• King Edward Primary School
  • Maths
  • Written:2018

Mathematics is a tool for everyday life. It is a whole network of concepts and relationships which provide a way of viewing and making sense of the world. It is used to analyse and communicate information and ideas and to tackle a range of practical tasks and real life problems. It also provides the materials and means for creating new imaginative worlds to explore.

Maths at King Edward

At King Edward Primary School we follow the mastery approach for maths.

Teaching through a mastery approach exposes all of the children to the same curriculum content at the same pace. It allows them all to focus on developing deep understanding and secure fluency with mathematical facts and procedures. Differentiation is provided by offering rapid support and intervention to address each individual pupil’s needs.

The key principles for our mastery approach are

  • Teachers reinforce an expectation that all pupils are capable of achieving high standards in mathematics.
  • The large majority of pupils progress through the curriculum content at the same pace. Differentiation is achieved by emphasising deep knowledge and through individual support and intervention.
  • Children are articulate in explaining and justifying their thinking when answering questions.
  • Children have opportunities and are taught to work both collaboratively and independently

It is our aim to develop:

  • Conceptual understanding – models, images and resources remain key to securing understanding and fluency . Varied and frequent practice;
  • Mathematical reasoning – focused mathematical talk central to maths lessons;
  • Problem solving – pupils 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!

What is Mathematical Reasoning?

Mathematical reasoning is the critical skill that enables a student to make use of all mathematical skills. With the development of mathematical reasoning, students recognise that mathematics makes sense and can be understood.

Research by Nunes (2009) identified the ability to reason mathematically as the most important factor in a pupil’s success in mathematics. It is therefore crucial that opportunities to develop mathematical reasoning skills are integrated fully into the curriculum.

At King Edward Primary School we plan opportunities for problem solving and mathematical reasoning into every maths lesson. The children work through these problems either independently, with a partner or in a small group. The groups are of mixed ability which gives the children the opportunity to discuss and clarify their thinking. This mixed ability approach to grouping is providing support for all children, including those identified as having significant mathematical weakness and the mathematically able children. The benefits to this approach are outlined below;

For the children identified as ‘mathematically weak’:

  1. Being challenged (at a level appropriate to the individual) is a vital part of learning. With low challenge, children can get used to not thinking hard about ideas and persevering to achieve success.
  2. They are aware that they are being given less-demanding tasks, and this helps to fix them in a negative ‘I’m no good at maths’ mindset that will blight their mathematical futures.
  3. Because they are missing out on some of the curriculum, their access to the knowledge and understanding they need to make progress is restricted, so they get further and further behind, which reinforces their negative view of maths and their sense of exclusion.

For the children identified as ‘mathematically able’:

I think it’s the same point here as above.

  1. Being identified as ‘able’ can limit pupils’ future progress by making them unwilling to tackle maths they find demanding because they don’t want to challenge their perception of themselves as being ‘clever’ and therefore finding maths easy. A key finding from Carol Dweck’s work on mindsets1is that you should not praise children for being clever when they succeed at something, but instead should praise them for working hard. That way, they will learn to associate achievement with effort (which is something they can influence themselves – by working hard!), not ‘cleverness’ (a trait perceived as absolute and that they cannot change).
  1. Extension work, unless very skilfully managed, can encourage the idea that success in maths is like a race, with a constant need to rush ahead, or it can involve unfocused investigative work that contributes little to pupils’ understanding. This means extension work can often result in superficial learning. Secure progress in learning maths is based on developing procedural fluency and a deep understanding of concepts in parallel, enabling connections to be made between mathematical ideas. Without deep learning that develops both of these aspects, progress cannot be sustained.

Teaching time

In the Foundation Stage the teachers plan numeracy sessions around the objectives outlined in the EYFS. The children are also given opportunities to engage in mathematical activities during child initiated learning time.

To provide adequate time for developing numeracy skills, in key stages 1 and 2 each class will have 5 daily mathematics lessons per week. Each class will also have a 15 minute arithmetic session each day to allow children the time to practice the fluency of the skills that they have been taught.

What does a maths lesson look like?

At King Edward all maths lessons follow the same structure. These are the components of each session.

