Mathematics
Maths at Riverside Primary School
Intention:
The intention of the Maths curriculum at Riverside Primary School is that children are taught to become competent mathematicians; we strive to embed the skills and processes necessary to enable children to use and apply their Maths learning in a variety of contexts.
At Riverside, all of our children take part in daily Maths lessons. We ensure that every child enjoys a variety of Maths tasks throughout the school week. Their learning will cover all aspects of the National Curriculum, including
· developing understanding of number and place value,
· calculating with all four operations, fractions, decimals and percentages,
· geometry (shape, position and direction),
· statistics (data).
We aim to develop children’s enjoyment of Maths and provide opportunities for children to build a conceptual understanding of Maths before applying their knowledge to everyday problems and challenges. Our approach to the teaching of Mathematics develops children's ability to work both independently and collaboratively as part of a team. By the end of Key Stage Two, children will leave our school prepared for the next step in their Mathematical education.
· It is also important that our children are confident in being able to reason and solve mathematical problem. From Reception all the way to Year 6, we promote reasoning and problem-solving ensuring children are able to use Mathematical vocabulary to explain and justify their mathematical thinking. At Riverside Primary School, children study mathematics daily following the White Rose
Maths Scheme of Learning. WRM is a blocked scheme, which allows for depth and breadth of learning within each strand of mathematics through:
· Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract Learning: Children engage with a wide and varied range of concrete manipulatives, pictorial representations and abstract methodologies within each session. Cohesive use of CPA is a fundamental part of mastery in mathematics for all learners, not just those pupils with SEND. Concrete and pictorial references scaffold and strengthen understanding and are widely used as a teaching and learning tool from Foundation Stage to Year 6.
· Fluency, Retrieval, Reasoning and Problem Solving: Every learning session includes the opportunity to recall previous knowledge, develop fluency skills, construct chains of reasoning using relevant knowledge alongside relevant terminology and solve increasingly complex problems in a systematic and coherent way
Implementation:
At Riverside, we recognise that in order for pupils to progress in Maths they need to have lots of opportunities to use and apply their knowledge in everyday 'real life' situations, as well as using Maths in the environment and in other subjects, such as Science, Computing or DT. These opportunities include termly cooking lessons as well as working alongside a local bank to develop skills such as budgeting. Through the use of concrete manipulatives, problem-solving and enabling opportunities for children to apply their learning to a range of scenarios, we support children in becoming competent mathematicians. We encourage our children to take on a challenge and apply their Maths to a variety of different problem-solving tasks and most importantly we want our children to have fun and enjoy Maths.
In order to ensure children retain key knowledge, every lesson includes a ‘Flashback’ where children retrieve prior learning, strengthen fluency, and connect previous concepts to new learning.
In order to motivate our pupils, every teacher chooses a ‘Mathematician of the Term’; a child who has demonstrated fantastic resilience and reasoning within their Maths learning. We celebrate every child’s mathematical successes, contributing to their growing mathematical confidence.
Early Mathematics
Our Early Years Foundation Stage children are introduced to the White Rose Scheme in our Nursery. EYFS children are introduced to early number, ensuring they are confident counting, subitising and adding and subtracting within twenty. Children use a range of resources including bead strings, Numicon and counters in order to develop a strong understanding of addition and subtraction. Pupils are introduced to mathematical vocabulary which they are encouraged to use within their own explanations.
Key Stage One
Teaching throughout Key Stage One ensures that children in our school are confident to manipulate numbers up to 100. The Key Stage One curriculum provides opportunities for children to develop their competency in place value and the four operations. A high focus is placed on concrete, pictorial and mental strategies to equip children with a readiness for more abstract concepts to be introduced in Key Stage Two.
Key Stage Two
Teaching throughout Key Stage Two builds on the solid foundations of the previous key stage. Children are introduced to formal calculation methods in Year Three and these are developed and built on each year in line with age related expectations. The frequent opportunities to reason and problem solve in real life contexts, provided by teachers, develops their conceptual understanding and prepares them for the statutory end of key stage assessments. We continue to place a high focus on the concrete, pictorial and abstract approach to
mathematics, ensuring our pupils are able to apply their learning to a range of problems.
We aim for all our children to enjoy Maths and be successful at an appropriate level for their age and ability. Children of all ages should be practising their basic skills (e.g. number bonds, times tables) as much as possible at home, and using their Maths skills in real situations such as finding change when shopping, telling the time and weighing out ingredients when cooking. Playing online Maths games is another great way to improve their skills and speed and the children are able to do this by using websites for homework including Numbots and TTRockstars.
Impact:
PiXL Assessment are used throughout the year as a form of summative assessment in order to track children’s progress and attainment. A range of formative assessments methods are used in order to quickly assess pupil understanding, including questioning, whiteboard work and listening to pupil reasoning as well as end of unit quizzes. Formative assessment takes place on a daily basis and teachers adjust planning accordingly to meet the needs of their class. Attainment and outcomes in Maths have a prominent focus throughout Riverside Primary School. The teaching of Maths is monitored frequently by leaders through lesson observations, book looks and conversations with pupils.
For further information about our Mathematics curriculum at Riverside Primary School, please see the curriculum overviews.
Here are the links to the National Curriculum for KS1 and KS2 and the Development Matters for Early Years.
The National Curriculum KS1 and KS2
Development Matters Early Years Foundation Stage