Maths

At Greenlands all children, including SEND and disadvantaged learn through a range of approaches to facilitate the best possible outcome.

“Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas”

- Albert Einstein

Why Maths Is Important

Maths is an essential skill that enables us to live an independent life. It teaches us how to make sense of the world around us, whether it be: calculating the total amount of money we need to purchase items, knowing what time to meet a connecting train or weighing precise amounts of ingredients when following a recipe. Maths helps us to develop problem solving and reasoning skills that allow us to solve a variety of problems.

At Greenlands we follow the White Rose Mathematics Scheme.

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

What Maths Looks Like At Greenlands Primary School

Our main aims at Greenlands are to make our children fluent in solving calculations involving the four mathematical operations and to equip them with the tools to solve a variety of problems. The programmes of study are, by necessity, organised into distinct areas, but pupils will make rich connections across mathematical ideas. Developing problem solving and reasoning skills is a thread that runs through all our Maths lessons. Children are constantly challenged to explain why, to prove how they know, to convince that they are correct or to find all possible outcomes. They have the opportunity to use a wide range of resources to support their learning such as hundred squares, number lines, Numicon, cubes, place value cards and other small apparatus. Mathematical skills are developed across the curriculum in subjects such as Science, Design and Technology and PE. Vocabulary will be explicitly taught at the beginning of every lesson. To facilitate children to know more and remember more key concepts run through the whole of our curriculum and opportunities to revisit previous learning are planned into every lesson.

Intent

As a school we follow the National Curriculum for Mathematics. The National Curriculum for Maths aims to ensure that all pupils:

Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics through varied and frequent practice with complexity increasing over time.
Develop conceptual understanding and ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
Reason mathematically; follow a line of enquiry, conjecture relationships and generalisations.
Develop an argument, justification and proof by using mathematical language.

Problem solve by applying knowledge to a variety of routine and non-routine problems breaking down problems into simpler steps and persevering in answering

Implementation

At Greenlands, the following principles taken from both the National Curriculum, White Rose and the NCETM on teaching for mastery, which underpin the teaching of mathematics.

The expectation is that most pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace.
Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content.
Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.
Teachers believe in the importance of mathematics and that the vast majority of children can succeed in learning mathematics in line with national expectations.
The learning needs of individuals are addressed through careful scaffolding, questioning and appropriate rapid intervention where necessary, to provide the appropriate support and challenge.
The reasoning behind mathematical processes is emphasized. Teacher/pupil interaction explores how answers were obtained as well as why the method worked and what might be the most efficient strategy. Precise mathematical language, often couched in full sentences, is used by teachers so that mathematical ideas are conveyed with clarity and precision. We value ‘mathematical talk’ and children get lots of opportunity to talk about and evaluate their mathematics during lessons.
Conceptual variation and procedural variation are used extensively throughout teaching. This helps to present the mathematics in ways that promote deep, sustainable learning.

Lesson structure

Children are mostly taught in mixed ability groups however decisions on groupings are made based on the cohort.

We use a range of resources in order to deliver the maths curriculum. We base our planning on White Rose and adapt and supplement the resources to suit the needs of the learner. Lessons follow the CONCRETE-PICTORAL-ABSTRACT approach. Each lesson begins with chanting or skip counting (times tables), review and do (review previous learning), introduce the learning objective and discuss new vocabulary, provide the children with a problem (IN FOCUS TASK) involving exploration through concrete apparatus. Pupils understanding will then be consolidated or extended through appropriate GUIDED PRACTICE TASKS/teaching modelling before children are ready to complete INDEPENDENT PRACTICE which requires them to use abstract, pictorial or concrete ways of working. Children who grasps concepts quickly will be given opportunities to deepen and apply their learning though mastery tasks from NCETM.

The emphasis in lessons is to make teaching interactive and lively, to engage all pupils encouraging them to talk about mathematics. Lessons involve elements of:

Instruction – giving information and structuring it well

Demonstrating – showing, describing and modelling mathematics using appropriate resources and visual displays

Explaining and illustrating – giving accurate and well paced explanations

Questioning and discussing
Consolidating

Reflecting and evaluating responses – identifying mistakes and using them as positive teaching points

Summarising – reviewing mathematics that has been taught enabling pupils to focus on next steps

Inclusion

All maths lessons/activities are designed and planned to include all children through a range of approaches. Lessons are planned to facilitate the best possible outcome for all children within the class.

Special educational needs & disabilities (SEND)

Daily mathematics lessons are inclusive to pupils with special educational needs and disabilities. Where required, pupils’ IEPs incorporate suitable objectives from the National Curriculum for Mathematics or Development Matters and teachers keep these in mind when planning work. These targets may be worked upon within the lesson as well as on a 1:1 basis outside the mathematics lesson. Mathematics focused intervention in schools helps pupils with gaps in their learning and mathematical understanding. These are delivered by trained support staff and overseen by the SENCO and/or the class teacher.

Within the daily mathematics lesson, teachers have a responsibility to not only provide differentiated activities to support pupils with SEND but also activities that provide sufficient challenge for pupils who are high achievers. It is the teachers’ responsibility to ensure that all pupils are challenged at a level appropriate to their ability.

End of year expectations

Useful maths websites

Timestable - Rockstar Information

BBC KS1 Bitesize Maths Games

Woodlands Maths Zone – fun interactive maths games

Ambleside Primary School Maths Zone

Coxhoe Primary School – Numeracy Games

BBC KS2 Bitesize Maths Games

Mad4Maths - fun numeracy games

Cool Maths games website for pupils

Mathszone website with hundreds of links to other websites – most resources are for KS2 with some for KS3.

Family learning a multiplication website with links to other websites full of times table games.

'Nrich' - is a Maths website which focuses entirely on problem solving. It is used in Maths throughout our school, but can also be accessed at home. There are always 'live' problems which the children can try to solve and submit their solutions online.

'Maths is fun' can be very useful for providing demonstrations and examples of how to perform different calculations. It also has a wide range of activities you can print out for children to complete.

ICT games website full of good maths games

Top marks website is full of maths interactive games for 3-5,5-7 and 7-11 years children.