Broseley C of E Primary School

Mathematics

At Broseley C of E Primary School, we want to nurture a love and enjoyment of mathematics in all of our children so that they are keen to explore different concepts and so discover the wonder of mathematics and how it links to the everyday world.

Our curriculum follows the NCETM Teaching for Mastery approach and the Mastery Number programme, which we have aligned with White Rose units to ensure all National Curriculum objectives are met. Based on effective research, the mastery approach plans for small steps which allows children to make connections in their thinking in order to build a deeper understanding. We want our children to understand that it’s the process that matters, not just the winning answer.

Our maths curriculum sequence is cumulative and allows for consolidation of learning to ensure children make connection and remember more. We offer an ambitious curriculum that provides them with the skills and knowledge to become confident mathematicians. Language development is key in all our maths lessons, and by using precise mathematical and stem sentences, this offers the children a scaffold to broaden and articulate their mathematical thinking.

We want our children to become ‘Expert Reasoners’ by having a real focus on mathematical thinking and reasoning, using effective representation, models and images to help us. We aim to expose the maths structures through different representations and encourage children to develop their own representations and models of proof so that all children embed the depth in conceptual understanding as well as being confident with the procedural fluency.

Please do have a look at our Long Term Plan for Maths: Maths Long Term Planning - Whole School

Maths in the Early Years

In EYFS children will get maths lessons most days, but maths will also be integrated into continuous provision and teachers will follow the children’s interests to apply mathematical skills throughout the day. This means that some children will access different skills in different circumstances depending on the child’s interests and will be through 'in the moment' planning.

Support for Pupils with SEND

At the beginning of each unit of work, key pieces of knowledge for the unit are selected and work takes place to ensure that pupils with SEND are retaining and building on this. In addition, scaffolding ensures that pupils can meet the same learning objective as their peers. Adult support, more extensive access to manipulatives, pre-teaching of a concept or ‘work-shop’ style immediate interventions are regularly in place for children who need further support before moving on.

Assessment

At the beginning of each lesson, pupils complete a ‘knowing more and remembering more’ task which assesses the knowledge they have retained from previous lessons and reactivates the knowledge that they will need to access the new teaching/learning. These can be simple directed questions, quizzes or activities. Throughout lessons, teachers and TAs are constantly discussing, correcting and furthering children’s understanding through direct questioning and instant intervention. When whole class issues or misconceptions are discovered, teachers refocus the class and reteach or rephrase the learning.
At the end of each Spine, children are given a ‘Ready to Progress’ assessment to assess their knowledge and understanding of the content of that spine. At the end of each term, children carry out NfER assessments to track their progress. This will be used as a diagnostic to inform future teaching.

Impact

Maths lessons are engaging and well-resourced with pupils acknowledging that the journey to finding an answer is the most important factor.

Pupils demonstrate a quick recall of facts and procedures. This includes the recollection of the times tables.

Pupils show confidence in believing that they will achieve and are keen to attempt a range of problems and demonstrating flexibility and fluidity to move between different contexts and representations of maths.

Pupils are developing skills in being articulate and can reason verbally (using precise vocabulary), pictorially and in written form.

Pupils are developing the ability to make connections between mathematical topics.

Pupils show a high level of pride in the presentation and understanding of the work. Children can independently apply their knowledge to a range of increasingly complex problems, with many opportunities to access greater depth.

Summative assessments are completed at the end of the academic year and reported to parents in the end of year report. National assessments are carried out at the end of KS1 and KS2, with a Multiplication Tables Check at the end of year 4 - results from these are reported to parents in our End of Year Reports.