Maths
Our Intent for Mathematics:
Willowcroft School’s teaching of maths is based around Mastery and how children’s chances of success are maximised if they develop deep and lasting understanding of mathematical procedures and concepts. It is essential that all children leave Primary school with a secure and deep understanding of the mathematical concepts taught. This will allow them to apply their understanding to real-life problems and use their knowledge to help them in everyday life.
Our Aim for Maths Teaching for Mastery:
· Maths teaching for mastery rejects the idea that a large proportion of people ‘just can’t do maths’.
· All pupils are encouraged by the belief that by working hard at maths they can succeed.
· 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, this ensures that all can master concepts before moving to the next part of the curriculum sequence, allowing no pupil to be left behind.
· If a pupil fails to grasp a concept or procedure, this is identified quickly and early intervention ensures the pupil is ready to move forward with the whole class in the next lesson.
· It is recognised that practice is a vital part of learning, but the practice used is intelligent practice that both reinforces pupils’ procedural fluency and develops their conceptual understanding.
· Significant time is spent developing deep knowledge of the key ideas that are needed to underpin future learning. The structure and connections within the mathematics are emphasised, so that pupils develop deep learning that can be sustained.
LEAP Curriculum - Implementation
Language
| Language is an already complicated and broad topic, mathematical language can be even more challenging! Mathematical words often have different meanings to other contexts (such as ‘take-away’ or ‘difference’). At Willowcroft we aim to ensure children know and can use the language needed to express their ideas and conjectures easily and with confidence. Technical language can be used to help us effectively communicate our understanding and apply our knowledge to a whole range of real-life situations.
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Experiences
| Maths at Willowcroft is taught using three different models: concrete, pictorial and abstract. It is essential that all children can experience maths in these three distinct ways, concrete (hands-on experience) is the most important of all three. Every teacher ensures their lessons incorporate real-life scenarios and problems where the children will need to use their mathematical understanding to solve them. This helps children to understand WHY maths is so important and how they can apply what they know to endless scenarios.
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Amethyst
| Resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness and reciprocity are extremely important in developing good learners. Maths can be tricky, most children will struggle with some element of maths, but it is through our Amethyst learning that we learn it is okay to find things difficult; it is how we preserver and reflect upon our experiences that matter. |
Power to change the world
| Mathematics underpins almost everything we do. We wouldn’t have incredible scientific breakthroughs without the maths to help them, we wouldn’t be able to shop and work out the best deals, we wouldn’t be able to estimate and calculate risks and rewards that occur each day. Maths not only impacts on our daily lives but it can also influence and alter the lives of others. Campaigns to raise money and awareness rely on statistics and data to convince people, the government uses numbers to try to explain their decisions, we need to understand these figures in order to make up our own minds. |
Impact
We will use daily questioning, assessment and feedback from children to evaluate and adapt our teaching plans as needed. We also use a formative assessment three times per year to assess the gaps in each child’s understanding and the progress they are making throughout the school year. These assessments allow us to put into place strategies and support for any children who require it.