Intent
Through the year, the pupils will cover all the programmes of study listed in the National Curriculum for each year group. In our medium term planning, the long-term plan is broken into terms. Each term has weeks of planned Maths teaching, covering the different programmes of study. We also plan opportunities in each term either for assessment, consolidation or just to allow for usual school timetabling issues, such as planning an end of year production.
Different programmes of study, such as properties of shapes or addition and subtraction, are visited at various points during the year in order to refresh children’s knowledge and ensure that children are consistently building upon their skills and making links between different areas of mathematics.
Our short term planning then breaks the programmes of study into weekly overviews showing work opportunities to develop the children’s fluency, but also time for reasoning and solving problems.
Alongside the Maths lessons, we build in opportunities for the pupils’ to practise their mental skills working on basic number facts and times tables, as well as an opportunity to consolidate or introduce different programmes of study.
Mathematics contributes to many subjects and it is important that children are given opportunities to apply and use mathematics in real contexts. It is important that time is found in other subjects for pupils to develop their numeracy skills, e.g. there should be regular, careful planned opportunities for measuring in Science and Technology, for the consideration of properties of shape and geometric patterns in Technology and Art, and for the collection and presentation of date in History and Geography. We endeavour at all times to set work that is challenging, motivating and encourages the pupils to think about how they learn and to talk about what they have been learning. Additional enrichment opportunities are provided for pupils to further develop mathematical thinking, e.g. through cooking, music and maths investigations, games and use of the environment and community. Teachers plan problem solving and investigational activities to ensure that pupils develop the skills of mathematical thinking and enquiry.
This Maths curriculum is intended to ensure that children have access to a high-quality Maths curriculum that builds knowledge and skills incrementally, and allows them to use their knowledge in all areas of mathematics to solve real-life problems. Mathematics equips pupils with the unique powerful set of tools to understand and change the world. These tools include logical reasoning, problem solving skills and the ability to think in abstract ways. Mathematics is integral to all aspects of everyday life and with this in mind, we endeavour to ensure that children develop a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards mathematics that will stay with them. Children will enjoy maths and realise that everyone can succeed in this subject. Children will understand that mistakes are part of learning and develop into resilient learners.
This is a knowledge-based curriculum. Children are taught carefully planned schemes of work that ensure they learn the knowledge and skills set out in the National Curriculum. There is time scheduled in, particularly in KS2, to ensure that children can revisit areas of weakness or address misconceptions.
Children are not expected to become wholly fluent in one area of the curriculum before moving on to another. The strategy for distributing the programmes of study in different sections throughout the year is so that children can use the knowledge gained in other areas of the curriculum to support any other areas they are struggling with. For example, children will more readily understand how to work with fractions if they have a solid grasp of multiplication and division. Switching frequently between different strands of mathematics allows children to gain a range of knowledge and skills in different areas that will feed into each other.
Implementation
Teachers start planning using the programmes of study from the National Curriculum and the Assessment without Levels documents from Durham LEA. One of the advantages of mixed age classes is that the teachers know the pupils’ strengths and weaknesses and can pick up immediately from the previous year. Lessons should contain opportunities to practise fluency, reasoning, problem solving and basic number skills. Teachers are best placed to know which order the programmes of study need to be learnt, the length of time to be spent on each one and which resources would be the most appropriate. However, in general teachers follow the guidance from the National Curriculum and the Assessment without Levels documents.
Due to their in depth knowledge of the children’s prior knowledge, teachers are able to ensure that each pupil is given work that meets the need of each pupil. Often this depends on which year group they are in, whether they have a specific learning difficulty in mathematics or whether they are particularly able. Although all children are given opportunities to develop their reasoning and problem-solving skills, this is more evident in the provision for the higher-attaining learners who are frequently challenged to go beyond what is expected from the main learning focus. In general, each Maths lesson is prepared with three-way differentiation to ensure that all learners are able to access the learning, build upon their existing knowledge and skills, and challenge their reasoning and problem-solving skills. When appropriate, the pupils may be given the opportunity to choose their own challenge.
Impact
The curriculum is planned so that children have ample opportunities to revisit different areas of knowledge and build on what they already know. Each programme of study is separated into different units that build on the previous ones to ensure knowledge progression.
The curriculum is planned so that children have ample opportunities to revisit different skills throughout any given year. By revising programme of study and breaking them into smaller units that build on the previous ones, we can ensure skills progression. The curriculum has also been planned to ensure skills progress throughout the year groups.
Interventions take place to support children who need basic number knowledge and if a pupil requires extra support from the work in a lesson, this is identified quickly and where possible same day intervention takes place. Pupils are assessed through their daily work in class and teacher assessment is used accurately and effectively, through end of block and end of term assessments. The school’s progress tracking system (Target Tracker) is updated at the end of each term. National Curriculum tests are used at the end of KS1 and 2; teachers use past and sample papers to inform their assessments as they prepare pupils for these assessments.
Maths is closely monitored by the subject leader, which involves lesson observation, book scrutinies, staff meetings, work with advisors and support. When scrutinising work in mathematics book, the Subject Leader for Mathematics expects to see work from any one lesson on a similar theme, with challenges appropriate for high attaining, middle attaining and low attaining pupils-possibly with individual work for an SEN pupil and one end of the achievement spectrum, to individual work for a gifted pupil at the other.
The purpose of this assessment is to track each child’s knowledge and understanding of the Maths curriculum objectives. This allows us to identify areas of strength and weakness to inform our teaching and for the weeks of consolidation that are accounted for within the Maths curriculum
Maths Progression
Addition and subtraction calculation policy
Multiplication and Division calculation policy
