Mathematics

Intent

We believe that students deserve a creative and ambitious mathematics curriculum, rich in skills and knowledge, which ignites curiosity and prepares them well for everyday life and future employment. Our mathematics curriculum will give students the opportunity to:

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics
• Understand the importance of mathematics in everyday life and understand the purpose of learning mathematics in school
• approach increasingly complex problems through varied and frequent practice 
• develop conceptual understanding 
• recall and apply knowledge rapidly and with increasing accuracy.
• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
• can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of contexts
• use problem solving skills effectively eg breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and seeking solutions.
• can use a range of tools and manipulatives to enable them to solve problems through the “help yourself” stations set up in classrooms
• can communicate, justify, argue and prove using increasingly complex mathematical vocabulary.
• develop their resilience, confidence and independence, so that they contribute positively to the life of the school, their local community and the wider environment.

Implementation

Mathematics is an essential element of everyday life. At Compass Point we aim to give all children a positive and fun experience of maths based firmly around the National Curriculum's aims of fluency, problem solving and reasoning. We place a strong emphasis on the four operations (addition, subtraction, division & multiplication) as well as geometry, measure, fraction/decimals/percentages and statistics. Alongside explicit maths lessons, where children learn both written and mental methods, we aim to provide children with mathematical experiences which have a real life context.

Every class from EYFS to Y6 follows the White Rose scheme of learning which is based on the National Curriculum. Lessons may be adapted to address the individual needs and requirements for a class but coverage is maintained.The curriculum is carefully mapped to allow for progression through key concepts, skills and knowledge. Children revisit key learning on a cyclical basis and this enables key skills and concepts to be firmly embedded. We also use a range of planning resources including those provided by the NCETM and NRICH to enrich our children’s maths learning.

To support our assessment of pupils we use  the ‘Ready to progress’ criteria produced by the Department for Education. This document maps the White Rose Scheme to the Ready to progress criteria.

We have adopted the Mathematics Mastery approach to teaching maths. Further reading on this approach can be found here but a summary of this can be found below.

Objects and pictures:

Children use concrete manipulatives (objects) and pictorial representations (pictures), before moving to abstract symbols (numbers and signs).

Language development:

The way that children speak and write about mathematics has been shown to have an impact on their success. Lessons are carefully sequenced, introducing and reinforcing mathematical vocabulary. Every lesson includes opportunities for children to explain or justify their mathematical reasoning.

Problem solving:

Mathematical problem solving is then applied – it is both how children learn maths, and the reason why they learn maths. By accumulating knowledge of mathematics concepts, the children can develop and test their problem solving in every lesson.

Work is differentiated to ensure all children are challenged and supported. We use a range of different resources (eg numicon, diennes and cuisenaire), models and images to help children develop a solid understanding of number.

If children need extra support in maths we run a number of intervention programmes – Numbers Count, First Class at Number and Success @ Arithmetic.

Home Learning:

All children in the school have been given access to TimesTables Rockstar or Numbots to practice Times tables and Number facts at home. The app is free to download and available from your app store. Alternatively you can log-in here:

https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student

https://play.numbots.com/#/account/search-school

White Rose Maths have also released a 1-Minute Maths app to help children to build greater number confidence and fluency in engaging 1-minute chunks. Available to download from any app store.

Impact

Pupil conferencing has shown that sometimes our children underperform in Mathematics because they think they cannot do it or are not naturally good at it. The school’s maths curriculum is designed to address this and to develop a growth mindset approach towards Mathematics. Children are better able to articulate their learning and use correct mathematical vocabulary and sentence stems to enable them to do this.

As our maths curriculum is further embedded and as children become more confident in their abilities we are seeing:

• children who are increasingly engaged in maths lessons
• children who can articulate their learning and talk confidently about Mathematics
• children who are better able to make links with other subjects and with the wider world

Our goal is that more of our reception children achieve age-related expectations within the early learning goals, and a greater percentage of our children achieve the higher standard scores at the end of each key stage.

Useful Documents

We have developed our own calculation policy to ensure we are teaching key mathematical skills in a consistent and progressive way.

Calculation Policy

We use a consistent mathematical language across the school in order to developing a deeper understanding of number and the way they relate to each other. Each mathematical language skill has an icon related to it.

Mathematical Skills Language

Maths websites for children

Below is a list of useful websites to use at home. These links will take you to sites which are full of excellent games and activities to help your child practice their maths skills. We also include links to high quality maths resources within each of the class blogs. these are added to on a termly basis so please keep checking back for new links and documents.

Maths Zone - Free interactive maths resources for use in schools, homeschooling or for homework arranged in the different maths topic categories.

Numeracy List of numeracy websites for 4-11 year old students, including games and activities and resources for teachers and parents.

NRICH Challenging maths games and activities

Count On Full of maths games, activities and further links