Maths

Maths!

Psalm 90:12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. 

Nihil Sine Deo 

Intent:

Our aim at St Anne’s and St Joseph’s is for all children to enjoy mathematics and have a secure and deep understanding of fundamental mathematical concepts and procedures when they leave us to go to secondary school. We want children to see the mathematics that surrounds them every day and enjoy developing vital life skills in this subject.  

Aims for our pupils: 

To develop a growth mindset and positive attitude towards mathematics.  

To become confident and proficient with number, including fluency with mental calculation and look for connections between numbers. To become problem solvers, who can reason, think logically, work systematically and apply their knowledge of mathematics.  

To develop their use of mathematical language.  

To become independent learners and to work co-operatively with others.  

To appreciate real life contexts to learning in mathematics.  

Implementation. 

In September 2021, St Anne’s and St Joseph’s Primary School began transitioning towards a mastery approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics. We use White Rose materials and resources to support this teaching and learning.

Teaching for Mastery Principles  

It is achievable for all – we have high expectations and encourage a positive ‘can do’ mindset towards mathematics in all pupils, creating learning experiences which develop children’s resilience in the face of a challenge and carefully scaffolding learning so everyone can make progress.  

Deep and sustainable learning – lessons are designed with careful small steps, questions and tasks in place to ensure the learning is not superficial.  

The ability to build on something that has already been sufficiently mastered – pupils’ learning of concepts is seen a continuum across the school.   

The ability to reason about a concept and make connections – pupils are encouraged to make connections and spot patterns between different concepts (E.g. the link between ratio, division and fractions) and use precise mathematical language, which frees up working memory and deepens conceptual understanding.  

Conceptual and procedural fluency – teachers move mathematics from one context to another (using objects, pictorial representations, equations and word problems). There are high expectations for pupils to learn times tables, key number facts (so they are automatic) and have a true sense of number. Pupils are also encouraged to think whether their method for tackling a given calculation or problem is Appropriate, Reliable and Efficient (A.R.E).  

Problem solving is central – this develops pupils’ understanding of why something works so that they truly have an appreciation of what they are doing rather than just learning to repeat routines without grasping what is happening.  

Challenge through greater depth - rather than accelerated content, (moving onto next year’s concepts) teachers set tasks to deepen knowledge and improve reasoning skills within the objectives of their year group.

 Resources to support learning:

All pupils in school have access to TT Rock Stars and the Century app in KS2, to support further learning at home.

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