Maths
Our Maths Lead is Mrs Guy
Teaching and learning Maths at St Joseph’s Primary School |
A brief introduction and profile:
Our Curriculum
At St. Joseph's, our vision is for every child to embrace their inner mathematician: fostering the confidence to think and communicate with the clarity and precision of mathematicians. We aim to instil in each pupil the belief that they possess the skills and mindset to excel in maths, empowering them to engage confidently with mathematical concepts both in thought and expression.
Our maths curriculum aims to promote a love of maths: enabling our pupils to become enthusiastic, creative and articulate mathematicians who use their skills to become great problem solvers. Mathematics is a tool for life, which provides a way of viewing and making sense of the world. It is used to analyse and communicate information and ideas and to tackle a range of tasks and real-life problems. Our intention is to prepare our children not only for high school, but also for maths in context of their everyday lives including further education and careers.
Our maths curriculum intends to help pupils become fluent, determined mathematicians, who can confidently explain their understanding and solve problems in all strands of maths.To meet these aims, our curriculum is designed and delivered with a Maths Mastery approach, through a curriculum which teaches fluency, develops automaticity and enables mathematical thinking to enable and empower our pupils to develop a coherent knowledge and understanding of all aspects of Maths. Wherever possible, Maths is linked to real world contexts so children can understand the relevance to their lives.
Maths In EYFS
In the early years, maths knowledge and understanding is developed in a variety of ways through both structured teaching and opportunities in the continuous provision.
Children take part in short maths sessions daily and are given time to explore mathematical concepts, test ideas, develop their understanding and practice taught skills. The short sessions use resources from theMastering Number Program - a project delivered by the National Centre for Excellent in the Teaching of Mathematics. The project aims to help children build a strong understanding of number sense and fluency . In addition to learning about number, children develop their knowledge of shape, space and measures using resources from the White Rose Maths Hub.
Maths can be found in all areas of our Early Years provision - both inside and outside - and children experience it in a purposeful meaningful context within their play and daily routines. Children are encouraged to use their mathematical understanding and skills to solve real-life problems and staff are trained to identify and extend opportunities to develop this further. The curriculum is further enriched with stories, songs, games and imaginative play.
Maths in Key Stage 1
In Key Stage 1, we follow the National Curriculum program of study with a Mastery approach. We use the White Rose Maths scheme which is adapted to meet the needs of each class to ensure full coverage of the curriculum including building fluency, problem solving and reasoning skills. Other resources are carefully selected to support the White Rose Maths materials in order to ensure children's maths is developed using practical activities, visual representations and other resources in order to offer the children a deep mathematical understanding of the main mathematical concepts, number and place value, calculation, shape and measure.
In addition, the children continue to develop their secure knowledge of number with a daily 'Mastering Number' session as part of the project with the National Centre for Excellent in Mathematics Teaching. Over the year, the children experience a range of resources and representations, including a small, abacus-like piece of equipment called a rekenrek. |
Maths in Key Stage 2 In Key Stage 2, we continue to follow the National Curriculum via a Mastery approach with the White Rose Maths scheme. Children continue to build fluency with number facts, including times tables, place values a teaching is planned to ensure that pupils become increasingly fluent with whole numbers including number facts and the concept of place value as well as mastering the formal methods of calculation for the four operations. Children continue to solve a range of problems, including fractions and decimals as well as deepening their knowledge and application of skills within topics such as shape, measurement and statistics.
In order to strengthen the number sense developed through the Mastering Number project, in Key Stage 2 children have 'Maths Talk' sessions. In these sessions children build accuracy, flexibility and efficient in mathematical thinking through the discussion and sharing of mental maths strategies. These sessions enable children to have meaningful discussions on how to solve number problems and is a powerful tool to help them develop strong arithmetic skills.
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Assessment @ SJPS
Formative assessment takes place between teachers and children on a regular basis in the form of verbal and written feedback. Teachers identify the achievement of specific objectives and this enables them to have a record of what each child has achieved, and then to assess and plan what the next steps in a child’s learning should be. We use post assessments in number, calculation and fractions units and these help inform future planning and teaching and show progress.
Summative assessments are used at regular intervals towards the end of each term and are used to determine the level at which individual children are working. These assessments are recorded to monitor the progress of children between terms and across the year and to ensure any areas of need are identified for addressing in future teaching.
Intervention Some children, for various reasons, do not demonstrate a full understanding or make adequate progress in the area being taught. So children have further opportunity to address gaps in knowledge or understanding , extra time is offered to revisit the learning focus often with a teaching assistant. We call this first response intervention. If children continue to consistently need further support with their maths knowledge and understanding, then we provide target intervention.
Mastery for all To ensure greater fluency, children revisit important skills regularly and teachers plan sequences of lessons to ensure the children learn in small steps and then get the opportunity to use and apply the skills learnt, therefore mastering their numerical skills. |
Models and resources we use in Maths.
Here you will find some of the models and resources that will be used in our maths lessons to develop our knowledge and understanding. Children (and adults) can find maths difficult because it is abstract. We use an approach in our teaching called, 'The Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) approach which builds on children’s existing knowledge by introducing abstract concepts in a concrete and tangible way. It involves moving from concrete materials, to pictorial representations, to abstract symbols and problems.
Concrete step of CPA
Concrete is the “doing” stage. During this stage, students use concrete objects to model problems. Unlike traditional maths teaching methods where teachers demonstrate how to solve a problem, the CPA approach brings concepts to life by allowing children to experience and handle physical (concrete) objects.
Pictorial step of CPA
Pictorial is the “seeing” stage. Here, visual representations of concrete objects are used to model problems. This stage encourages children to make a mental connection between the physical object they just handled and the abstract pictures, diagrams or models that represent the objects from the problem.
Building or drawing a model makes it easier for children to grasp difficult abstract concepts (for example, fractions). Simply put, it helps students visualise abstract problems and make them more accessible.
Abstract step of CPA
Abstract is the “symbolic” stage, where children use abstract symbols to model problems. Students will not progress to this stage until they have demonstrated that they have a solid understanding of the concrete and pictorial stages of the problem. The abstract stage involves the teacher introducing abstract concepts (for example, mathematical symbols). Children are introduced to the concept at a symbolic level, using only numbers, notation, and mathematical symbols (for example, +, –, x, /) to indicate addition, multiplication or division.
Ten frame
Part, part whole model
Bar model
Bar models in KS 2
