Maths
Intent
When teaching mathematics at Edison Primary School, we intend to provide a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all learners the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. We provide a curriculum that is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment.
Pupils are required to explore maths in depth, using mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain their workings. A wide range of mathematical resources are used and pupils are taught to show their workings in a concrete, pictorial and abstract for wherever suitable. They are taught to explain their choice of methods and develop their mathematical reasoning skills.
We intend to create a vocabulary rich environment where talk for maths is a key learning tool for all pupils. Pre-teaching key vocabulary is a driver for pupil understanding and develops the confidence of pupils to explain mathematically. The ongoing development of the use of stem sentences throughout school will help to achieve these intentions.
Implementation
Teachers reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards in Mathematics. Lessons are planned and sequence so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before. Children are taught through clear modelling and have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of mathematical concepts. The mastery approach incorporates using objects, pictures, words and numbers to help children explore and demonstrate mathematical ideas, enrich their learning experience and deepen understanding at all levels. Reasoning and problem solving are integral to the activities children are given to develop their mathematical thinking.
All children receive a daily maths lesson, although mathematical skills run through many other areas of the curriculum.
• Each lesson focusses on one clear learning objective which all children are expected to master; extension activities enable those children who grasp the objective rapidly to extend their learning by exploring it at greater depth
. • Each lesson can include elements of: fluency, to practise skills; reasoning, to deepen understanding; and problem solving, to apply skills depending on the objective being taught and the understanding of the children.
• Whole class teaching is adopted and children work in mixed ability groups. We believe that all children should have the same standard of teaching and to ensure this we aim not to group children based on their ability.
• Every classroom has a range of practical apparatus to support children’s learning, with additional resources stored centrally. We aim to review this and add to it each year.
Teachers assess pupils’ understanding systematically, identify misconceptions accurately and provide clear, direct feedback. Teachers respond and adapt their teaching as necessary, without unnecessarily elaborate of differentiated approaches.
Assessment informs the teaching and learning sequence, and children work on the objectives they are assessed at being at. Children who are not making the required progress are given extra support through interventions and support in class.
Impact
A mathematical concept or skills has been mastered when a child can show it in multiple ways, using the mathematical language to explain their ideas, and can independently apply the concept to new problems in unfamiliar situations.
- Children demonstrate quick recall of facts and procedures. This includes the recollection of the times tables.
- The flexibility and fluidity to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics.
- The ability to recognise relationships and make connections in mathematics.
- Children show confidence in believing that they will achieve.
- Children show a high level of pride in the presentation and understanding of the work.
Pupils will have the skills to solve problems in unfamiliar contexts, using the variety of strategies they have learnt over the years. They will then be able to mathematically reason by following a line of enquiry and presenting an argument or justification using mathematical vocabulary. These skills are embedded throughout the years at Edison Primary School, and used to create a solid foundation, allowing pupils to move on to the next phase of their education securely.
Please refer to the related documents section for the curriculum overviews for each year group. Below you will find a link to a useful website which will help you to support your child in their mathematical development at home.
https://whiterosemaths.com/parent-resources
