Maths

At Turnditch Primary School, our intention is to ensure that children develop an enjoyment and enthusiasm for maths that will stay with them throughout their lives and empower them in future life. We believe that developing mathematical fluency is an essential life skill for all learners and is a pre-requisite to being able to reason and solve mathematical problems. Our aim is to develop a positive culture of deep understanding, confidence, reasoning and competence in maths that produces strong, secure learning. As a school, we recognise that the key to unlocking the potential in our children is through the development of basic mathematical skills and the understanding of mathematical concepts. We therefore place great emphasis on the use of concrete resources and pictorial representations at all ages, to enable children to fully understand the concepts and principles, when presented with abstract calculations and questions. Our sequential maths curriculum is progressive and offers opportunities for children to make links with prior learning. Our ultimate aim is for children to achieve expected outcomes at the end of KS2 and to equip pupils for KS3.

The phrase ‘teaching for mastery’ describes the elements of classroom practice and school organisation that combine to give pupils the best chances of mastering maths.

Achieving mastery means acquiring a solid enough understanding of the concepts that have been taught to enable pupils to move on to pre advanced material.

The Five Big Ideas underpin teaching for mastery in our school.

Our lesson planning begins with what we want our pupils to think and notice, rather than what we want them to do.

We base our lessons on the White Rose framework, linking maths for mastery guidance. As a mixed age school, we have the extra challenge of teaching two year groups simultaneously and the White Rose framework is one of the few approaches currently available where mixed age planning and teaching have been supported. The framework offers children to master maths effectively through a series of small steps, and progression is clear from EYFS to Year 6. White Rose offer a number of quality resources including teacher notes and guidance for every step, and useful assessment materials.

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.
– Albert Einstein

White Rose Maths

At Turnditch we follow the White Rose maths scheme of work to ensure continuity and progression for all children. Our mathematics curriculum is designed to support a mastery approach to teaching and learning, as well as to support the aims and objectives of the National Curriculum.

The White Rose schemes have number at the heart and a lot of time is spent reinforcing number to build competency. It also provides opportunities to build reasoning and problem solving into each lesson.

White Rose believes that all children, who are introduced to a concept, should have the opportunity to build on their abilities by following a concrete-pictorial-abstract approach.

Concrete – children should have the opportunity to use concrete objects to help them understand what they are doing.

Pictorial – alongside this children should use pictorial representations. These representations can then be used to help reason and solve problems.

Abstract – both concrete and pictorial representations should support children’s understanding of abstract methods.

Click here for more information about “White Rose Maths.”

Tackling Times Tables

The quick recall of multiplication and division facts (times tables) is essential for all children. The ability to recall these facts quickly enables children to answer related questions with ease.

It is therefore important that we approach the teaching and testing of times tables in a similar and progressive format from Year 2 to Year 6.

According to the new National Curriculum 2014 the expectation of times tables in each Year Group is as follows:

Year 2: 2x, 5x, 10x

Year 3: 3x, 4x, 8x

Year 4: 6x, 7x, 9x, 11x, 12x

Year 5: All x and ÷ facts (12×12)

Year 6: All x and ÷ facts (12×12) and related language/symbols e.g. % and square root