Mathematics

Intent

‘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.’ - 2014 National Curriculum

At Manor Primary School, we provide children with a mastery rich mathematics curriculum with the intent of developing confident, happy and resilient learners. The ability to reason, problem solve and recall key facts is of high priority throughout our school, supporting children on their learning journey and promoting good progress.

Implementation

At Manor Primary School, mathematics is split into two parts during the school day. Children take part in a main maths lesson, which is structured in a way that develops both children’s varied fluency and mastery abilities. Children also receive an additional 15 minutes of ‘Overlearning’ in KS2 and ‘Mastering Number’ in EYFS and KS1. Overlearning follows a timetable consisting of Multiplication Monday, Mental Maths Tuesday, Reasoning Wednesday, Teacher Choice Thursday and Fraction Friday. These topics have been selected after identifying gaps in learning and analysing assessments. Day to day assessment is also used to inform Overlearning lessons. Main maths lessons ensure coverage of the National Curriculum, with teachers using the White Rose Hub scheme of learning to support the planning and resourcing of lessons. Blocks of study are broken down into small steps, allowing children the time and resources to grasp key concepts and objectives. We have adapted to use the new WRH steps of learning in 2022.

What does a mathematics lesson look like at our school?

A mathematics lesson at Manor Primary School uses a circular structure, designed to provide every child with the opportunity to discuss their learning, develop their fluency skills and tackle mastery activities. Foundation stage follow the structure over a period of 3 days, exploring the same fluency and application of a skills based approach, tackling age appropriate problems.

Discussion prompt

Each maths lesson begins with a discussion used to promote mastery. The discussion will be based on a reasoning or problem solving question. This allows the class to discuss their previous and upcoming learning, drawing out misconceptions which can then be added to the class working wall.

Teach and Activity

Teachers are now able to address any misconceptions that have arisen from the ‘discuss’ stage. Teachers also model to children the key skills needed to achieve the lesson’s ‘I can’ statement in a variety of ways. Children follow this with an activity designed to build their fluency skills in the given area of mathematics. This will cover a range of learning strategies, including the use of concrete, pictorial and abstract representations by children to show and develop their understanding of a topic.

Misconception Check

Identifying and addressing misconceptions is a key aspect of learning. Teachers use discussion and marking within lesson to identify any misconceptions that have arisen. Teachers then use these misconceptions to stop the class and make a teaching point, in order to support those who have already shown the misconception, and to prevent others from making the same errors. Children are encouraged to support and help each other as part of a team when discussing misconceptions.

Varied fluency

At this stage, children who have displayed a good level of confidence and fluency throughout the lesson are encouraged to show their work in different ways. This could be through the use of pictures, bar modelling, part-whole models and other methods.

Reasoning and Problem Solving challenge

Although reasoning is embedded throughout all lessons, evidenced in the use of sentence stems and class discussions, a challenge is provided to children during the lesson in order for them to apply their fluency skills.

What else will I see in a maths lesson at Manor Primary School?

All children engaged in their learning with an enthusiastic attitude towards the subject.
Teachers and support staff using skilful questioning to support independent thinking in children.
Sentence stems being modelled and used to aid children in explaining their learning.
Adaptations being made to lesson activities to ensure all learners are able to access the age related lesson objective.
Children receiving feedback on their work throughout the lesson.

Impact

Children are continually assessed throughout their learning journey in order to identify gaps in learning, in order to support children to make progress. For each maths lesson, the teacher completes a marking grid assessing the children against the lesson objective. This allows teachers to summarise which children needed support, which children displayed good fluency skills and which children displayed an overall mastery of the objective. Teachers can use this assessment to support children during Teacher Focus Time or to target them during the following lesson.

Children are formally assessed at the end of each term in order to track progress. Pupil Progress Meetings also take place each term between each teacher and the Headteacher in order to discuss the progress of children.

Remote Learning Provision

‘In developing their remote education, we expect schools to:

teach a planned and well-sequenced curriculum so that knowledge and skills are built incrementally, with a good level of clarity about what is intended to be taught and practised in each subject so that pupils can progress through the school’s curriculum.’ DfE January 2021 guidance

In the event that school is forced to move to remote learning provision, or in the case of a child needing to enter a period of isolation, Manor Primary School provides remote learning which mirrors the learning journey taking place in class. White Rose Hub home learning teaching videos are provided on the school website, along with the corresponding activity. Children are also provided access to Times Table Rockstars and Numbots. Evidence of home learning is uploaded to Class Dojo by each child, with the class teacher able to provide support and feedback through comments and messaging.

Mastering Number

Alongside our main maths curriculum and provision, Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 are delivering the Mastering Number programme. Using a rekenrek, children will develop and secure good number sense before leaving KS1. This will then underpin their mathematical skills in KS2.

Statutory Requirements

Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers. By providing frequent and varied opportunities to build and apply this understanding - such as using manipulatives, including small pebbles and tens frames for organising counting - children will develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built. In addition, it is important that the curriculum includes rich opportunities for children to develop their spatial reasoning skills across all areas of mathematics including shape, space and measures. It is important that children develop positive attitudes and interests in mathematics, look for patterns and relationships, spot connections, ‘have a go’, talk to adults and peers about what they notice and not be afraid to make mistakes.

Intervention

Number Stacks

In Spring 2021, Manor Primary School launched the NumberStacks intervention. A member of staff completes an initial assessment with a child identified by the class teacher. This initial assessment identifies gaps in a child’s learning. The child will then start from the first objective where gaps appeared, working with a member of staff through a range of objectives up to their current year group. Objectives cover: Number and Place Value; Addition and Subtraction; Multiplication and Division; Fractions; Decimals and Percentages. The intervention uses a range of equipment to embed understanding, provided opportunities for children to develop their knowledge of number and to work mentally. Each activity builds on the last, following a logical progress through key skills in the National Curriculum, building confidence and fluency which can then be transferred into class.

Keep Up Intervention

Children may also receive 'keep up' intervention with the class teacher or support staff. This will take the form of quick, small group intervention following up on the day's in class learning. It may be used as time to address misconceptions, or to challenge children to complete a mastery activity linked to the learning. This is used to ensure that children are ready to progress with the next day's learning and are achieving their potential.