Maths

Intent

The National Curriculum 2014 aims to ensure that all children:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
• Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
• Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

We believe that Maths is an important, creative skill that helps us to understand the world around us. Mathematics is essential in everything we count or calculate and in problems which we have to solve in our daily lives. Children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in mathematics develop as they use it in practical activities, to solve relevant and meaningful problems and explore the patterns and relationships between numbers. Our curriculum aims to promote an enthusiasm for Maths and we strive to ensure our children to have positive ‘can do’ attitudes towards the subject. We believe all children can achieve in mathematics, and teach for secure and deep understanding of mathematical concepts through small steps.

To allow our children to learn, grow and achieve together in Maths, our aim for the teaching of the subject in school;

• Promotes enjoyment and enthusiasm for learning through practical activity, exploration and discussion
• Promotes confidence and competence with numbers and the number system by embedding instant recall of key mathematical facts
• Develops the ability to solve problems through decision-making and reasoning in a range of contexts, building perseverance and resilience when investigating and exploring
• Allows children to be able to confidently reason why they have arrived at a particular answer
• Promotes creativity when exploring possibilities
• Equips children with the technical language needed to articulate their reasoning
• Develops a practical understanding of the ways in which information is gathered and presented efficiently
• Explores features of shape and space, and develop measuring skills in a range of contexts
• Promotes the importance of mathematics in everyday life.

Implementation
What do we teach? How do we teach it?

At Radcliffe Infants, our whole curriculum is shaped an underpinned by our school vision which aims to support children to flourish and become life-long learners. In Maths, we follow the White Rose scheme which teaches the mastery approach. The core principles of mastery teaching are:

• Ensuring a larger amount of time is spent learning a concept, to allow learning to go deeper
• Whole class teaching of the same small step, moving onto the next step all together.
• Children are able to support each other in developing their understanding through mixed ability pairing.
• Carefully thought out lessons, considering misconceptions as well as contexts for learning
• Maths talk including reasoning, questioning, the use of stem sentences to support understanding
• Differentiation is through questioning, use of resources, intervention and going deeper challenges. Children are given opportunities to deepen their understanding by applying their learning through problem solving and reasoning

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The CPA (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract) is at the heart of teaching and learning at Radcliffe Infants. Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. We ensure that well thought out manipulatives are used to introduce new concepts to all children. To ensure lesson learning continues to be accessible to all, children are quickly identified as needing further support through interventions. We use the ‘numberstacks’ intervention resource as this has a direct link to the government guidance of the ‘Ready to Progress criteria’. This allows children to gain a deep understanding of concepts they need to know prior to being able to progress to the next level of learning.  

In Reception (EYFS), children learn by playing, exploring, investigating, being active and through creative and critical thinking which takes place both indoors and outdoors. We recognise that children learn through routine, continuous provision and incidental learning opportunities, as well as planned activities and sessions. Mathematical understanding is developed through stories, songs, games, questioning, daily routines, imaginative play, child initiated learning and structured teaching. Strategies such as tens frames and part-whole diagrams are introduced in child friendly ways which help lay the foundations for future learning.

Alongside our scheme of learning, we also use ‘teach active’ as an additional resource. This provides teachers with resources and ideas to support the teaching of the National Curriculum through physical activity. In addition to our daily teaching of Maths, we have joined the Mastering Number Program this year to support our teaching of fluency and mental maths. We also have Ipads accessible throughout continuous provision to allow children to practice their fluency skills on mathematical apps such as Times table rock stars and Numbots.

Impact

As a result of this rich, structured yet varied mathematics curriculum our children will become confident mathematicians who have a love of maths and recognise the importance of maths in the real world. They will be able to demonstrate flexibility to move between different representations of maths and have a quick recall of number facts. We assess our children against the Early Learning Goals for EYFS and the end of Key stage 1 expectations for Year 1 and 2. We monitor the work children do and their attitudes to learning and provide children with opportunities to discuss their learning to ensure a deep understanding has been achieved and remembered. Most of our children reach age related expectations by the end of the year, with some exceeding this expectation. For children identified as not having met the end of year expectations, further support is provided through targeted interventions to enable them to catch up and keep up quickly.