At Langley Mill Church of England Infant School and Nursery we believe all our children can be successful mathematicians. Teachers plan daily lessons and activities with a mastery ideology that give children opportunities for the children to explore and apply their learning.
Intent
The school follows a mastery ideology when teaching mathematics, using a sequence of concrete, pictorial and abstract learning strategies using the White Rose Maths scheme of work. To become capable mathematicians, children must have mathematical fluency, but also be able to apply their skills in a range of contexts. We are passionate about teaching children problem solving and reasoning skills and supporting them in becoming logical, independent thinkers with number sense. We set high expectations for all children, aiming for every child to make good progress and become confident mathematicians.
We sequence lessons to allow children enough time to embed their knowledge and deepen their understanding through appropriate challenge and support. Teaching mathematical vocabulary is a key focus to ensure all children can articulate their responses and develop their reasoning skills. All classrooms have working walls where key vocabulary, skills and knowledge are added to throughout a block of work, so the children have an ongoing resource to refer to during their independent work. Over time the children will become resilient learners who are able to accept that sometimes to struggle is a necessary step in learning something new.
Implementation
Curriculum mapping has been carefully considered to ensure children make progress during their time in school. The long-term plans follow logical progression across and within year groups, this follows the White Rose Maths scheme to ensure full coverage for each year group. Lessons are carefully designed to ensure they are building on previous learning, consolidating basic skills, introducing new learning, and teaching problem solving and reasoning skills. Teachers assess children’s learning during maths lessons and address misconceptions to prevent barriers to learning. Intervention sessions are timetabled, when necessary, to help children overcome any difficulties.
In Nursery and Reception (EYFS) maths is incorporated into the continuous provision areas both indoors and outdoors, with singing and counting activities planned in to complement this. The children also have daily maths input from their teacher to ensure that focused activities build on and develop the children’s early mathematical skills and knowledge.
In Year 1 and Year 2 (KS1) children are taught maths daily with an input from their teacher that follows a progressive and structured lessons, these have follow up activities, both practical and written to encourage the children’s independence and solidify their understanding. Assessment takes part daily and if necessary, children are given ‘scaffolding’ to help them to progress with their learning.
Impact
Teachers mark and assess children’s work in their maths books after each lesson using the school’s marking policy. High expectations are set for the quality and presentation of children’s work, if practical work is completed photos are taken for Class Dojo. Children’s learning is assessed thoroughly at termly assessment points throughout the year. The maths leader completes data analysis after each assessment point and uses this to inform pupil progress meetings with the senior leadership team and class teachers. These are used to identify where targeted interventions may be needed for small groups of pupils to enable them to progress further or develop a skill that they are finding particularly difficult. At the end of each academic year the data is compared to local authority and national averages.
We want our children to be resilient active learners who take pride in their work and achievements in mathematics. The children will understand that mathematics is a real-life skill that they can use in lots of different situations.
How you can support your child at home
There are lots of very good online resources that you can access at home to support your child’s learning, these are a few that are suitable for use at home:
https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ – this website has resources grouped by age, year group and topic.
https://www.teachyourmonster.org/numberskills – this website is recommended by the Department for Education.
https://whiteroseeducation.com/1-minute-maths – this app is free to download and compliments what we teach in school.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/numberblocks – the BBC Number Blocks programme has lots of games and resources linked to it that are very good for younger children.
If you have any questions about how mathematics is taught in school, please speak to your child’s class teacher or Miss Jones (the mathematics subject leader).
