Maths

At Tarporley CE, we strive for all children to develop a thirst and enthusiasm for learning mathematics 'Letting their Light Shine' through our BOOKS approach.

"It was tricky but I worked it out!" KS1 child

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Books Approach

Books are at the heart of everything that we do and within maths this is felt most strongly in the emphasis that we place upon developing children’s knowledge and use of mathematical vocabulary. We will endeavour to make links to the high quality texts that are used across school when they are meaningful and purposeful.

Bravery – teachers are ambitious with their expectations of children and children have the self-belief to take risks and make mistakes as part of their learning journey.

Outward-Facing – maths is studied using real world contexts that children can relate to and is used in other curriculum areas such as map reading in Geography.

Opportunities – every maths lesson provides opportunity to exploration and discovery. Teachers create opportunity to take maths outside the classroom to ensure that leaning is ‘sticky’.

Knowledge and Skills – our maths curriculum ensures that the knowledge and skills are sequenced in a way that children are able to make progress. Vocabulary development is major part of this. Opportunities for high quality practice are planned for to enable children to master the curriculum.

Spirituality – in maths we explore the infinite possibilities of number, the concept of time and the ideas of truth, certainty and likelihood.

Intent

Whilst teaching the National Curriculum, we do not strictly follow one particular scheme of work in terms of materials and rate of coverage. Our curriculum follows First4Maths curriculum overviews and long-term plans to support mapping our curriculum. We also use resources from other sources such as White Rose and the NCETM to support the planning and delivery of sequences of maths lessons. Teachers are able to adapt these resources in order to meet the needs of each class. Small steps for both conceptual and procedural understanding are planned for, giving due consideration to common misconceptions that are likely to occur.

In EYFS and KS1 children follow the Mastering Number programme from the NCETM and children in KS2 begin all maths lessons with an opportunity to review learning and practice mathematical fluency.

Implementation

Children in KS2 are streamed for maths to narrow the spread of needs within mixed aged classes. Teachers use mixed aged curriculum overviews from First4Maths to support them with this and ensure that children are taught all areas of the curriculum.

Teachers are free to extend the time period over which a topic is taught should they feel that a depth of understanding has not been achieved. However, we expect all topics within the National Curriculum to have been covered over the year. Gaps will be identified in a timely manner by class teachers so that they can be addressed through same day intervention.

Children use concrete, pictorial and abstract models for each topic as appropriate to the learning context. Research conducted by the EEF underpins our expectation that both manipulatives and representations will be used in all year groups and abilities to support learning before procedural methods are used. This will allow children to select from a range of strategies for both efficiency and to support success.

Procedural methods for calculation are taught alongside mental methods for fluency and variation. Children will be expected to apply this learning within a range of contexts rather than completing extended procedural practice. Fluency does not equate to speed but to efficient choice of strategy which may well increase speed, particularly when trying to recall times tables.

Mathematical language is developed progressively throughout the year groups and children are exposed to a wide range of vocabulary relevant to areas of maths they learn about. Stem sentences and cloze procedures are used to support children’s understanding and of new mathematical language.

The school is working in partnership with a DfE funded mastery project with a number of other schools involved (North West Maths Hub).

Maths in the Early Years
We ensure progression in mathematical understanding in our reception class. As the class is part of the Foundation Stage of the National Curriculum, we relate the mathematical aspects of the children’s work to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals, which underpin the curriculum planning for children aged three to five. We give all the children ample opportunity to develop their understanding in number, measurement, pattern, shape and space through varied activities that allow them to enjoy, explore, practise and talk confidently about mathematics.

Impact

Children are confident, competent and independent mathematicians
Children enjoy and are enthusiastic about learning about new mathematical concepts through practical activity, exploration and discussion
Children are resilient and see mistakes as part of the learning process
Every child and adult believes that all children can succeed in maths regardless of barriers to learning
Children have a secure understanding of number and the number system which enables them to be fluent with mathematical operations.
Children know and understand a wide range of mathematical vocabulary which they use when reasoning
Children are able to confidently solve problems in all areas of maths
Children understand the importance of mathematics in everyday life