mathematics
Who leads this subject?
Subject Co-ordinator: Miss L Bolton
Curriculum Design: White Rose Maths, NCETM and Mastering Number.
Why teach mathematics? What is our intent?
Maths is the foundation for understanding the world around us. Through the teaching of Maths, our intent is to ensure pupils of all ages acquire a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. We ensure that children understand the purpose of the learning, and that they can apply this knowledge into their every day lives. At Birchwood, we see every child as a mathematician; all children are encouraged to aim high in all that they do. The children's needs, interests and futures are at the core of our maths curriculum. Our Christian values underpin all we do and children are encouraged to have hope and to persevere. Maths learning presents challenges for each and every pupil allowing them to build resilience and become self-motivated learners.
How do we teach maths? How is the implemented?
At Birchwood, our maths curriculum is carefully sequenced and progressive, incorporating fluency, reasoning and problem solving throughout. As a school, our maths curriculum builds upon the National Curriculum, and the White Rose Scheme. Alongside this, teachers implement the NCETM Professional Development Materials to build upon prior learning. The curriculum is well-structured and is planned in small steps. This provides both the necessary scaffold for all to achieve, and the necessary detail and rigour to facilitate deeper thinking. The small steps are connected and concepts are built.
At Birchwood, we firmly believe that all children can succeed in mathematics. On this basis, children are taught all together as a class and are not split into mixed-ability groupings. Teachers provide additional pre and post-teach interventions to those children who may need additional support, and differentiation is planned using questioning and support.
What does a 'typical' lesson look like at Birchwood?
Each maths session begins with an interesting problem or task to ignite children’s curiosity, or a retrieval task to enable children to recall previously learnt facts or knowledge. This is called a ‘hook’. One of the main principles with Mastery Maths involves children working through concrete – pictorial – abstract approaches, meaning that children have access to practical apparatus through the sessions to help embed the learning. This may include counters, Base 10 and Bead Strings. Children move at different paces through the stages, but teachers ensure that pupils can move back and forth to embed conceptual understanding. Eventually, learners will move through the guided practise and independent tasks. At the end of each session, children have access to a ‘Push It’ task, which challenges their thinking further. There are aspects of fluency, reasoning and problem-solving in each session. If you entered one of our classrooms during a maths session, you would notice teachers and teaching assistants using high levels of questioning. At Birchwood, we call this the ‘Ping Pong’ approach and it enables children to refine their thinking and progress.
How do we embed mathematical fluency and number facts across the school?
At Birchwood, we dedicate additional slots to developing children’s mathematical fluency and number recall. In EYFS and Key Stage 1, children participate in the daily Mastering Number programme which aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children. Mastering Number has also recently been introduced in Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5, enabling learners to develop fluency in multiplication and division facts. In Year 6, fluency is taught based on assessment and aims to close any gaps through identifying any target areas. Year 6 also have weekly arithmetic sessions. Teaching Assistants play a crucial role in the teaching of mathematics, delivering same day maths interventions and fluency sessions to ensure that all learners can achieve.
Where are we on our mastery journey?
As a school, we are grateful to have enrolled in our third year on the Sustaining Mastery Programme, working alongside the NCETM Maths Hubs and teachers across the school have the opportunity to attend local teacher workgroups with a focus on planning and collaboration. Miss Bolton has also been accepted to lead our school forwards as a Primary Maths Mastery Specialist, and we are looking forward to the next steps in our mastery journey.
