Maths

Intent, Implementation and Impact Statement

Subject: Mathematics

Intent

At Arden Primary School our aims, values and philosophy in relation to the teaching and learning of mathematics enable us to produce children who have good mathematical fluency, who can confidently and successfully undertake mathematical activities both inside the classroom and the world beyond.

The aim of the mathematics curriculum at Arden school is to enable each pupil to develop, within his/her capability, irrespective of age, ability, gender or ethnic origin. The mathematical concepts and skills required for further study and other areas of learning to which mathematics can be applied. Emphasis is always upon developing children as independent learners.

The children’s attitude towards mathematics is of direct and prime importance. Everyday experiences, real situations and personal interests are utilised so that the children see a definitive purpose in what is being taught; they enjoy developing their Maths skills and feel a sense of achievement.

This document is set within the context of the school’s vision and aims on teaching and learning. As a result of their learning in mathematics and problem solving across the curriculum the children will:

• Be prepared for applying their skills effectively in everyday life situations and their future learning.
• Have the building blocks in place and to provide a solid foundation to lead onto secondary and further education, and indeed life itself.

We also intend to build a strong home-school partnership with parents and carers enabling them to support their child as best as they can in order to enhance the skills being taught in school.

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop 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.
• can 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.

Implementation

In the Foundation Stage, children are given the opportunity to develop their understanding of number (working mainly on numbers from 0-20), measurement, pattern and shape and space through a combination of short, formal teaching as well as a range of planned structured play situations, where there is plenty of scope for exploration.

Reception children must have a deep understanding of numbers to 10 before extending to numbers to 20 and beyond.

Children will become very competent ‘counters’ so that their fluency with the number system provides a foundation for mathematical understanding. Counting forwards and backwards in many different sized steps as well as from different starting and ending points is essential.

Concrete – Pictorial – Abstract (CPA) model - Maths learning builds from a concrete understanding of concepts where children are manipulating objects. When children are able to see concepts this way, they then need to understand the same concepts represented pictorially. Children are then ready for abstract representation before being able to apply their knowledge to different situations. The CPA model should be evident in ALL maths lessons taught.

Children should be encouraged at all times to communicate their understanding of maths through key questioning so that it clarifies their thoughts. Key Questioning prompts should be implemented throughout the whole of the maths lesson e.g. prove it/ show me how/ what’s the same? /what’s different?

Children’s mental arithmetic is of great importance, with number bonds, doubling and halving, times tables facts and various strategies for calculations taught (see calculations policy) and consolidated through ’Abacus’ and ‘Times tables Rock Stars’, and practiced at school with support sought from parents through homework activities linked through DB primary, homework children’s individual Abacus accounts and CGP books.

A progression towards efficient written calculations should be developed and applied consistently in each year-group. Arden’s ‘Calculation Policy’ should be followed.

When teaching problem solving skills across the curriculum, time should be given to each aspect of problem-solving ensuring children get thorough practice at: ‘preparing for problem solving’, ‘thinking through problems to establish what they know and don’t know so far’; actually ‘doing the problem solving’ effectively AND ‘communicating the answer effectively’. Children should be encouraged to use concrete, pictorial and abstract representations to show their understanding.

At Arden we aim to provide children who are not making good progress, with extra support through interventions. Interventions in maths should be based on developing key number skills (developing arithmetic skills) that are appropriate for the children involved.

Interventions provided to boost children’s progression in maths should be tightly planned and delivered by skilled members of staff, with a clear outcome of the target(s) intended to be achieved. Whilst interventions can be carried out by different skilled members of staff, what is being taught and how it is delivered is at the discretion of the class teacher.

We also monitor (with the support of the assessment coordinator) the progress of different groups including those with English as an additional language (EAL), those entitled to the Pupil Premium (PP) and those with a Special Educational Need (SEN). Where data indicates a whole school issue, it will form part of the Maths Impact Log which runs alongside the School Development Plan. Sometimes it will influence the School Development Plan itself.

Intended Impact  

By the end of key stage 2, pupils will have a detailed understanding of the number system and place value which include larger numbers. They should have a developed understanding of the connections between multiplication and division with fractions, decimals, percentages and ratio.

At this stage, pupils should have developed their ability to solve a wider range of problems, including increasingly complex properties of numbers and arithmetic, and problems demanding efficient written and mental methods of calculation. With this foundation in arithmetic, pupils will have been introduced to the language of algebra as a means for solving a variety of problems.

Teaching in geometry and measures should consolidate and extend knowledge developed in number. Teaching should also ensure that pupils can classify shapes with increasingly complex geometric properties and that they learn the vocabulary they need to describe them. By the end of year 6, pupils should be fluent in written methods for all four operations, including long multiplication and division, and in working with fractions, decimals and percentages. Pupils should read, spell and pronounce mathematical vocabulary correctly.