  • Counting – Children will take part in a range of activities to develop their counting skills in line with the whole school counting structure document.
  • Active Starter - Children will take part in a fun activity to set the pace for the lesson to follow. This may be an activity designed to practice and consolidate an area the children have been working on, to sharpen mental strategies including counting, or provide an opportunity for problem solving and discussion. During this time children may be working independently, pairs or groups.
  • Skills builder (new learning input) – During this part of the session the teacher will model the method that the children will be focusing on during the lesson. This part of the session focuses mainly on becoming fluent with the method.
  • Learning tasks (practice)

The children will be working on maths questions aimed at developing fluency of the calculation.

  • Digging deeper (using and applying)

The children will then have the opportunity to use what they have been learning to help them answer a word or reasoning problem.

  • A Plenary - This will involve work with the whole class to address misconceptions, identify progress, to summarise key facts and ideas and what to remember, to make links to other work and to discuss next steps.

What does the maths curriculum look like at King Edward?

At King Edward Primary School we firmly believe that children gain a deeper understanding of maths when the units are taught in long blocks.

ADD THE UNIT BLOCK PLANS

Arithmetic

We believe in giving the children the opportunity to develop and practice their arithmetic skills and mathematical fluency. Therefore, each teacher delivers a 15 minute arithmetic session every day. The children all complete a weekly arithmetic test which is carefully analysed and scored tracked. This provides the basis for the following week’s arithmetic sessions.

Planning

Maths days

Each class take part in a maths day once every half term. Maths days are planned to bring together many areas of maths that the children have been working on to give them the opportunity to use them to solve real life problems, such as comparing prices of food at different supermarkets when planning a party.

Links between mathematics and other subjects

Mathematics contributes to many subjects within the primary curriculum and opportunities will be sought to draw mathematical experience out of a wide range of activities. This will allow children to begin to use and apply mathematics in real contexts.

Resources

At King Edward Primary School we understand the importance of children developing their understanding of mathematical concepts through the use of ‘hands on’ resources and pictorial representations. Objects, pictures, numbers and symbols enable pupils to represent ideas and make connections in different ways. This develops understanding and problem solving skills – while making lessons engaging and fun.

Speaking and listening

“Mathematical language strengthens conceptual understanding by enabling pupils to explain and reason”. Discussion is at the heart of all of our maths lessons across school. Children are encouraged to discuss mathematical problems to consolidate and extend their thinking.

Meeting all pupil’s needs

For children that have been identified in a session as struggling in that particular area we know that prompt intervention is best. A teaching assistant will be given time before the next lesson to consolidate what the child has been struggling with. This means that they start the following maths lesson at the same place as the other children and therefore a gap is not allowed to widen.

Although we follow the mastery approach for maths at King Edward and have the daily targeted support sessions, we also understand that there may be times when a child will need more intensive support to narrow the gap in a particular area of maths. We use a range of bespoke interventions that we run for these children across all key stages.

  • Assessment
  • Pre and Post assessment- At King Edward we assess the children with age related questions before the topic is planned for. This allows the teaching staff to ensure they are planning for the correct starting point for each child. Once the topic is completed the children will be assessed using similar age related questions. This gives an accurate picture of the progress the child has made during the topic. Any children who have not made enough progress will be targeted by teaching assistants to help narrow the gap in that area.
  • Short-term and diagnostic assessment will be a part of every lesson. The short term assessment will involve the teacher checking the children’s understanding throughout the session. Children who need extra support/clarification on the subject will then be targeted by the teacher or the TA during the session or before the next session. The short term assessment also informs the planning for the following lesson.
  • Arithmetic (weekly assessment)

All children will complete an arithmetic test once a week. This is used to identify gaps in the children’s understanding of maths so these can be addressed in the arithmetic sessions in the following week.

  • Long-term assessment

The children in years 6 and 2 must complete the SATs tests at the end of the year. At King Edward Primary School we use this style of assessment 4 times a year. This is used to track children’s progress across the year and to identify gaps in learning.

Foundation Stage

Foundation stage assessments are carried out through observation and questioning. The teacher’s judgements are collated in the children’s learning journeys and entered into the Eprofile each half term.

Pupil progress

At the end of each assessment cycle there is a pupil progress meeting. During the meeting the progress of individual children is discussed and children are identified for intervention support if necessary.

Fundamental Great British Values

At King Edward Primary School we understand clearly our responsibility in preparing children for their next stage of education and for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. We lay the foundations so that the children can take their place successfully in modern British society by promoting the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. Here at King Edward we believe that everyone can achieve, we use the mantra of ‘I can, You can, We can’ to inspire the children and staff. This is evidenced through our teaching and learning, our inclusive environment and through our weekly assembly themes. Which can be viewed *see appendix in the core British values on the website*.