Mathematics

MATHEMATICS STATEMENT OF INTENT

Our intent is for every child to develop mathematical fluency and confidence in numeracy, equipping them with the skills of calculation, reasoning and problem solving that they need in all subject areas and in life beyond school.

HOW WE TEACH MATHEMATICS

At Sylvester Primary Academy, Mathematics is taught in accordance with the Mathematics programmes of study set out in the National Curriculum for Key Stages 1 and 2. In the Foundation Stage, teachers follow the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage. In all classes, we aim to develop lively, enquiring minds, encouraging pupils to become self-motivated, confident and capable in order to solve problems that will become an integral part of their future.

At Sylvester, Mathematics is taught as a subject in its own right, and skills are developed through their application in other curriculum subjects. As a result, children receive five daily Mathematics lessons each week, in addition to gaining regular opportunities in the other core and foundation subjects to practise, revise and further develop their mathematical and numerical skills. Mathematical talk is promoted in all year groups to allow children to share and develop their mathematical understanding and reasoning at different stages in lessons.

EARLY YEARS FOUNDATION STAGE

Mathematics is taught in accordance with the Statutory Framework for EYFS through the implementation of the White Rose Maths of ‘Schemes of Learning’ for EYFS, alongside materials from ‘Mastering the Curriculum’.

KEY STAGES ONE AND TWO

At Sylvester, teachers closely follow the National Curriculum programmes of study as well as using the White Rose Maths Hub ‘Schemes of Learning’ as a basis for planning to ensure complete coverage and reinforcement of curriculum statements. Teachers use a wide range of resources in the teaching of mathematics to enhance learning, including: NCETM Teaching for Mastery materials, White Rose Maths: small steps materials, White Rose ‘Mastery Professional Development’ PowerPoints, Power Maths, ICT programmes, games and puzzles. The school has adopted the mastery approach to mathematics: teaching for depth of understanding rather than ‘coverage’ of objectives and is part of the Maths Hub Mastery programme.

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 have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems;
• 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.

NUMERACY FOR LIFE

At Sylvester, we firmly believe that it is essential our children make strong links between mathematics and real life situations hence why numeracy for life is at the heart of problem solving and reasoning within mathematics lessons as well as across the curriculum. We believe relating mathematics to real life situations is imperative in ‘bringing maths to life’ and ensuring children find mathematical experiences meaningful.

A CROSS-CURRICULAR APPROACH

Whenever appropriate, teachers aim to use subjects across the curriculum to develop pupils’ mathematical fluency. Confidence in numeracy and other mathematical skills is a precondition of success across the national curriculum. At Sylvester, pupils are taught to apply their mathematics to both routine and non-routine problems, including breaking down more complex problems into a series of simpler steps.

PROGRESSION IN MATHEMATICS

At Sylvester, teachers follow the White Rose Maths schemes of learning as a basis for planning to ensure complete coverage and reinforcement of curriculum statements. The White Rose Maths ‘Schemes of Learning’ provide a comprehensive progression document of mathematical skills and problem-solving, fully linked to the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum programmes of study for KS1 and KS2.

Please view the schemes of learning for each year group.

Formal written methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division at Sylvester

SEND ADAPTATIONS IN MATHEMATICS

Mathematics lessons at Sylvester aim to meet the individual needs of all children across school and aim to be fully inclusion. Our intention is to ensure that children with SEND are able to fully engage with lessons that have an appropriate level of challenge; making good progress from their starting points. At Sylvester, we adopt a mastery approach to teaching mathematics, where SEND children are taught as far as possible alongside their peers through carefully planned sequences of lessons that are appropriately scaffolded. For a very small number of children across school with specific learning needs, who may struggle to access their year group curriculum, differentiation is used and children cover year group objectives alongside their peers whenever appropriate.

Teachers plan using White Rose Maths ‘Schemes of Learning’ together with the White Rose ‘Small steps’ documents for their year group; using previous year group ‘Small steps’ as necessary. Lessons are broken down into ‘short chunks’ for children with SEND and children progress through lessons at a pace suited to their needs. Learning is scaffolded in a variety of ways and scaffolds are removed gradually as confidence and independence builds. Pre-teaching of key vocabulary and key knowledge or concepts; revisiting prior learning before and during lessons; careful, considered use of visual prompts, models, images and manipulatives; and providing practical resources throughout lessons, are examples of strategies used to support and scaffold learning for SEND children.

Asking questions that guide pupils’ thinking is an integral part of lessons together with maths talk opportunities. ‘Think, pair, share’ is used to allow children thinking time to process and formulate answers, and to reduce maths anxiety. Worked examples are provided as a scaffold when working independently as well as repeated instructions; delivery of instructions one at a time; presenting instructions alongside a visual checklist; and keeping vocabulary as simple as possible. Mathematics working walls in all classrooms aid SEND pupils who may find memorisation of symbolic procedures challenging; providing visual models to support working memory and cognitive flexibility until pupils are comfortable working in the abstract. IPads are also used to document stages (concrete, pictorial, abstract) of mathematical learning from whole class teaching as a reference for children to scaffold greater independence.