Maths
Intent
Bledow Ridge School strives to give all children the opportunity to learn and develop key mathematical skills which they can apply to everyday life. We instil a resilient attitude to Maths, to ensure children feel confident to apply their skills to a range of different contexts across the curriculum and beyond. We provide a coherent, structured Mathematics curriculum that leads to a sustained mastery and a greater depth of understanding of the mathematical skills. All children will have the opportunity to apply their knowledge of the key concepts to solve unfamiliar word problems, undertake complex reasoning and use appropriate mathematical reasoning.
At Bledlow Ridge School, we use The White Rose Planning scheme from Reception to Year 6 to structure and support our lesson design and delivery. We consistently use this across the school to ensure skills are progressive across each year group. The resources provide the children with opportunities to develop and deepen their understanding of mathematical procedures and key concepts. The learning sequences are organised in such a way that small, coherent steps are able to be taken to ensure our pupils have secure pre-conceptual understanding before introducing new skills. Teachers will use their professional judgement about when it is appropriate to move the class on.
Implementation
We refer to the “5 Big Ideas” when we are designing and delivering our Maths lessons. These key principles provide opportunities for all pupils to achieve high standards in Maths whilst moving through the curriculum at the same pace. In lessons pupils have the chance to, either, consolidate and deepen their understanding by answering questions independently or have guided support and intervention if they are finding it more challenging. We plan small, guided steps throughout a lesson to ensure children have the preconceptual understanding needed before moving on to new learning. Our pupils are exposed to a wide range of representations, in the form of concrete and pictorial resources, alongside the abstract calculation to ensure their understanding is embedded and secure. When children are finding it more challenging to master a concept or skill, we use immediate intervening to ensure they are supported in securing the skill and are ready to progress to the next step in their learning.
Modelling
Throughout our lessons, teachers demonstrate high quality modelling skills for the children to mirror in their independent learning. Children are taught how to solve problems through explicit modelling of how to accurately use concrete resources, pictorial and abstract representations and key mathematical vocabulary to support them when mastering a skill or concept.
Questioning
Questioning is recognised as an excellent tool for Assessment for Learning and our teachers carefully consider how they can use a variety of questioning strategies to assess their pupils as well as challenge them to think more deeply about their learning.
Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract model
The ‘Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract’ (CPA) model is embedded in our Maths lessons and is used as a continuous, fluid cycle to support, sustain and challenge our learners in their Maths lessons. The concrete stage is when learners use physical objects to support them to understand key Mathematical concepts. When using a pictorial approach, children will draw a representation or image to support them with their learning. The abstract element is solving problems using numbers and symbols. Our pupils are empowered to represent their thinking in a variety of ways using this model as a reference point.
EYFS Maths
In the statutory framework for EYFS, the focus of the teaching is on Number and Number Patterns. Children will be taught in a purposeful, practical way and they will use play and exploration to acquire the relevant mathematical skills to solve them.
A large majority of mathematical work is practical, and learning will happen in many different contexts around the classroom and outside. Some mathematical concepts will be teacher led and children can also freely explore these concepts through a variety of different activities and resources set up each day. Learning is repeated using different resources and representations to embed understanding.
At Bledlow Ridge School, the teaching and learning of Mathematics in our Reception class takes place inside and outside of the classroom through a wide range of well-planned, practical and hands-on activities. The staff use their strong subject knowledge to plan for a high-quality learning environment which provides lots of opportunities for children to explore a range of mathematical concepts in an open-ended way. These activities are planned with careful consideration of the current learning that is introduced in whole class Maths sessions, as well as providing opportunities for children to embed prior learning and challenge themselves to take their learning deeper. The children are keen to independently access and engage with these Maths activities.
Impact
During the children’s learning journey at Bledlow Ridge School, our intended impact of the Maths curriculum is to ensure that children:
- have a secure knowledge of number facts (including number bonds and multiplication tables) and a good understanding of the four operations.
- are able to use this knowledge and understanding to carry out calculations mentally and to apply general strategies when using one-digit and two-digit numbers and particular strategies to special cases involving bigger numbers.
- make use of diagrams and informal notes to help record steps and part answers when using mental methods that generate more information than can be kept in their head
- have an efficient, reliable, compact written method of calculation for each operation that pupils can apply with confidence when undertaking calculations that they cannot carry out mentally.