We very much hope that our calculation policies and information about the models and images we use to teach calculation, will provide parents with an insight into how we develop conceptual understanding and the ability to reason and problem solve when teaching number.

If you have any further questions about how you can best support your children with their mathematical learning, please chat to their class teacher who will be happy to help!

Curriculum Intent 

At Churchill CE Primary School, we follow a Teaching for Mastery Approach and have chosen to use White Rose Maths to underpin our mathematics curriculum as it provides an ambitious, connected curriculum that is accessible to all pupils and has a clear progression through the primary years and beyond, enabling the children to develop deep understanding and acquire a rich knowledge base. 

At the heart of our curriculum is a commitment to develop resilience, responsibility, confidence and self-belief; enabling our children to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics as well as develop their ability to reason and solve problems. Pupils are introduced to new mathematical concepts and develop reasoning and problem-solving skills using concrete resources; pictorial representations and finally numbers and symbols. We use the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract) approach to help pupils understand mathematics and make links in their learning, building on their existing knowledge. We place great importance on mathematical language and questioning so pupils can discuss their understanding, feel safe to make mistakes and develop their thinking.

The principles of a Teaching for Mastery Approach are:  

Our intent focuses on equipping all pupils with the mathematics they need to master the curriculum for each year group, which requires that all pupils: 

• recall key number facts with speed and accuracy and use them to calculate and work out unknown facts; 
• develop their ability to apply mathematical skills with confidence and understanding when solving problems. 
• apply 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
• express themselves and their ideas using the language of mathematics with assurance.
• have sufficient depth of knowledge and understanding to reason and explain mathematical concepts and procedures and use them to solve a variety of problems.
• develop positive attitudes to mathematics, recognising that mathematics can be both useful and enjoyable.  
• nurture a fascination and excitement of mathematics
• are able to use and apply the skills in other curricular areas.

Our expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress is based on the security of the pupil’s understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those children who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier materials are supported in a number of ways to consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.

As well as being fluent mathematicians, we aim to foster a love of learning; developing curious minds that are willing to take risks and experiment with ideas. With kind hearts, resilience, guidance and support our aim is to develop a generation of children who leave primary education believing that they can be successful mathematicians.

Curriculum Implementation

• A daily mathematics lesson of 45-60 minutes is taught in Year 1 – Year 6.
• In EYFS pupils experience daily mathematics learning through whole class teacher input; teacher directed tasks and child-initiated play. Opportunities for mathematics is developed through daily routines and all areas of learning.
• Children in Key Stage1 participate in a number facts session, at least three times a week, reviewing previously mastered number facts and practising new calculation strategies using mathematical animations. Children use exciting videos, songs and Numbots to embed their knowledge of number facts and progress is monitored with regular maths challenges.
• In KS2, teachers lead weekly counting stick sessions to encourage conceptual understanding and quick recall of multiplication and division. Children use Times Table Rock Stars outside of the maths lesson and for homework to embed their knowledge. Progress is monitored with individual maths challenges, at least once a term. Success with maths challenges are celebrated once a term in Celebration Services and achievements are shared with parents.
• All children engage in a ‘Can you Still?’ retrieval session once a week, engaging with low risk, high threshold multiple choice questions, fostering mathematical talk and reasoning that develops long term memory.
• Children in Key Stage 2 regularly participate in arithmetic practice, embedding their understanding and developing their confidence to use age-appropriate formal and informal written methods.

A typical 45 - 60 minute lesson is likely to include many of the following elements:

• opportunity to respond to feedback in books;
• opportunity to address any whole class misconceptions from the previous lesson;
• revisiting prior learning;
• a problem or stimulus presented to pupils to discuss and explore;
• open-ended questioning;
• children being encouraged to explain and justify their thinking using precise mathematical language, modelled by the adults;
• children making links in their learning;
• children engaged in mathematical talk;
• children ‘taking risks’ and recognising making mistakes as part of the learning process;
• use of confidence lines and peer-tutoring;
• new concepts introduced using a CPA approach;
• ‘real’ activities used (where possible) to introduce concepts and reinforce learning objectives;
• guided examples with children working on whiteboards;
• reasoning and problem-solving skills taught explicitly;
• stem sentences used to allow learners to verbalise their mathematical thinking;
• consolidation of new concepts guided by an adult;
• children assessing understanding and selecting levels of support needed;
• children engaged in varied fluency and intelligent practice (questions typified by their mathematical variation and designed to extend pupil’s thinking rather than just being lots of examples presented in the same kind of way);
• children working individually on a task, in pairs or in a small group
• pupils selecting further challenges, depending on their own self-assessment and in consultation with the teachers

Learning Environment

It is important that both the whole school and classroom environment supports both the learning and teaching of mathematics.

Working walls should be use to:

• provide a reference point, supporting teaching and learning in a lesson or series of lessons;
• promote mathematical thinking and discussion;
• promote key vocabulary;
• include WAGOLLs and celebrate achievement

In every classroom, resources such as number lines, hundred squares, place value counters, double-sided counters, place value charts and multiplication squares are displayed as appropriate and used for whole class or individual work. Children are encouraged to access these independently to support their learning.

Curriculum Planning

• Long Term Planning

Teachers use the long-term planning based on the White Rose Maths resources.  All mathematical topics are taught in blocks so that children can master each mathematical concept and apply it across a range of contexts.  The White Rose Maths curriculum is a cumulative curriculum, so that once a topic is covered, it is met many times again in other contexts. Spaced repetition of key topics occurs, throughout and between years, through our Can you Still? sessions and use of resources such as ‘Flashback Four’.

