Maths

Intent

Here at Lickhill Primary School, we aim to inspire all children to reach their full academic potential through achievement and developing life long skills. In mathematics this means utilising a rich curriculum that is fully inclusive of all children which:

Develops children’s knowledge and understanding of mathematical concepts whilst enabling them to practice and hone skills and methods;
Enables them to think critically and communicate their understanding articulately ;
Gives them opportunities to apply learnt mathematical skills in different contexts across the curriculum.
Provides opportunities to develop problem solving skills useful for maths and across the curriculum.

Aims and Objectives

Aim

Our school vision and aim for all children to is to be prepared for years beyond Primary School and we focus on equipping children with this by providing a broad, balanced and rich maths curriculum. As a result of their learning in mathematics and problem solving across the curriculum children will:

Be prepared for applying their skills effectively in everyday life situations, in their future learning and in the work place.
Have the building blocks in place and to provide a solid foundation to lead onto secondary, further and higher education.
Demonstrate excellent learning behaviours and adopt a soild growth mind set.

Through our Teaching for Mastery approach, children will learn to understand, distill and clarify information; consider what they know that will help them to solve problems, realising what they need to know next; create systems and strategies, organizing information in a way that helps find patterns and ultimately solutions and to communicate and present their findings effectively. Mastery learning approaches aim to ensure that all pupils have mastered key concepts before moving on to the next topic – in contrast with traditional teaching methods in which pupils may be left behind, with gaps of misunderstanding widening.

This ensures students will have attained a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject.

Strategies/Implementation

Implementation: We teach the National Curriculum in Maths which ensures a progressive introduction to age-appropriate strategies for calculating. Teachers use "Can Do Maths" materials as resources to drive the curriculum along with their improving experitse in delivering Teaching for Mastery. Can Do Maths utilises and supports the principles upon which Teaching for Mastery is based.

Our children will:

• Begin their mathematical journey in the Early Years where they will develop their knowledge, understanding and confidence with number, shape, space pattern and measure.

• Have enabling environments that allow them to practise and hone skills.

• Become fluent in times table recall.

• Develop the reasoning and oracy skills needed to build on or challenge other people’s ideas.

• Learn to think creatively and make links between mathematical concepts through the exploration of shape, space, measure and patterns within the number system.

• Progressively build on their understanding in a logical and methodical way.

• Concentrate on their thinking as well as doing.

Teaching

Children are encouraged at all times to communicate their understanding of maths so that it clarifies their thoughts.

Children’s mental maths is of great importance, with number bonds, times tables facts and various strategies for calculation taught and practiced at school with support sought from parents through homework activities.

A progression towards efficient written calculations should be developed and applied consistently in each year-group.
Class targets should be used to ensure areas where the majority of the class have not grasped a concept can be revisited and mastered.
We have adopted a Teaching for Mastery Approach whereby all new concepts are taught practically regardless of age and stage in Lickhill. This encompasses the 5 Big ideas; Coherence, Representation and Structure, Variation, Mathematical Thinking and Fluency while utilising STEM sentences to support mathematical thinking.
Teaching for Mastery supports all children understand mathematical concepts involve the CPD approach (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract). All children have the opportunity to absorb and reflect on new mathematical concepts and time to make links and discover. The steps in learning are smaller and the focus of what we want children to understand is succinct and explicit. This steadier pace enables opportunities for children to be increasingly mathematically observant.
Though the nature of lessons will be very different depending on the needs of the class, children should be: active; practicing skills they haven’t yet mastered (perhaps recapping on class targets); learning something new OR learning to apply their knowledge to different contexts. The lessons design involves addressing smaller cognitive learning chunks which enables children to spend more time actively learning.

Daily fluency sessions

From year Reception to Year 2 we follow the Mastering Number provided by NCETM programme and interventions while

Year 3- 6 use the "Fluent in 5" approach from Whiterose have daily fluency sessions

Assessment

In order to have a complete picture of each child as a mathematician, we use a range of assessment tools to support teachers effectively:

PiXL assessments are used to gain an understanding of a child’s Maths skills in terms of ARE. Gap analysis is used to support Maths lessons so that planning is matched appropriately to the needs of the children and interventions are bespoke and timely.

Pre learning tasks.

Observations and assessment for learning.

EYFS

In the Foundation Stage, children are given the opportunity to develop their understanding of number, measurement, pattern and shape and space through a combination of short, formal teaching as well as a range of planned structured play situations, where there is plenty of scope for exploration. Children flourish here at Lickhill through enticing learning opportunities, continuous provision, song, rhyme and play.

Children will become very competent ‘counters’ so that their fluency with the number system provides a foundation for mathematical understanding. Counting forwards and backwards in many different sized steps as well as from different starting and ending points is essential.
Maths learning builds from a concrete understanding of concepts where children are manipulating objects. When children are able to see concepts this way, they then need to understand the same concepts represented pictorially. Children are then ready for abstract representation before being able to apply their knowledge to different situations.

Equal opportunities and SEND

At Lickhill, we aim to provide children who are not making good progress, with extra support through interventions. Interventions in maths should be based on developing key number skills that are appropriate for the children involved (eg, Number stacks/Mastering Number).

Intervention provided to boost children’s progression in maths should be tightly planned, with success criteria set and assessments made frequently to ensure progress is being made. Whilst interventions could be carried out by Achievement Assistants, for example, what is being taught and how it is delivered is the class teacher’s responsibility and communication is essential. Teacher meetings with AAs are planned as regularly as is possible.

We examine and track the progress of ability groups and those with English as an additional language, those entitled to the Pupil Premium and those with a Special Educational Need or who are at a disadvantage. Where data indicates a whole school issue, it will form part of a whole school initiative which runs alongside the School Development Plan. Sometimes it will influence the School Development Plan itself.

Monitoring:

The Maths Subject Lead is responsible for monitoring the delivery, content, learning and impact of the curriculum.

Monitoring of children’s progress begins with Termly Pupil progress review meetings following our Phase Reviews and Pupil Book Study to ensure children are making progress. This monitoring happens through examination of work in books, analysis of assessment results and the assessments used, and through other means depending on what is information needs to be gleaned. This approach provides a robust triangulation of data, progress and developmental areas to target.

Following monitoring activities, such as learning walks and Phase Reviews, feedback is given to staff about how they can strengthen their practice and CPD (professional development) opportunities built in where it would be deemed valuable. These might take the shape of inputs during staff meetings or by a variety of other means.

Where specific initiatives have been put in place through action planning for school development, these are monitored by the Curriculum Maths team in order to evaluate their impact. Findings are reported to the Assistant Principle (SENDCo & Maths Lead).

The Maths Lead is a trained Primary Maths Specialist and will frequently offer regular CPD opportunities for staff.

The success of interventions is also monitored by the SLT and this informs future planning of interventions and areas for development.