Mathematics
Intent:
When teaching mathematics at Pratts Bottom, we intend to provide a curriculum which caters for the needs of all individuals, irrespective of gender, race and culture, that sets them up with the necessary skills and knowledge for them to become successful in their future adventures. We endeavour to ensure that children develop an enjoyment and enthusiasm for mathematics and create a positive culture of deep understanding that produce strong, secure learners. We aim to teach a rich, balanced and progressive curriculum through the use of Maths mastery.
Mastery pupils are required to explore mathematics in depth, using mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain their workings. We therefore place a great emphasis on the use of concrete resources and pictorial representations at all ages, to enable children to fully understand the concepts and principals, when presented with abstract calculations and questions. We aim to ensure that mathematics is a high profile subject which children view positively and with a ‘can do’ approach.
Implementation:
White Rose planning is used as a main basis for all year groups, however, other well-respected resources are used along side this to supplement and enhance teaching and learning. We also use online support such as NRich and NCETM publications.
In EYFS, the children follow the new curriculum. They concentrate on the Six areas of Mathematics; Cardinality and Counting, Comparison, Composition, Pattern, Shape and Space and Measure.
The units are split into terms and the curriculum is progressive as they move through. Concepts are built on both within the academic year and skills from the previous year. Manipulatives are used to help children expose the structure of the mathematics and to further support understanding and making links. Problem solving and reasoning tasks are used to deepen understanding of a secure concept. Vocabulary and Stem Sentences are also used to help children verbalise their learning.
An emphasis is placed on the learning of facts so that children become fluent to the point of automaticity in their knowledge and are able to use this to solve increasingly complex problems or apply them to new situations and concepts. The children are exposed to different representations Maths such as the Part-Whole model or the Bar model to help them scaffold their thinking, to help them to understand a problem or a question or to support some reasoning or an explanation.
Impact:
Using the “Mastery” Approach, allows our children to be come critical Mathematicians. They can make links easily and, using automatic fact recall, can apply their learning to a range of new situations and concepts. They can use appropriate representations or vocabulary to explain their thinking. They become fluid thinkers that can apply learning and solve unfamiliar problems. By deepening children’s maths understanding, they will have a richer understanding rather than merely moving up through knowledge without a solid grounding. Teaching classes together also builds children’s confidence in their mathematical understanding and their self-esteem.