Maths

Intent

At Weedon Bec Primary School, we place value on maths as a way of viewing and making sense of the world by organising, analysing and communicating information and ideas to tackle practical tasks and real life problems. Therefore, we provide children with the breadth of experience in fluency, problem solving and reasoning. We believe our children become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problem solving and reasoning over time. This enables pupils to develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. The children develop reasoning and problem solving skills by following a line of enquiry and developing an argument with justification or proof using mathematical language. We also encourage children to have mathematical curiosity, a desire to explore ideas through investigation and asking questions that they need to find a solution for. All children strive for ‘mastery’, rather than progressing upwards through the curriculum and moving on to the next year’s content, children in each year group are taught further breadth within their age-related curriculum. Mastery enables the children to show they can apply their understanding across a range of problems to be working at ‘greater depth’ within their age group. 

We have recognised maths as an area for development, particularly children’s reasoning skills which has in turn had an impact on end of year data. Therefore as a school we are determined to ensure every learner is supported on their maths journey, regardless of their background, ability or needs. We have set clear expectations of pupils’ maths progression term by term using White Rose as our main school approach and using other resources (which match the small steps outlined in our progression map) to support differentiation within the lesson. This ensures that all children are appropriately challenged and supported to enable them to make progress. 

Our school’s rigorous approach and regular assessment allows us to rapidly identify gaps in children’s learning and therefore meet the needs of the children and close these gaps. We have ambitious aspirations for learning across the school, these are coherently planned and sequenced in our Maths Progression map, highlighting the skill that children will learn each term and identifying the key areas of maths that must be taught first to ensure all subsequent learning can be accessed. This progression enables the children to develop their knowledge, skills and abilities to apply what they know and can do with increasing fluency and independence.

Maths Progression of Skills Map for EYFS.pdf

Maths Progression of Skills Map Years 1 to 6.docx.pdf

Implementation

Maths is taught for at least 4 sessions per week across the school. Children are encouraged to share, articulate and explore their thinking, problem solving and justifications. Our aim is to develop a positive attitude to mathematics, in which all children are challenged and gain success and pleasure. Due to the ongoing assessment opportunities provided by the WhiterRose ‘flashbacks’ and additionally, the pre and post assessments, all areas of maths are continually recapped and areas for development are regularly highlighted. Our teacher's flexible approach allows them to plan and plug the gaps. Alongside this, half termly assessments are also completed to support the teacher's judgement of their progress and attainment. From this, weaknesses are identified and this informs teachers planning for the following half term.

We also encourage involvement from parents to share our intent for maths across the school. We ask for regular support at home to develop particularly the rapid recall of multiplication and division facts using the programme Times Tables Rockstars, this involves regular practice at home via the app which is accessible through a variety of means. This rapid recall is also echoed at school by regular, targeted practice of these facts for each individual child. 

All staff are required to have an understanding of reasoning in order to challenge the children and help them reach ‘greater depth’ within their level of learning. Children are given weekly problem solving and reasoning opportunities within the lesson which is provided in both practical, written and verbal methods. In KS1 verbal reasoning skills are the main focus to reduce barriers to learning. This enables all children to access the learning regardless of their writing ability. Moving into KS2 children begin to develop written reasoning skills and begin to produce written explanations. 

Throughout the school, all areas of maths are presented in a variety of ways including concrete, pictorial and abstract to develop a confidence in maths for all children regardless of their ability. 

Maths Expectations.docx

We celebrate children sentences by selecting them from the lessons and putting them on display!