Maths

Intent
The 2014 National Curriculum for Maths aims to ensure that all children:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of Mathematics;
• Are able to reason mathematically;
• Can solve problems by applying their Mathematics.

At Warley Primary School, these skills are embedded within Maths lessons and developed consistently over time. We are committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of Maths in the wider world and that they are also able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in their lives, in a range of different contexts. We want all children to enjoy Mathematics and to experience success in the subject, with the ability to reason mathematically.

We provide our pupils with opportunities they may not necessarily access outside of school and allow children to see the ‘fun’ side of Maths in our Maths Curriculum Days.

We are committed to developing children’s curiosity about the subject, as well as an appreciation of the beauty and power of Mathematics. We hope, as with all subjects we teach at our school, that children will go to secondary school knowing their strengths and passions. By providing engaging, deep mathematical learning, we hope Maths will be exactly this for many of our pupils.

Implementation
We ensure the contents of the 2014 National Curriculum are covered, with clear progression, using Plan Bee as a base for lesson planning in Years 1-6. In the EYFS, we use planning from the Hamilton Trust - a Development Matters-inspired curriculum. Teachers then use their autonomy and own professional expertise to adapt the planning to suit the needs of their class.

Teachers work with the Maths Leaders and Senior Leaders to organise the curriculum in such a way that it meets the needs of our pupils and this is regularly revisited. For example, changes have been made to medium term plans provided by schemes, to provide pupils with enough depth and exposure in units we have identified to be a weakness.

The following principles characterise how our curriculum is implemented:

• Teachers reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards in Mathematics;
• The large majority of children progress through the curriculum content at the same pace;
• Differentiation is achieved through a variety of means including level of work, emphasising deep knowledge and through individual support and intervention;
• Teaching is underpinned by methodical curriculum design and supported by carefully crafted lessons and resources to foster deep conceptual and procedural knowledge;
• Practise and consolidation play a central role. Carefully designed variation within this builds fluency and understanding of underlying mathematical concepts;
• Our 'Fluent in Five' initiative ensures children acquire sound fluency and recall;
• Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual and procedural knowledge and assess children regularly to identify those requiring intervention, so that all children can keep up with the pace of learning;
• Every lesson ends with a Reasoning Question, enabling pupils to apply the lesson’s learning to a context and use deeper thought processes.

To ensure whole-school consistency and progression, the school uses carefully selected Schemes of Work and these schemes embrace the school’s ongoing engagement with the concept of ‘mastery’ to ensure that staff at all levels understand the pedagogy of the approach. New concepts are introduced and children’s starting points are established, through discussion-based tasks.

Maths Leaders have drawn up a set of ‘Agreed Consistencies’ to ensure high standards in teaching across the school.

In KS1, new concepts are almost always presented with objects (concrete manipulatives) for children to use. Children may also use manipulatives in KS2. Teachers use careful questions to draw out children’s discussions and their reasoning. The Class Teacher then leads children through strategies for solving the problem, including modelling those already discussed. Independent work provides the means for all children to develop their fluency further, before progressing to more complex related problems. Mathematical topics are taught in blocks of varying lengths. We found that the very long-term idea of Mastery did not work for the children at Warley as they would forget methods they had not rehearsed in a long time. Although we teach units in blocks, we try and revisit these more frequently to ensure children do not lose key skills and facts.

Each block of lessons provides the means to achieve greater depth, with more able children being offered rich and sophisticated problems, as well as exploratory, investigative tasks, within the lesson as appropriate.

Other ways in which we implement and promote Maths learning at Warley include:

• Maths Curriculum Days
• Maths after-school clubs
• Weekly Mathletics tasks for Homework
• Times Tables Rockstars for improving recall of key facts
• TTRS Leaderboard in the school Hall
• Parent workshops and maths-oriented ‘Family Friday’ sessions

Please click here for the Knowledge and Skills Progression Grid: Maths Progression Grid

Impact
The school has a supportive ethos and our approaches support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills in Maths, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others. Previously, children may have underperformed in Mathematics because they are of the belief that they cannot do it or are not naturally good at it. Our Maths curriculum addresses these preconceptions by ensuring that all children experience challenge and success in Mathematics by developing a growth mindset. Regular and ongoing assessment informs teaching, as well as intervention, to support and enable the success of each child. These factors ensure that we are able to demonstrate excellent progress, given the starting points of our pupils.