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Maths

Vision

At Broad Oak our vision for Mathematics is to create a positive and engaging learning environment that promotes mathematical thinking, the ability to reason and problem solve and a deep understanding of mathematical concepts. Through hands-on exploration, collaborative problem-solving and real-life connections we encourage children to foster a ‘You can do it’ attitude that encourages them to persevere, take risks and celebrate their mathematical successes. Through a mastery approach, we aim to promote a deeper understanding of mathematics, encouraging children to think critically and apply their knowledge in different contexts; empowering children to think mathematically, make connections, and become confident, independent learners. All children will celebrate their individual successes and be clear of their next steps to make progress especially those with SEND.

Subject Leader

Miss C Brown

Intent

Our Broad Oak Community our mathematics provision aims to nurture all children’s mathematical curiosity, critical thinking and their ability to problem solve. We use a variety of teaching methods and resources to ensure children experience maths success and enjoyment throughout their lives. We ensure that the three main aims of the National curriculum - fluency, reasoning and problem solving - are intertwined through each unit of work linked to every strand of Mathematics. Our lesson structure supports children in thinking mathematically, working independently and developing their mathematical vocabulary to enable them to explain mathematical concepts in depth. By adopting a ‘Mastery approach’, it is also intended that all children, regardless of their starting point, will reach their potential and leave Broad Oak Community Primary School as confident and resilient mathematicians.

Mastering maths means acquiring a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. At any one point in a pupil’s journey through school, achieving mastery is taken to mean acquiring a solid enough understanding of the maths that’s been taught to enable him/her move on to more advanced material.’ NCETM 2016

The National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all children:

Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that children have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately.
Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

We believe in fostering a deep understanding of mathematical concepts through a concrete-pictorial-abstract approach (based on the research of Jerome Bruner). Concrete resources are used from Nursery to Year 6 to provide hands-on learning experiences to help develop understanding, which are then used alongside pictoral representations to help the children make connections with their mathematical learning before they move to more abstract representations. Our six part lesson structure is designed to ensure children believe they can achieve and are able to enjoy learning maths.

We believe that a high-quality mathematics education is essential. Our curriculum is designed so that children become fluent mathematicians through quick and efficient recall of facts and procedures and the flexibility to move between different contexts and representations of maths. Variation is introduced gradually over a sequence of lessons to ensure children are confident to represent new concepts in different ways. They can then apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects. Our curriculum is designed to develop confident mathematicians who are not afraid to take risks and who are mathematically curious and continually seek to improve.

Implementation

We implement our approach through quality first teaching and the delivery of suitably pitched work for all abilities, supported by materials from Ark Maths mastery. This scheme of learning is designed to support a mastery approach to teaching and learning, as well as to support the aims and objectives of the National Curriculum. Alongside this we refer to the NCETM, Nrich, Testbase and an external maths consultant to ensure the children have a broad and balanced curriculum. Embedded throughout all lessons are the principles of mastery. Our Long-Term Plans and Medium-Term Plans allow for small steps of progression throughout the year and are designed to ensure that the children have a deep understanding of mathematical concepts.

Ark Mastery

Daily Lessons

Typically, pupils in EYFS access their maths learning through daily lessons and continuous provision.
In KS1 Maths lessons are taught daily for approximately forty-five minutes. In KS2 Maths lessons are taught daily for approximately one hour. In addition to our 'main maths lesson', children from Year 1 to 6 also have an additional maths session aimed to reinforce and consolidate previous learning; increase fluency, speed and accuracy; and improve confidence.
Pupils in Year R-3 access a daily ‘Maths Meeting’ session, in KS1 about 10 minutes long and in KS2 about 15 minutes long.
In Year 4-6, children have daily ‘5 in 5' sessions, each about 15 minutes long. Children practice arithmetic skills with a focus on making efficient choices, to ‘calculate mentally’, use ‘jottings’ or ‘use a formal written method’. Incorporated into every session is recall of key facts from all stands of the NC including shape, space and measure.

At Broad Oak Community Primary vocabulary is an integral part of all of our maths lessons. We introduce, explicitly teach and revisit key mathematical vocabulary in every lesson through our ‘Star Words’, ensuring our pupils develop a deep understanding of age appropriate mathematical vocabulary, allowing them to confidently use it in their mathematical explanations and reasoning.

Assessment

Formative assessment within every lesson helps teachers to identify the children who need more support to achieve the intended outcome and who are ready for greater stretch and challenge through planned questioning or additional activities.
Termly Assessments – From Year 1 to 5 our children are currently assessed using NFER termly assessments, while children in Year 6 are assessed half-termly using past KS2 SATs papers. These assessments are used to help inform our teaching and learning, to inform interventions and are discussed during our termly Pupil Progress Meetings.

We judge that a mathematical concept or aspect of procedural knowledge 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.

Impact

By the end of KS2 we aim for children to be fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics with a conceptual understanding and the ability to apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. They should have the skills to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a wide variety of situations with increasing sophistication, including real-life contexts. Children will be able to reason mathematically, explaining their thinking using age-appropriate mathematical language confidently.

Take a look at our learning from EYFS to Year 6

Nursery

Reception

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Maths Rockstars

We promote regular access to ‘Numbots’, ‘TT Rockstars’ and ‘Mathsframe’ within school and at home to enable our children to practise basic numbers facts including multiplication and division knowledge.

Through the use of our ‘Rockstar passports’ children progress through the multiplication tables in stages incorporating their ability to skip count, to recall facts in and out of sequence and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding using the mock MTC to achieve Rockstar status.