For the year 2020-2021, teachers and SLT will adapt the Long-term planning in light of school closures, depending on any topics which were missed or covered during home learning.

• Medium Term Planning

Teachers use a medium-term planning outline based on the requirements of the National Curriculum to teach sequences that build learning over time (based on the planning produced by the White Rose Maths Hub).  A strong emphasis on reinforcing number to build competency and opportunities to build reasoning and problem solving is embedded within the curriculum.

The DfE document “Teaching Mathematics in Primary Schools” https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teachingmathematics-in-primary-schools

identifies priority areas of the primary maths National Curriculum that form the essential building blocks necessary for pupils to progress smoothly from Year 1 to Year 6.

For each of these areas, the document also identifies what it calls ‘ready-to-progress criteria’ which are the concepts children need to master before they progress to the next year group.  The White Rose planning resources have identified where teachers might want to spend longer on topics to secure understanding and also suggest any content that children may have missed last year due to Covid 19 school closures.  Teachers have links to NCETM spine development materials to support planning of the White Rose medium term overview.

• Short term planning  

 All teachers will produce daily or weekly planning.  This will include:

• an outline for the week with learning objectives;
• a clear overview of teacher input;
• evidence of planning for reasoning: including ‘mathematical talk’ and ‘stem sentences’;
• reference to source materials;
• clear links and progress across a sequence of lessons;
• new key mathematical vocabulary
• possible misconceptions
• reference to focus children
• reference to how additional adults will support learning
• evidence of how ‘rapid graspers’ will be challenged

Teachers evaluate their plans daily, making any necessary changes and adaptions in response to assessment for learning and the needs of the class.  Where appropriate, TA’s will provide feedback to inform next steps planning.

Teachers will plan for adult-led small groups and pre-teaching sessions for identified children.

White Rose, Classroom Secrets, Maths No Problem and Deepening Understanding will be used to support planning.

Curriculum Impact

Assessment takes place at three connected levels: short-term, medium-term and long-term. These assessments are used to inform teaching in a continuous cycle of planning, teaching and assessment.   (For further details on assessment, recording and reporting, please see Assessment policy)

Day-to-day assessments

As part of the ongoing teaching and learning process, teachers assess children's understanding through a range of Assessment for Learning strategies.  Daily annotations, which inform day to day teaching and learning, are based on observation, questioning, informal testing and the marking and evaluation of work.  This will also enable appropriate written and verbal feedback to be given to children and will inform planning for the following day.

Teachers make use of diagnostic questioning throughout all stages of pupils’ learning, to identify misconceptions. Open-ended questioning is central to teacher input, enabling misconceptions to be revealed and explored.  Marking and feedback will also identify misconceptions which will either be challenged or inform next steps. Learners will also be taught to assess and evaluate their own understanding by recognising successes, learning from their own mistakes and identifying areas for improvement.  (See Feedback and Marking policy for further details.)

Summative assessments

For the academic year 2020-21, at the end of term 1, children will sit an NFER paper to assess understanding and knowledge of the previous year’s maths curriculum.  Gap analysis will be carried out to identify which key areas to focus on.  This will inform teacher planning and organisation of intervention groups so that children can ‘catch up’ on curriculum areas they need extra support with.  Ready to progress assessments will be completed by identified children, if further information is needed to inform planning for intervention groups.

At the end of the term 2, 4 and 6, children complete White Rose Assessments. This provides a summary of their understanding of the areas of the curriculum taught that term and will inform provision maps and planning. This information is used to track attainment and progress and is regularly updated on FFT Aspire where progress can be compared with FFT targets.

Pupil Progress Meetings

The amount of progress made and percentages of those children on track to reach end of year targets is analysed and discussed at termly data meetings. Progress from Key Stage 1 will also be closely monitored in Key Stage 2 classes and compared with Fischer Family Trust (FFT) targets.

Intervention programmes  

For September 2020, before thinking about maths catch up and/or intervention, we will be considering first and foremost children’s mathematical well-being for future learning, including:

• building young children’s confidence,
• their willingness to have a go,
• their mathematical self-esteem and enjoyment; and
• establishing firm relationships with the adults in school and with their families

.

The school operates a flexible approach to intervention programmes based on weaknesses identified in termly pupil progress meetings and through ongoing data analysis by the senior leadership, class teacher and maths lead. 

Teachers use guided groups led by themselves and teaching assistants to tackle children’s misconceptions in maths.   Pre-teaching, flexible ‘catch up’ sessions and adult-led small groups within subsequent lessons are used with those children who have not progressed within a lesson, with the aim of ensuring that children are making the maximum level of progress and gaps are closed.

1st Class @ Number 1 and 2, a structured early maths intervention delivered by specially trained teaching assistants to small groups of children, will be used in Years 1, 2, 3 and 4.  The lessons focus on number and calculation, developing children’s numeracy and communication skills whilst developing their mathematical thinking.  Stimulating, enjoyable games and activities engage the children and build their confidence. A base-line diagnostic assessment allows progress to be tracked.

Number Sense - a programme used in KS1, that develops a systematic approach to teaching addition and subtraction facts within 20, will also be used as a resource for small group interventions in both KS1 and KS2.