Maths

Rationale:

At Ermine Primary Academy, we believe that mathematical teaching and learning will equip children with a unique set of tools to impact and change the world we live in. This is achieved through developing and honing skills within calculation, reasoning and problem solving. We value every contribution they make and endeavour to ensure that every child achieves success within their centred learning path as well as a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards the importance of maths in everyday life.

Mathematics introduces children to concepts, skills and thinking strategies that are essential in everyday life and support learning across the National Curriculum (2014). It helps children make sense of the numbers, patterns and shapes they see in the world around them, offers ways of handling data in an increasingly digital world and makes a crucial contribution to their development as successful learners.

Children delight in using mathematics to solve a problem, especially when it leads them to an unexpected discovery or new connections. As their confidence grows, they look for patterns, use logical reasoning, suggest solutions and try out different approaches to problems.

Studying mathematics stimulates curiosity, fosters creativity and equips children with the skills they need in life beyond school.

We are committed to ensuring that all children achieve mastery in the key concepts of mathematics, appropriate for their age group, in order that they make genuine progress and avoid gaps in their understanding that provide barriers to learning as they move through education. White Rose Maths, PiXL, investigative thinking, problem solving, critical mathematical judgements and the development of teacher subject knowledge are essential components of our approach to Maths.

Intent of our curriculum:

It is our intent to develop:

• Confidence when using numbers within the number system and the connecting patterns/relationships in maths.
• Fluency with core number facts and knowledge to allow them to apply these confidently in a range of contexts.
• Children into problem solvers, who can think critically, systematically and logically when applying areas of maths.
• A real life context for using maths to bring the subject to life.
• Clear communication when using and applying mathematical language.
• Independence within their learning to work on their own and collaboratively when working with others.
• Perseverance, resilience and self-confidence through a sense of achievement and success within their learning journeys.
   

Principles of Teaching and Learning in a Mastery Curriculum:

For our aim of a mastery mathematical curriculum, we will be making use of the White Rose Maths Hub schemes of learning and planning material. These form our long term and medium term planning. Teachers are expected to adapt the scheme to match the needs of their cohort as well as follow the Ermine 7 part lesson structure.

The White Rose Maths Hub are one of many national Government funded hubs who work with hundreds of early years, primary and secondary schools to raise standards and inspire children and their teachers about the power of maths. As a hub, they have produced a series of learning schemes, assessments and teaching resources to support teaching for mastery. The schemes have proved extremely useful so far for hundreds of schools around the country in helping teachers understand what teaching for mastery might look like. The fluency, reasoning and problem solving ideas exemplify what depth could look like for each area of mathematics. There is a particularly strong emphasis on developing fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills- this will also ensure the continuity and progression in the teaching of maths. https://whiterosemaths.com

Within a unit of work, the time spent on teaching a specific learning objective, or small step, depends on the needs of the children. Staff follow the small steps model to develop their lesson planning and ensure a progressive teaching of core skills.

In order for continuous assessment within branches of maths to occur, lessons will follow the following 7 part lesson structure:  

Stop, Pause, Play (review of the last lessons learning)

Times tables/counting work.

Daily skills review

Rapid reasoning

Teacher input

Apply/activities/focus groups

Plenary/review

Ermine ensures that every child will be given a range of experiences within mathematical learning opportunities  which promotes progress that combines practical activities, mathematical games, problem solving tasks, open-ended questions, variety of methods to build and choose upon through our calculation policy where the child can decide the efficiency and the reliability of them, individual, paired, grouped or whole class discussion-based learning opportunities and a wide-range of talk-less teaching activities.

A wide range of vocabulary will be displayed around the classroom where appropriate in order to dissect, discuss, promote and apply within a cross-curricular approach.

The Maths strands that the children will be striving for mastery within include:

• Number – including place value, four operations, FDP, algebra and ratio.
• Measurement – including time, money, length, mass, capacity, perimeter, area, volume and conversion of units.
• Geometry – including shape, position and direction.
• Statistics