providing proof of an answer within mathematical explanations.
Each classroom has a Mathematics working wall that includes a mixture of generic, age-appropriate display material which is relevant all year round, and display material which reflects current Maths teaching and learning, such as specific mathematical vocabulary; modelled layout of learning; and concrete, pictorial and abstract approaches on the Working Wall.
Regular summative assessments take place through end of unit assessments (low-stakes testing) as well as rising stars / PUMA tests at the end of each assessment cycle (three times per year). Information from this testing is used to inform what needs to be addressed in future learning.
In addition to daily lessons, all children complete ‘fluent in five’ sessions daily in order to develop, overlearn and consolidate their arithmetic skills. Children in EYFS and KS1 also follow the Mastering Number program which builds confidence and flexibility in number, to be fluent in calculation.
At ABPS, children are encouraged to access TTRS and Numbots from home. TTRS and Numbots are fun ways that the children can practise recall of key facts, which helps prevent cognitive overload in lesson time.
For more information on our Mathematics curriculum, please speak to Mr Allinson or Mrs Fenna.
