Maths

Intent

At Peter Gladwin, our intent is for our children to become confident, skilled and resilient mathematicians who understand that mathematics is an integral and fundamental part of everyday life and the world we live in. We want children to develop a healthy and enthusiastic attitude towards mathematics, and a deep understanding that will stay with them for life. We want all children to enjoy mathematics, and to experience success in the subject, while being confident to take risks in their learning.

Our learning is sequenced carefully, taking account of that which has been taught before and the knowledge and skills that are needed for the next stage of mathematical development. This ensures a secure understanding of mathematical structures and allows for deep connections to be made.

Our maths mastery curriculum aims for children to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, to possess a growing confidence to reason mathematically, and to solve routine and non-routine problems with increasing independence.

By achieving these aims, our children will leave Peter Gladwin as knowledgeable, skilful and confident mathematicians, ready for the next phase of their learning.

 Implementation

As a whole school, we continue our mastery journey by working with the Sussex Maths Hub and using the curriculum prioritisation materials from the National Centre for Excellence in the teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), which provide coherent sequencing for the primary maths curriculum.

We use the NCETM Mastering Number materials to form the main input of our EYFS curriculum, with teachers also planning and providing opportunities for children to build their understanding of shape, measure and spatial awareness. Mastering Number has a focus on fluency and ensures that attention is given to the key knowledge and understanding needed in EYFS. This then progresses through KS1, with the daily fluency sessions in Year 1 and Year 2 following the same programme.

In Years 1 – 6, pupils are taught through whole-class, interactive teaching, where the focus is on all pupils working together on the same lesson content at the same time. We repeat, rehearse and revisit key concepts so that we can move on to more complicated problems. Each lesson has a clear focus where children have the opportunity to acquire, practise, apply and deepen their knowledge and skills as appropriate.

The learning needs of every child are addressed through skilful questioning and appropriate, immediate or same-day intervention. This provides the necessary scaffolding or challenge for all. Children are given opportunities to deepen their knowledge further by improving their reasoning skills rather than accelerating on to new curriculum content. Within each lesson, every child will have the opportunity to access questions that will support them to think harder and apply their mathematical understanding.

Our ‘keep up, not catch up’ ethos, means that same day interventions, including the pre-teaching of new concepts, allows us to support the children before the next lesson and address any misconceptions, so that they are not left behind.

At Peter Gladwin, we place high importance on mathematical talk and language. Lessons include regular opportunities for the children to discuss their understanding and explain their thinking, with their peers. The accurate use of mathematical vocabulary and terminology is encouraged and expected. Adults will model how to use it and stem sentences are a key feature of our curriculum.

Ongoing assessment informs teaching, as well as intervention, to support and enable the success of each child. Our deeper thinking questions in each lesson ensure that all children are given the opportunity to use their reasoning skills to problem solve, often finding multiple answers and being flexible in their methods.

 Impact

Our children at Peter Gladwin are happy learners who talk enthusiastically about their learning and are eager to further their progress in maths. They are able to independently apply their knowledge to a range of increasingly complex problems and can reason with increased confidence and accuracy.

Our maths curriculum ensures that children leave Peter Gladwin with: 

·         a positive attitude to mathematics and the resilience to stick with it even if it gets tricky

·         the confidence and ability to manipulate numbers in order to solve problems

·         the ability to communicate what they have learnt with clarity, confidence and accuracy of meaning

·         the knowledge, skills and confidence to progress on to the next phase of their learning.