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Maths

Intent

At Crookhill, we fully appreciate that mathematics is a skill we use on a daily basis and is an essential part of everyday life. Therefore, we teach for secure and deep understanding of mathematical concepts through manageable small steps to ensure that children become fluent in basic skills, become efficient in different methods for calculations and are able to reason about and apply them to different problems and situations. Reasoning and problem solving are embedded in the curriculum to support the children to be able to explain the how and the why behind the maths they are using. This supports them to make connections between their learning and apply it in different contexts. We intend to develop and embed the children’s knowledge and understanding of place value, the 4 operations, fractions and decimals, geometry, measures and data handling. We endeavour to ensure that children develop an enjoyment and enthusiasm for maths that will stay with them throughout their lives and empower them in future life.

Our curriculum is progressive and builds on previous learning as well as ensuring that the children are ready for the next step in their learning. It is built on the aims of the National Curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2.

The National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

  • become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems
  • 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 routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

We use the Medium Term Plans from Gateshead County Council, which is a spiral curriculum, to allow the children to revisit concepts throughout the year, with deepening complexity. These are adapted to meet the needs of the children within the class and use the Ready to Progress Criteria to ensure previous concepts are fully embedded before moving on the next step of their learning. We endeavour to make links between mathematics and other subjects and allow the children to apply their learning in different contexts.

Implementation

How do we deliver mathematics at Crookhill Primary School?

  • Mathematics is taught daily across KS1 and KS2, with continuous provision also available in KS1. In EYFS, the children have a daily mathematics challenge and adult led activities on a rotation system throughout the week.
  • The curriculum is based on the Gateshead County Council Medium Term Plans which are adapted to form weekly plans detailing small steps used to meet the larger National Curriculum statement.
  • Crookhill have a specific calculation policy which details the mental and written strategies to be introduced in each year group – if the children are at this stage in their learning.
  • We use a range of planning and resources including White Rose and Classroom Secrets but we do not follow a specific scheme as planning is designed to meet the meets of the individual children within the class.
  • We use a range of concrete resources including place value counters and base ten to model and represent the curriculum in different ways.
  • Links with mathematics are made across the curriculum and children are given the opportunity to apply key skills in different subjects.
  • We deliver mathematics lessons using a range of different types of activities including but not limited to: teacher led activities, guided work, paired work and independent work.
  • We use a variety of concrete resources and pictorial representations at all ages to enable children to fully understand the concepts and principals.
  • We regularly revisit the content of lessons (and previous learning from prior year groups) to ensure that learning is embedded.
  • Children are given regular opportunities to reason about their work and give explanations about how they have reached an answer.
  • Children are given opportunities to solve both routine and non-routine problems.
  • Daily fluency sessions rooted in retrieval practise allows children to make connections between concepts and commit their understanding to long term memory.

Impact

We believe that progression in all aspects of mathematics require all aspects of the subject to be developed and built upon.  The children’s knowledge and understanding of place value, the 4 operations, fractions and decimals, geometry, measures and data handling should be secure by the time they leave KS2.  Key concepts and understanding can be assessed throughout each teaching sequence and then build upon in further sessions. 

An ongoing record of these skills and concepts is kept in order to build up a picture throughout the Milestone phase the child is working in.  Milestone assessment sheets give suggestions to staff of how information can be collected through assessment activities which will help to build a picture of each child or cohort’s current level of understanding. 

By the end of KS2, we aim for children to be fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics with a conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. They should have the skills to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of situations with increasing sophistication, including in unfamiliar contexts and to model real-life scenarios. Children will be able to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language.