Maths |

INTENT

For children to become successful and resilient adults, we believe that the development of mathematics
skills and knowledge are vital. Being fluent with numbers, understanding patterns, and using logic and
problem-solving skills are all essential in everyday life to help us to understand and change the world
around us. We aspire for all children to leave us as competent and confident ‘masters’ of Maths, with deep conceptual and procedural knowledge, and an enjoyment of mathematics. We believe that every child can do Maths and want our children to leave us as independent, reflective thinkers, who can apply Maths to support them across the whole curriculum. We aim to ensure that teachers have good subject knowledge through continuing professional development.

Implementation

To ensure we deliver a robust Maths curriculum, we follow the White Rose long term plan to sequence our learning and to ensure the full coverage of the Maths curriculum and skills that our children need to learn for each year group.

The long-term plan interweaves prior content with new concepts. For example, children learn to add and subtract and apply this later on in the year with measurement of length. This practice and consolidation helps the children to grasp the links between topics and deepens their understanding.

In KS1 and KS2 we also deliver daily Fluency Bee sessions from White Rose to further support development of key number facts and counting strategies. Fluency Bee is a structured teaching programme designed to give children confidence with numbers through varied and frequent practice.

Our teachers are proficient in ensuring that mathematical skills are embedded and will adapt learning to meet a range of learners needs. Consolidation weeks are scheduled to revisit any misconceptions, link learning and recap knowledge already taught.

Maths in EYFS and Year 1

In nursery, children are exposed to number and shape, space and measures through a wide variety of songs, videos, stories and games. Children at this age are predominantly developing fluency skills in counting and an early understanding of the concept of numbers and where Maths appears in their environment. Our nursery team use development matters, along with White Rose Maths to plan weekly
inputs and provide opportunities to develop maths skills through continuous provision.

In Reception, we use White Rose Maths. Manipulatives are used within whole class teaching and are available for children to access during child initiated play so that they are able to apply their knowledge and practise mathematical skills. This means that our younger children have a solid foundation, particularly in number to build upon as they move into Key Stage 1.

In Year 1 children spend a significant amount of time on number and place value. They use a range of manipulatives to help further develop a strong sense of the number system building on skills and knowledge from the Early Years. Research into the approach of using concrete apparatus, pictorial representation and then moving on to the abstract (CPA approach) suggests that this is a highly effective way to teach as it develops a deep and sustainable understanding of number. This is important for children to be able to confidently use numbers in different ways.

Planning:
Lessons are planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been previously taught. Teachers use the White Rose Maths materials to guide and support their planning alongside national curriculum objectives. Staff also refer to the LC2 Calculation Policy when teaching formal methods, understanding that sometimes children find their own efficient methods along the way.

Children across the school have access to their own ‘NumBots’ and ‘Times Tables Rockstars’ accounts. Children in KS1 are encouraged to use ‘NumBots’ to help them learn how to add and subtract, improve their fluency and recall in basic mental maths, and equip them with maths confidence. Children in KS2 are
encouraged to use their ‘Times Tables Rockstars’ account to give them the opportunity to practise and improve their rapid recall skills with times tables facts up to 12×12.

At Clipstone Brook Lower we employ a variety of teaching styles and opportunities for children to learn and develop their Mathematical skills and competencies, both individually and collaboratively. The main aim of all lessons is to develop children’s knowledge, understanding and skills, applying these to a variety of
contexts.

Our pupils are encouraged to physically represent mathematical concepts. Objects and pictures are used to demonstrate and visualise abstract ideas, alongside numbers and symbols. We believe in the pedagogy behind using the concrete, pictorial and abstract approach in our mathematics teaching because it
develops a deep understanding of maths for our children.

Concrete – children have the opportunity to use concrete objects and manipulatives to help them understand and explain what they are doing.
Pictorial – children then build on this concrete approach by using pictorial representations, which can then be used to reason and solve problems.
Abstract – With the foundations firmly laid, children can move to an abstract approach using numbers and key concepts with confidence

We build time into each of our Maths sessions to develop the children’s reasoning and problem-solving skills. This is usually done orally. We provide children with sentence stems to offer pupils a way to communicate their ideas with mathematical precision as well as clarity.

When children are working independently, teachers and teaching assistants support the children to address misconceptions or those children that need to be moved on. If a child is still struggling to understand a skill this is where we will provide additional support in class.

Verbal feedback is given to all children throughout the lesson which is in line with our school’s feedback policy.

Where appropriate, sequences of lessons are adapted and teachers are encouraged to either slow down and take more time on a topic by breaking it down into smaller steps to allow children to consolidate their knowledge or fill gaps. Equally, if we find that children are confident on a certain topic, teachers are again encouraged to adapt their sequences of lessons to allow for children to be moved on with purpose so children are active learners who are always developing their knowledge and skills to allow for them to meet the national expectations for their end of year targets (or their personal targets if working below the expected level).

IMPACT
Through our teaching and assessment of Maths there is both immediate and long-term impact. In EYFS, the children are confident to talk about their Maths learning and can verbally explain what they are learning with an adult. The children have an enjoyment of Maths and seeing the numbers come to life each lesson. This confidence of Maths and love of learning is then nurtured and developed as the children progress through the school.

Our delivery of Maths at KS1 and KS2 allows children to be confident in lessons and can be seen to use appropriate methods and strategies (such as manipulatives, pictorial and written methods) independently. This is reflected in the children’s Maths books where evidence of the CPA approach can be seen. This then feeds into their reasoning tasks which shows when the children have mastered the skills and knowledge taught within lessons.

Yearly Overviews by Year Group
These overviews show the areas of Maths that your child will be covering and at what approximate time of year.

Progression Map

The progression map shows the skills that we cover in each year group. In EYFS, ‘3-4 and Rec’ indicates the development statements from the 2021 Development Matters document and broadly sets out children’s development at these ages, although it is not intended as a tick list of objectives. ELG indicates the Early Learning Goal. For Key Stages 1 and 2, the objectives are taken from the National Curriculum 2014.