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Walker Primary School Inspiring a love of learning in a supportive community

Maths

Our Maths Curriculum

At Walker, the National Curriculum is at the core of our Maths Teaching. From Reception upwards, children have daily maths lessons. Pupils learn new concepts initially using concrete examples, such as counters, then progress to drawing pictorial representations before finally using more abstract symbols, such as the equals sign.

 

Through careful planning and preparation, we aim to ensure that throughout the school, children are given the opportunities to do the following:

  • Take part in practical activities and mathematical games

  • Apply their knowledge to problem solving tasks

  • Undertake open and closed tasks

  • Be equipped with a range of mathematical methods of calculating, in accordance with our Maths Written Methods Guidelines.

  • Thoughtfully designed assessment practice

  • Consideration of an appropriate model of progression

  • Cumulative; it allows pupils to make conscious connections in its content, across subjects, through vocabulary choices. 

  • Vocabulary-rich

  • Our innovative use of IT including MyMaths and Times Table Rockstars, supports the learning of multiplication tables and promotes increased engagement both at school and home.  

 

Our intent is to design a mathematics curriculum that is accessible to all children, and enables success regardless of background or ability. Through careful planning and engaging learning experiences all children should have the ability to master the knowledge needed to apply fluency in the fundamentals of mathematics, reason mathematically following a line of enquiry and solve problems by applying their mathematics to routine and non routine problems with increasing sophistication in their learning. 

 

 

Intent

Working together respectfully

Aspirational curriculum  

Love of learning

Knowledge and confidence for life

Everyone included in our community

Resilient, supportive and successful

 

 Development of Written Methods in Mathematics

The National Curriculum states the following aims:

  • for children to 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.

  • for children to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.

  • for children to be able to 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.

 

In Primary school, the balance between mental and written methods, and the way in which pupils progress from one to the other, is very important. Standard written methods are a reliable and efficient procedure for calculating, and once mastered, can be used in many different contexts.

At Walker, we have created a whole school policy for the progression of written calculations in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions. The policy ensures continuity from one year group to the next, and can help parents and carers to understand how this area of maths is taught, so that they can give the best support at home.

 

MyMaths and Times Tables Rockstars allows consolidation of learning at home. We believe that it is important that all children become fluent and have a rapid recall of times table facts. This challenges children on age relevant multiplication and division facts and it allows children to practice and compete with their peers across the school.

 

The best way to support your child will be to help them with the method currently being practised in their classroom. The below documents are written methods guidelines, showing how written calculations are taught in class, for each year group. They can be used to help support your child with consolidating knowledge and understanding at home.

 

Weekly maths homework is set in Years 1-6 through MyMaths, an online website. Below is a PowerPoint how-to guide for parents.

Homework is set in Years 2-4 through the online website, Times Tables Rockstars. Below is a how-to guide for parents.

Online Maths Activities

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Maths Mastery

 

Throughout KS1, composition and subitising is taught through concrete resources, pictorials representations and then abstract form. We encourage children to explore numbers in many ways so children have part and whole awareness. We thrive for pupils from Reception to year 2 to master numbers in order to build a solid foundation before KS2. The phrase ‘teaching for mastery’ describes the elements of classroom practice and school organisation that combine to give pupils the best chances of mastering maths. Maths mastery is implemented as a daily starter. Children are given opportunities to explore numbers using concrete resources such as recandrecs and explaining their answers using full sentences. Maths Mastery continues our ethos on rich vocabulary and by explaining your understanding behind the answer.  

 

More information on NCETM

https://www.ncetm.org.uk/teaching-for-mastery/mastery-explained/

 

Our maths is based around the concrete, pictorial, abstract (CPA) which is a highly effective approach to teaching that develops a deep and sustainable understanding of maths.  We believe that children’s chances of succeeding in education and life will be maximised if they develop deep and lasting procedural and conceptual mathematical understanding. 

We are aware that children can find maths difficult because it is often abstract. The CPA approach helps children learn new ideas and build on their existing knowledge by introducing abstract concepts in a more familiar and tangible way.

 

Concrete is the ‘doing’ stage, using concrete objects to solve problems. It brings concepts to life by allowing children to handle physical objects themselves. Every new abstract concept is learned first with a ‘concrete’ or physical experience. For example:

There are 8 flowers in the vase. Hannah has 2 flowers in her hand. How many flowers are there altogether?

In this problem, the children might first handle actual flowers – the concrete stage – before progressing to handling counters or cubes (like Numicon) which are used to represent the flowers.

 

Pictorial is the ‘seeing’ stage, using representations of the objects involved in maths problems. This stage encourages children to make a mental connection between the physical object and abstract levels of understanding, by drawing or looking at pictures, circles, diagrams or models which represent the objects in the problem.

Building or drawing a model makes it easier for children to grasp concepts they traditionally find more difficult, such as fractions, as it helps them visualise the problem and make it more accessible.

For example, for the above problem, the pictorial stage would involve using drawings of flowers, or pictures of objects such as multi-link blocks or counters, to represent the actual object.

 

Abstract is the ‘symbolic’ stage, where children are able to use abstract symbols to model and solve maths problems.

Once a child has demonstrated that they have a solid understanding of the ‘concrete’ and ‘pictorial’ representations of the problem, the teacher can introduce the more ‘abstract’ concept, such as mathematical symbols.

Children are introduced to the concept at a symbolic level, using only numbers, notation, and mathematical symbols, for example +, –, x, / to indicate addition, multiplication, or division.

So, for the following problem:

Jim has 12 cookies. Julie has 8 cookies. How many do they have altogether?

Children at the abstract stage would be able to solve the problem by writing it out as 12 + 8 = 20.

 

Mastery is a journey and long-term goal, achieved through exploration, clarification, practice and application over time. At each stage of learning, pupils should be able to demonstrate a deep, conceptual understanding of the topic and be able to build on this over time.

Year 2 Maths Mastery

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Year 2 Maths Mastery

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Ways to use a recandrec in Year 1

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