Mathematics
At King William Street CE Primary School we aim for all children to:
- develop fluency in the foundations
- ensure mastery by embedding mathematical reasoning and problem solving
- make rich connections across maths and other curriculum areas.
Our mathematics lessons are based on the National Curriculum programmes of study and we use CanDo maths club to ensure small steps progression. Our DUO (Do It, Use It and Own It) approach is the vehicle through which we challenge all pupils within the expected year group of the curriculum. We block teach against a small steps framework so that learning is slowly built up over time. We then cycle back to prior learning during Maths on Track and whole class use it lessons.
To support the children to recall prior learning each lesson will begin with a starter question that will elicit learning from the prior session, unit or year group as needed. It is crucial that accurate mathematical language is modelled and developed throughout the lesson and that all pupils are expected to use it. In this way they can demonstrate their understanding and can minimise and challenge any misconceptions. Probing questions are evident throughout the lessons, with children responding in full sentences, sentence stems are displayed in every classroom to support this.
Mathematics learning is recorded in the children’s mathematics books. This will usually be shown through the children’s own written work but may include photos or other evidence of games or more practical learning. Each lesson is identified with a WALT which links to the corresponding small step/s. These are then assessed by the class teacher and highlighted in children’s books, ready to be recorded onto Target Tracker to build an overall picture of that child’s attainment.
Do it
These activities are designed to increase the children’s fluency in maths. They are straight forward questions which include opportunities to address misconceptions or draw on prior learning.
Use it
These tasks involve problem solving. Problem solving skills, including word problems and empty box questions, are taught explicitly within maths lessons as well as within DUO activities. We regularly teach whole class use it lessons where the children are presented with a range of problems and they need to identity which skill is needed to solve that problem. These problems come from the full breadth of the curriculum.
Own it
Pupils are challenged to reason and explore a problem at a deeper level. We challenge pupils through breadth and depth and not by increasing number size or accelerating through the curriculum. Pupils are challenged to think for themselves and justify their answers to questions. All pupils encounter challenge during the lesson. We use sentence stems to support responses. At least once a unit all children are given the opportunity to take part in a whole class own it lesson. This lesson is scaffolded so all children can achieve.
'Pupils learn well in mathematics. Teachers use their knowledge of what pupils can do to revisit what they have learned previously. As pupils develop their fluency in mathematics: they are able to apply this to more demanding work, solve problems and explain their answers confidently.' OFSTED 2019
Manipulatives and models
Based on Research by Pamela Leibeck, we develop children’s understanding more if we ensure they make links between a practical experience (or context), the language to describe the experience, a model or image to capture the experience and symbols to generalise the experience. Therefore, we use practical resources (counters, tens and ones, numicon, etc) and models (bar model and images) as an integral part of maths learning to ensure connections are being made. This is across all year groups.
Choral counting
Every child counts daily (in standard increments, in decimals, in fractions) either at the start of a maths lesson or at some other point in the day. This counting should be relevant for year group expectations.
Maths on Track
Every afternoon the whole class have a Maths on Track lesson of about 20 minutes long. During this time the children take part in a teacher led activities to deliberately practice previously learnt small steps as well as practice times tables using Can do Times Tables and Times Table Rockstars quick recall sheets.
