Maths

'Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers’

Shakuntala Devi, Indian writer and mental calculator

Intent

We follow the National Curriculum for maths. Our curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice 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, using conjecture and understanding relationships to be able to justify and use mathematical language.

• Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication.

At Darite Primary Academy, children are taught to become competent mathematicians. The National Curriculum forms the basis for our curriculum, which is mapped out to ensure each idea builds on previous learning so children are able to make connections between different mathematical ideas. We use White Rose as our main framework to deliver maths. Children are provided with structures to help them ‘see’ the maths, so that they can build a strong conceptual understanding or what they are learning to enable application of skills in different ways.

This builds from usng concrete resources in KS1 through to the concept-based learning in KS2. Children have access to resoures throughout to support and challenge their learning.

Implementation

At Darite, we strive to actively engage all children in their learning of maths. Developing a love of learning and resilience in children to persevere is at the heart of what we want to achieve.

The primary focus, during fluency work, is to create discussion about strategy rather than a celebration of the answer. Encouraging children to articulate their understanding in a safe environment is promoted.

The calculation policy provides practical activities for staff to use to embed conceptual understanding of mathematical processes. Concrete and pictorial representations will always be used before abstract strategies and they will be taught alongside each other so children can see what is happening to the numbers and why. Some of the early calculation strategies are used as a starting point for mental methods.

We promote confidence in children’s mental ability so they don’t always rely on written methods. The main aim of our curriculum is to teach the majority of children the same learning objective at the same time, but for children to access the learning in different ways. This might be through the different steps of the calculation policy or through questioning. Whatever the ability of our children, we will expose them to all three strands of learning (fluency, reasoning and problem solving).

In addition to daily lessons, we promote fast recall of key multiplication facts. So much of the learning in maths relies on confident recall of tables and these are tested weekly in a non-competitive manner. Pupils in KS2 have regular opportunities to practice mental maths and arithmetic. This allows them to practise the skills and knowledge in a way that promotes building both recall and confidence.

The children also take part in a weekly "99 Club" challenge. Each week children will all answer a set of maths questions, each of these is called a ‘club’. These are desinged to test quick calulation and mental maths skills as the club sheets are timed. The clubs get harder and have more questions as the children progress.

Maths is recording using Seesaw through iPads and computers. This has been shown to promote independence and mathematical thinking as well as breaking down the barriers to learning.

Impact

Through the use of small step planning and the culture of mathematical discussion, teachers will be able to identify misconceptions early. Additional adult support (TA or teacher) will be used at the point the misconception has been identified.

If strengths are identified prior to a new unit through assessment or prior knowledge of the child, exposure to deeper questioning can be provided. Pre-assessment also helps teachers balance the needs of their classes’ curriculum and adjust the priorities of learning accordingly.

Post-assessment not only shows children their progress, but it allows teachers to identify what has ‘stuck’ and the concepts that need to be rehearsed during fluency work. This also leads into bespoke intervention when some pupils find one or two of the steps tricky. This maintains pace of the learning for all pupils while providing support where needed.

Feedback is given to learning and follows a graduated approach from proceedural corrections to more abstract challenges to allow children to apply learning in different contexts. This is based on John Hattie's research on effective feedback.

Summative assessment at the end of the year helps to triangulate teacher assessment. Our aim is for all children to see themselves as mathematicians so creating a culture of success for the individual child and positive maths self-esteem is as important as attainment.