Our Mathematics coordinator is Mrs A Bateman.
At Towngate Primary Academy, Mathematics is explicitly taught at every phase of the children’s education to allow all pupils to become numerate and confident in Maths.
We strive to create a mathematics curriculum which is accessible to all, allowing all children to make sense of the world around them by developing their ability to recall facts with automaticity, calculate efficiently, reason, solve problems and think in abstract ways.
Our curriculum is formed from the objectives set out in the Programmes of Study from the National Curriculum, Development Matters and the White Rose Maths Hub schemes of learning in order structure our curriculum, ensure consistency across the academy and to support staff subject knowledge. In line with the National Curriculum and Development Matters, the Maths Leader has constructed a progression grid to clearly outline the progression of knowledge, skills and vocabulary across the academy.
Mastery
Across school, we use a Mastery approach to ensure that children develop deep and long-lasting mathematical understanding of procedures and concepts, allowing children to keep up, not catch up.
Our Mathematics curriculum intends to maximise the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement by delivering daily lessons that are creative and engaging – allowing them to know more and remember more. We want our children to know that Maths is essential to everyday life and, as they progress, have an appreciation of the beauty and power of maths. The expectation is that the majority of pupils will progress through their year group’s expectations at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through being offered rich mastery and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material are provided with opportunities to consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.
As our pupils progress further in their education, we intend for them to be confident mathematicians who are able to understand the world, have the ability to reason mathematically and have an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics – preparing them for a successful working life.
Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract
Teachers use carefully selected CPA approaches and a range of mathematical vocabulary and sentence stems in their Maths classrooms to reveal the structures and to promote discussion and explanation.
Calculations
Efficient Calculation methods (both mental and written) are taught across school. Children are supported to understand efficient methods and then to use them fluently. Children develop efficient, accurate and clear methods for the four operations and they learn to present them logically and neatly to reduce the risk of accidental errors.
At Towngate Primary Academy, our approach to the teaching of mathematics develops children’s ability to work both independently and collaboratively.
Lessons are personalised to address the individual needs and requirements for a cohort but coverage is maintained based on the National Curriculum. In order to further develop the children’s fluency, reasoning and problem-solving, we use NCETM and NRich which correlate to the White Rose lessons and further develops children’s understanding of a concept and the links between maths topics.
In Early Years, Mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in the six key areas of early maths; cardinality and counting, comparison, composition, pattern, shape and space and measures. All areas of the provision have mathematical activities for the children to access as well as daily focused maths sessions.
Lesson Structure
To ensure children know more and remember more, all maths lessons begin with a brief, daily review of prior knowledge and offer the time to introduce new subject specific vocabulary.
Maths is a subject specific lesson, which builds upon previously taught knowledge, skills and vocabulary covered in our progression grids. We aim to develop children’s enjoyment of maths and provide opportunities for children to build a conceptual understanding of maths before applying their knowledge to everyday problems and challenges. Lessons include times table practice, daily reviews of previously taught skills, knowledge and vocabulary acquisition through guided and independent practice and opportunities to reason and problem solve in a secure learning environment.
Through each maths lesson, new content is taught through small steps using CPA approaches to support children in their learning journey. This progresses into supported and independent practice for children to secure their new skills. Through mathematical talk, children develop the ability to articulate and discuss their thinking. We strive to ensure that children are taught to become competent mathematicians by embedding the skills and processes necessary to enable children to use and apply their Maths learning efficiently and in a variety of contexts. In order to advance individual children’s maths skills in school and at home, we utilise Times Tables Rock Stars for multiplication practise and teach a weekly arithmetic lesson to increase speed and recall if key mathematical facts.
Formative Assessment Strategies
Teachers use questioning to elicit feedback from all students to expose and address any misconceptions in learning. Where these misconceptions are seen, they are readdressed through supported practice to enable all children to succeed. Teachers use a range of tools to support children in knowing more and remembering more in maths. These include working walls, knowledge organisers as prompts on tables, vocabulary displays and steps to success. Over the course of the term, children will revisit and recall previous learning to identify gaps in learning which must be planned for.
Through our teaching we continuously monitor pupils’ progress against expected attainment for their age, making formative assessment judgements and using these to inform our teaching. Summative assessments are completed at the end of each term; their results form discussions in termly Pupil Progress Meetings and update our summative school tracker. The main purpose of all assessment is to always ensure that we are providing excellent provision for every child.
Children at Towngate Primary Academy understand and value the importance of Mathematics, this is evident through pupil voice and monitoring which takes place every half term by the curriculum leader. We strive to equip our children with the skills to confidently make rich connections across mathematical ideas as a result of developing fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated, contextual problems during their time at Towngate Primary Academy. Children use their Mathematics skills as a key tool in helping them to learn, and as a result, know more, remember more and understand more.
Pupil voice, gathered by the Maths lead, will show that children talk enthusiastically about their maths lessons and speak about how they love learning about maths. They have a secure understanding of the key strategies, methods, and vocabulary for each key area of the curriculum and can articulate the context in which maths is being taught, relating this to real life purposes. Children show confidence and believe they can learn about a new maths area and apply the knowledge and skills they already have, understanding different representations they have been exposed to. Children have a developed understanding of the methods and skills of mathematicians at an age appropriate level.
Monitoring will show a clear progression of skills and vocabulary in line with the expectations set out in the subject progression grid. Books and lesson observations will show that pupils use acquired vocabulary in maths lessons, they have the skills to use methods independently and show resilience when tackling problems. Pupils, at an age appropriate level, are flexibly and fluently able to move between different contexts and representations. The children have a high level of pride in the presentation of their work and have a quick recall of key mathematical facts and procedures. Children are able to produce work which evidences good progress from their last point of statutory assessment and their starting points.
Through high quality first wave teaching, guidance and effective feedback, children will achieve age-related expectations by the end of each year group and some children will have progressed further to achieve greater depth. Summative assessment takes place at the end of each term and children’s progress and attainment is discussed with senior leaders in pupil progress meetings. Attainment and outcomes in mathematics have a prominent focus throughout our academy. By the end of Key Stage Two, children will leave our academy prepared for the next step in their mathematical education equipped with secure, long-term, deep and adaptable understanding of maths which they can apply in different contexts.
