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Mathematics

 

Our school vision Curious Minds, Open Hearts & Joy of Learning is at the heart of all we do. 

Curious Minds -At Homefield, we seek to inspire our children to develop a curiosity and fascination about the world, including the world of mathematics. Our curriculum allows opportunities for children to be inquisitive and explore the patterns and relationships that exist in maths.

Open Hearts – Maths is a universal language throughout the world and by building a secure understanding, our children develop essential skills (such as problem solving, communication, logical thinking and attention to detail) that are used on a daily basis to enrich their lives and those of others.

Joy of learning –Our aim is for all children to achieve a sense of enjoyment in maths and realise that the power and beauty of mathematics is joyful and all around them.  

Our Mathematics Curriculum

In line with the National Curriculum Objectives for Mathematics, our intent is that all pupils:

  •  become fluent in the fundamentals of maths, including through varied and frequent practise with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge. 
  • reason mathematically by following a strategy, using previous knowledge to conjecture relationships, develop an argument, justification and proof using mathematical language.
  • can problem solve 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. 

Curriculum Implementation

  • At Homefield, children study mathematics daily following the White Rose Maths Scheme of Learning a adapted to the needs of the children. White Rose Maths is a blocked scheme, which allows for depth and breadth of learning within each strand of mathematics. 
  • Mathematics at Homefield is taught using our agreed teaching pedagogy which includes the 6 part lesson process:

  • Homefield adopts the White Rose Maths Curriculum. Our curriculum is well sequenced and progressive, ensuring that the children build their knowledge cumulatively from the Early Years to Year 6
  • Teachers supplement the White Rose curriculum by using a range of resources, including their “Small Steps to Progression”. These small steps break down which learning objectives children need to master, and in what order, to gain a deep understanding of maths topics, and gradually develop their reasoning and problem-solving skills. This enables teachers to plan in small steps according to the needs of the children, making variations and adaptions to ensure that all children can be successful mathematicians, regardless of their starting points.
  • At the heart of White Rose Maths is maths mastery, an approach that’s sparked a positive, growth mind set towards mathematics in teachers, parents and pupils. This is an approach that we are currently developing through CPD and external support from ‘Angles Maths Hub – Developing Mastery’

Early Years

  • The Early Years supplement White Rose curriculum, using materials from ‘Master the Curriculum’ to ensure that all children have a strong foundation in early number and mathematical development.
  • Within EYFS, pupils begin to explore Mathematics through discreet teaching alongside enhanced and continuous provision. Pupils develop a strong grounding in number through frequent and varied opportunities to build and apply new learning. Through using manipulatives, including small pebbles and tens frames for organising counting - children will develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built.
  • Children are provided with opportunities to count, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers. In addition, through our continuous provision, children are provided with rich opportunities to develop their spatial reasoning skills across all areas of mathematics including shape, space and measures.
  • Our culture allows children to develop positive attitudes and curiosity in mathematics, look for patterns and relationships, spot connections, ‘have a go’, talk to adults and peers about what they notice and not be afraid to make mistakes.

KS1 & KS2

  • All children experience daily ‘flashback 4’ to embed key number and calculating skills. This helps to remove barriers for children when problem solving
  • We adopt the White Rose curriculum and follow the blocked scheme. White Rose block assessments are used to identify gaps and inform current teaching
  • White Rose is adapted to meet the needs of our children through careful teacher assessment that informs the planning of each block/lesson

White Rose Yearly Overviews

Year 1

   Year 2

Year 3

   Year 4

Year 5

   Year 6

Mathematics Mastery

Central to our approach are the 5 Big Ideas which underpins mastery mathematics:

  • Coherence
  • Representation and Structure
  • Mathematical Thinking
  • Fluency
  • Variation

Mathematics teaching for mastery assumes everyone can learn and enjoy mathematics.
Mathematical learning behaviours are developed such that pupils focus and engage fully as learners who reason and seek to make connections.

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How are these 5 Big Ideas reflected in day-to-day maths teaching?

Coherence

The teaching sequence is designed to enable a coherent learning progression through the curriculum, providing access for all pupils to develop a deep and connected understanding of mathematics that they can apply in a range of contexts.

Representation and Structure

Teachers carefully select representations of mathematics to expose mathematical structure. The intention is to support children in ‘seeing’ the mathematics, rather than using the representation as a tool to ‘do’ the mathematics. These representations become mental images that children can use to think about mathematics, supporting them to achieve a deep understanding of mathematical structures and connections.

Mathematical Thinking

Mathematical thinking is central to how pupils learn mathematics and includes looking for patterns and relationships, making connections, conjecturing, reasoning and generalising. Children should actively engage in mathematical thinking in all lessons, communicating their ideas using precise mathematical language.

Fluency

Efficient accurate recall of key number facts and procedures is essential for fluency, freeing children’s minds to think deeply about concepts and problems, but fluency demands more than this. It requires pupils to have the flexibility to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics, to recognise relationships and make connections, and to choose appropriate methods and strategies to solve problems.

Variation

The purpose of variation is to draw closer attention to a key feature of a mathematical concept or structure through varying some elements while keeping others constant.

  • Conceptual variation involves varying how a concept is represented, to draw attention to critical features. Often more than one representation is required to look at the concept from different perspectives and gain comprehensive knowledge.
  • Procedural variation considers how the student will ‘proceed’ through a learning sequence. Purposeful changes are made in order that pupils attention is drawn to key features of the mathematics, scaffolding children’s thinking to enable them to reason logically and make connections.

CPA approach

Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract (CPA) learning underpins the representation and structure element for teaching for mastery. CPA allows children to engage with a wide and varied range of concrete manipulatives and abstract methodologies. Cohesive use of CPA is a fundamental part of mastery of mathematics for all learner. Concrete and pictorial references scaffold and strengthen understanding. 

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