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Maths
What is our aim for our mathematicians?
Mathematics teaches us how to make sense of the world around us through developing a child’s ability to calculate, to reason and to solve problems. It enables children to understand and appreciate relationships and pattern in both number and space in their everyday lives. At Rauceby Primary our curriculum for maths aims to ensure that all pupils: enjoy mathematics. We are positive about mathematics and strive to ensure that children feel confident in their own ability and want to learn,
- become fluent in mathematics. We promote varied and frequent practise with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
- reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, investigating relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
- can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
- have an appreciation of number and number operations, which enables mental calculations and written procedures to be performed efficiently, fluently and accurately to be successful in mathematics.
By the time children leave our school we aim for children to be fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics with a conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. They should have the skills to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of situations with increasing sophistication, including in unfamiliar contexts and to model real-life scenarios. Children will be able to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language.
How do we teach maths?
At Rauceby, we follow the White Rose Hub Block Scheme that covers most of the requirements of the National Curriculum. For the remaining areas of study we supplement using the NCTEM materials, I See Reasoning and NRICH. Within these schemes, learning is split into units that are taught in a sequence whereby previous learning can be used to support new learning. The sequence in which the units are taught also supports the teaching of, and the children’s ability to create, links between different concepts and therefore deepen their understanding. In EYFS, we begin with a strong emphasis on intentional teaching sessions and adult-led activities to build the foundation of the children’s learning skills and knowledge and understanding of the curriculum, so that they can apply this learning to child-initiated activities and through continuous provision.
Maths is delivered across the school to single year groups only to ensure we best meet the demands of delivering the curriculum with a mastery approach. Each unit is then designed in small, carefully sequenced steps that pupils should aim to master before moving on to the next stage. When designing the individual lessons for these small steps, the concepts of mastery underpin the lesson planning to ensure children have a deep conceptual understanding of what is being taught. The objective is explored using a range of representations and structures; fluency is developed as well as the flexibility to move between different contexts; variation is used to develop deep understanding and children are encouraged to think mathematically throughout.
A typical maths lesson at Rauceby may begin by activating prior knowledge that children may need to access from their long-term memory to help them to learn the new concept. The lesson will then progress through small steps to develop understanding of what is being taught. These small steps may introduce the concept using a range of representations, may use conceptual and procedural variation and will encourage the children to respond in complete sentences using the correct mathematical vocabulary and sentence stems. As we believe that all children can achieve in maths you will not see ‘typical differentiation’ – instead, you will see support mechanisms put in place to ensure all children can access the lesson. Through continuous formative assessment, teachers can spot children who are finding aspects difficult and provide quick interventions to ensure that children are able to keep up with the whole class lessons.
Challenge for able mathematicians is embedded throughout lessons with many open tasks, and use of probing questions, requiring pupils to think deeply about the concepts they are studying, find the connections between them, and prove they understand what they are doing. Beyond the daily maths lesson, we also start our day with arithmetic fluency questions and Active Number Our learning across the week is regularly consolidated by weekly maths homework.
What should my child be achieving in maths? |
In your child's first year in school, they will be working towards the Early Learning Goals for maths. By the end of your child's Reception year, our aim is for your child to have achieved the following:
Number: Children count reliably with numbers from one to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number. Using quantities and objects, they add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer. They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.
Shape, Space and Measures: Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems. They recognise, create and describe patterns. They explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.
In Years 1 - 6, your child will be working towards the following expectations in maths. We aim for children to be achieving these aims by the end of each year group:
Calculation Policies
Progression maps
Vocabulary Lists
How will my child be assessed in maths?
Formative assessment
Teachers’ knowledge and understanding of pupils means that the main method of curriculum assessment we employ is continuous formative assessment.
Retrieval practice
Concepts are completed regularly and often repeated to ensure understanding of concepts and that learning is stored in the long-term memory.
Pupil behaviour
Children will show that they are enjoying learning maths and that work has been pitched appropriately through their behaviour and attitudes during lessons.
Childrens’ work
Work is completed in exercise books. Pupils mark their own work and correct mistakes in purple. Teachers will give feedback verbally. Work in books will show progression over a topic or unit of work.
Summative assessment
Children will sit NFER or SAT assessment papers over the course of a school year. These are used to monitor pupil progress and are reviewed by all school staff and Governors. Children’s progress is reported to parents.