At St Lawrence primary school we recognise that mathematics is a key skill within school, and that a high-quality maths education is essential as a foundation for understanding how maths is used in everyday life.
INTENT
Through the teaching of maths, we aim to develop:
- A love for maths.
- An awareness of its relevance to the real world.
- Confident and competent learners.
- A resilience so the child will persevere to reason and solve problems.
- Curious and enquiring minds that are willing to investigate.
- The importance of ‘Maths talk’ so the child can explain their thinking using the correct vocabulary.
- Fluency with number facts and the use of different methods thereby reducing the impact on working memory.
- The ability to look for patterns and relationships.
- Work both independently, and collaboratively in pairs and within groups.
- A ‘Mistake friendly’ environment where importance is put on the power to think and prove and not just to provide an answer.
IMPLEMENTATION
At St Lawrence Primary, we have implemented many aspects of Mastery and are continuing to develop our understanding of the 5 big ideas: representations, variation, fluency, mathematical thinking and the need for coherence [ small step learning].
We currently follow the White Rose overview for each year group from year 1 to year 6, but need to make slight changes to accommodate mixed age classes and the needs of the children. The NCETM progression maps and the school’s Calculation Policy help teachers make links between year groups to aid delivery of learning objectives.
The NCETM plans and resources are also used when appropriate.
At St Lawrence Primary, you will see:
- Use of TTrockstars and our own designed times table sheets to practise multiplication and division facts.
- Resources from White Rose, NCETM, ‘I see reasoning’, Nrich and other reputable sources.
- The Mastering Number programme in reception, year 1 and year 2[ currently on cycle 2] as well as the use of it in the junior classes as a catch-up programme.
- A Daily 6 session, separate from the class lesson, to practise and recall past mathematical concepts. This will include challenges for the more able.
- Well-designed lessons using a Concrete, Visual, Abstract approach and the use of stem sentences.
- Opportunities for children to talk about maths and explain mathematical thinking using full sentences and correct vocabulary.
- Opportunities to work as individuals, pairs and groups on different mathematical problems.
- Reasoning and problem solving as an integral part of the lesson with children regularly being presented with ‘low threshold, high ceiling’ problems to engage and motivate all learners.
- Small step learning and effective questioning that will lead to deep understanding of different concepts.
- An environment where children are encouraged to prove their responses in different ways and that the journey to an answer is valued highly.
- Conceptual and procedural variation is planned into lessons so that children, through spotting similarities and differences, will see patterns, make connections and have deeper understanding.
- Built in opportunities, ’retrieval practice,’ for children to review previous content thereby strengthening learning and storage in long term memory.
- Children’s work being marked to inform planning for the next session with some issues being addressed in the plenary.
- A culture amongst the staff where good practice is shared on a regular basis through paired teaching and observations.
IMPACT
The children at St Lawrence…
- Enjoy maths and have a ‘can do’ attitude.
- Know maths is a vital skill and understand its relevance and importance in relation to real world concepts.
- Have a pride in their books, which will be of a high standard and reflect the components of the teaching sequence with a mix of whole class, collaborative and independent learning tasks.
- Are predominantly in line with year group expectations.[ summative assessment each term]
- Achieve well in end of EYFS, key stage 1 and 2 assessments with the majority of children gaining the expected standard or greater depth. [ Year 6 data 2021-2022, 86% Exp+ 32% GD]
- Achieve well on the times table screening test at year 4.
- Demonstrate through ‘low stake’ testing activities such as quizzes and ‘The Daily 6’ that they are retaining previously learnt content by storing in long term memory. ‘Will know more and remember more’.
- Show fluency within their number fact knowledge and their ability to use different methods thereby reducing stress on working memory, and allowing children to think about more complex reasoning problems.
- Demonstrate deep understanding by showing a concept in more than one way.