Clipstone Brook
Lower School
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 then apply this later on in the year with measurement or length.This practice and consolidation helps children to grasp the links between topics and to understand them more deeply.
Our teachers are proficient in ensuring that mathematical skills are embedded and will adapt learning to meet a range of learners needs. Consolidation weeks that are scheduled are used 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 to plan weekly inputs and provide opportunities to develop maths skills through continuous provision.
In Reception, we are now also using 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. Year 1 also re-visits number over the course of the year, unlike the other year groups, as this is broken down into more manageable stages across the year. This helps ensure that skills are deeply embedded and built upon over time.
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. Our children regularly use manipulatives in class to aid them to apply their knowledge and skills. This then means that they can model and imagine these manipulatives and in turn they can move on to the next developmental stage of drawing the pictorial representation or ‘jotting’ to help them solve problems with increasing independence, speed and fluency. Once children are confident in using manipulatives and applying this to pictorial representations to then move onto using written numbers so that the children make connections and have a greater understanding of number.
Planning:
Lessons are planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before. Teachers use the White Rose Maths materials, Termly Overview and Schemes of work to guide and support their planning alongside national curriculum objectives. Staff also refer to the Calculation Policy when teaching formal methods, understanding that sometimes children find their own efficient methods along the way. As part of this process, teachers need to plan the following for mathematics lesson.
Precise questioning to test conceptual and procedural knowledge.
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. One of the key elements in lessons throughout the school should be on developing the children’s mental calculation strategies alongside developing the children’s written calculation strategies as laid out in the Written Calculation Policies for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Through the use of talk partners, group work and whole class discussion, we are developing the children’s oral confidence by encouraging them to answer all questions in Maths lessons in full sentences so that they can make connections between concepts which in turn helps children to retain knowledge
Our pupils are encouraged to physically represent mathematical concepts. Objects and pictures are used to demonstrate and visualise abstract ideas, alongside numbers and symbols.
When children are working independently, teachers and TA’s will be supporting children to address misconceptions or those that need to be moved on sooner. These children are identified through live marking. As children complete answers the children’s work is marked and if their answers are incorrect, they will attempt to correct it in their purple pen.
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
Those children that are confident in using strategies to practice the skill and have proven that they understand the knowledge part of the lesson can be moved onto the application phase sooner to give them more opportunities to develop their reasoning skills.
Regular plenaries are used within lessons to address any misconceptions and if needed lessons are adapted throughout to meet the needs of all pupils. 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 a clear enjoyment of Maths and enjoy 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. More children have reached GDS in Year 2 in our school compared to National average (moderated data July’23).
Here is the overview for the whole year for reception children:
These Long Term Plans show the areas of maths that your child/ren will be covering and at what approximate time of year.
These overviews show what is taught across the year and when.
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Progression Map
The attached table shows the skills that we cover in each year group. For EYFS, 3-4 and Rec indicate the development statements from the 2021 Development Matters document 3 and 4-year olds and children in Reception respectively, 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.
In addition to the white rose scheme of learning as a school we are focusing on fluency and being able to recall key facts to support understanding and application in problems. To support with this we use Key Instant Recall Facts, Rolling numbers, TTRockstars and Numbots. Please see the additional links for more infomation on these.
