Mathematics

Charles Darwin Community Primary School

Mathematics Overview

Our intent

Charles Darwin pupils will

• develop a lifelong love of mathematics
• gain an appreciation of the value of maths in daily life by experiencing links to the wider curriculum to see how maths underpins much of what we do in our everyday lives
• achieve fluency in key mathematical concepts, alongside development of reasoning and problem solving skills
• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, developing conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately
• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
• 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

What this looks like at Charles Darwin

Maths in taught daily in all classes. Teachers use the Maths curriculum progression to ensure the curriculum objectives are covered over the year. The curriculum progression also supports the development of reasoning and problem solving as children progress through the school. Teachers adopt a concrete, pictorial, abstract (CPA) approach to teaching Maths, which supports the mastery of concepts in a time frame appropriate to the child. Throughout our Maths lessons children are given opportunities to use mental, formal written and informal methods to calculate, problem solve and reason and explicit links between areas of maths are taught.  All Key Stage 2 classes have at least one dedicated times tables session each week where children work to develop and maintain their knowledge of times tables.

EYFS

Maths in the EYFS develops the children’s maths skills to help them achieve their Maths Early Learning Goal which lays the foundations for the children’s development of essential calculation skills in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This ensures they are ready for the next stage of their learning. At Charles Darwin, this acquisition of skills is done through both adult guided activities and well planned opportunities for self-initiated play.

Reception children have a daily Maths lesson where they focus on learning numbers to 20, patterns and shape (both 2D and 3D), measures (size, weight, capacity, position), time and money. Teaching of Maths in EYFS at Charles Darwin is adapted and differentiated depending on the specific needs of the children and taught in ability groups in order to best address those needs.

Maths is also used to enrich the Early Year’s’ learning environment including in the outdoor area.

The Classroom Environment

All teachers have working walls for Maths in their classrooms which link to the current topic of study as well as displaying key concepts that link across the Maths curriculum. A selection of key vocabulary is also displayed. Each classroom has access to a toolkit of resources to support the CPA approach and children are aware of where to obtain these resources.

In EYFS children have access to mathematical materials in many areas of the learning environment both inside and outside as well as a dedicated Maths area in the classroom allowing the children to independently access a wide range of resources to aid their mathematical development. Engaging and appropriate resources, time linked to the topic of the week, are also used to enhance their play during their child-initiated.

Home Learning

All children from Year 2 and above have access to the Times Tables Rock Stars online programme. Login information is sent home at the beginning of each year and children access this programme in a number of ways. Children are encouraged to play for short periods as often as possible so as to improve their recall of times table facts. For those children that have difficulty accessing this resource at home, further opportunities are offered in school through lunchtime and after school clubs.

Making Maths accessible to all 

At Charles Darwin subject leaders and teachers work together to ensure Maths is accessible to all.  The vast majority of children will work on their own year group’s objectives and will be supported in achieving these by differentiated level of challenge, adult support, concrete resources and classroom displays. Same day interventions correct identified misconceptions and provide opportunities to establish fluency. For those who are not yet working within their year group’s objectives teachers will teach and assess the child according to their individual needs.

Cross Curricular Opportunities

Mathematical links with other areas of learning are made wherever possible to reinforce the importance of Maths in daily life.  There is an expectation that children will apply their learning in other areas of the curriculum and opportunities to do so are planned in all key stages. 

Upper Key Stage 2 children use their mathematical knowledge when working with money and budgeting in Barclays’ Life Skills workshops as well as running fundraising stalls throughout the year. Concrete understanding of money is enhanced for individual children through visits to the local shops and the school’s annual “Dragons’ Den” competition encourages children to think about expenditure and profit in industry.

Children will use many aspects of their mathematical knowledge in other areas of the curriculum such as weighing and measuring in DT, measuring time and distance in PE, timelines in History and numerous applications in Science. Teachers regularly use songs to reinforce learning and introduce movement to lessons e.g. BBC Supermovers Videos and Mathsrockx. The school also takes part in national initiatives to celebrate Maths, such as World Number Day.

Assessment

At Charles Darwin assessment for learning is an integral part of the teaching process and used to inform planning and to facilitate differentiation.  The assessment of children’s work is on-going to determine understanding and to ensure that progress is being made.  Teachers use formative assessment to judge attainment and to ensure that future learning opportunities are well matched to needs. Throughout units, mastery checks are used to ensure mastery of key objectives for each year group. These are taken from the NCETM national assessment document. Maths Reviews using key performance indicator are used at the start and end of each unit to assess attainment, as well as allowing children to evaluate their own understanding and progress. Subject leaders track attainment across the school and twice yearly NFER assessments and are used to support teacher judgement of pupil attainment. Regular work with other schools is used to moderate children’s work and to allow subject leaders and teachers to ensure the validity of their assessments.

Training and CPD

Teachers and TAs receive frequent continuing professional development; in the last 18 months this has been as part of the SSIF Nexus programme.  Training is also provided by Maths SLEs and First 4 Maths as well as in-house by the school’s Maths leads.

Monitoring
Monitoring will take place in the form of termly scrutiny of the following

• sampling a range of children’s work (of varying ability) in books or on display
• learning walks when Maths is taking place
• pupil voice
• use of KPI assessment grids to identify gaps in understanding

Roles and Responsibilities
The subject is led by L. Bilotta and K. Holmes and time is regularly set aside to review the quality of education, monitor curriculum provision and ensure training and resources are up to date.

Resources
Staff use the NCETM website and White Rose resources along with a wide range of text books to support teaching and learning.

Impact

Outcomes for children for all aspects of Maths are strong at each phase.

Our children are confident mathematicians with positive attitudes and a robust resilience, openly stating that “..pinks are how you get better” and “I like the really challenging work”. They acquire sound mathematical building blocks in their first school years and are able to use these as they move on to new concepts and ideas.

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