Maths
Intent
CVIS believes that mathematics is essential to everyday life, and this makes it imperative that pupils are given a supportive environment in which they can learn effectively and build a sense of curiosity and willingness to build on what they already know whilst making the most of these opportunities. At CVIS the intention is that children gain a firm understanding of what Mathematics is through a well-designed, bespoke curriculum which is accessible to all and will maximise the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement. Our aim at CVIS is to implement lessons that are creative and thought provoking. CVIS believes that mathematics is an interconnected subject, and we aim to give children the experience to make rich connections between mathematical thinking to develop skills in fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. Our pupils need to acquire these skills so they can build upon deep mathematical ideas that enable them to recall and transfer these skills to different contexts. Naturally most pupils advance well through their necessary programme of study. Progression through programmes of study are based the security of pupils understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. All pupils are challenged through rich and sophisticated problems before acceleration to new content. At CVIS we are committed to ensuring children understand the value and importance of Mathematics and can use mathematics purposefully apply their knowledge to everyday life.
Implementation
Mathematics at CVIS offers a rich and wide curriculum underpinning the key principles from the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum (2014). We ensure knowledge and skills are built upon year on year and concepts are sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all children. Teaching staff at CVIS have a deep and broad knowledge of the teaching of Mathematics, which builds mathematical knowledge systematically and over time. Therefore, teaching is sequenced carefully into Medium Term Plans which show the specific areas of curriculum coverage for pupils. This enables teachers to carefully plan and execute learning into weekly plans which effectively breaks down mathematical concepts into small, manageable steps, ensuring mathematical knowledge is deep and secure with multiple representations and structures of mathematical ideas. Our teachers use the concrete, pictorial and abstract approach to learning in mathematics which builds upon physical and visual aids to build pupil’s understanding of abstract ideas. This ensure pupils have sufficient knowledge of concepts and procedures necessary to succeed in the specific tasks set.
EYFS specific
The EYFS framework has six key areas of learning in mathematics (cardinality and counting, comparison, composition, pattern, shape and space and measures) that collectively builds a foundation for everything children will encounter as they progress through their learning at CVIS. Our teachers use a wide range of teaching and learning techniques, including White Rose Maths, to embed these fundamental mathematical areas. Learning in mathematics takes place on a daily basis in our Reception classes. There are daily opportunities for child-initiated learning as well as teacher led focused groups. Thus, the classroom and surrounding environments are specifically catered towards the learning that is taking place to scaffold their knowledge giving them opportunities to explore and dig deeper. We build records of children’s learning in Mathematics by collecting photos, videos and observations of children’s learning on a daily basis. This is used to build a secure picture of the learning that has taken place against the Early Learning Goals.
KS1 specific:
In Key Stage One at CVIS, we plan and structure teaching and learning around the National Curriculum (2014) programmes of study whilst using the NCETM planning materials alongside this. Teachers organise learning thematically, strategically ensuring all mathematical topics are covered over the year of study with topics revisited over time allowing knowledge to be embedded and consolidated over time. This ensures mathematics progresses across the year, offering necessary support and challenge for each individual child to make progress. We ensure that maths is taught in creative and engaging lessons using a wide array of maths manipulatives to aid and support our children in their learning. ICT is used widely across each year group to deliver the maths curriculum and to offer our pupils a range of exciting activities to challenge and inspire. We aim to encourage the deepest of learning for our children so that their knowledge can be transferred and applied in many contexts including other subjects e.g. science and art and their everyday lives. Maths is widely promoted across the school and our classrooms have working walls that the children can utilise to support their learning and provide extra challenge.
We plan our learning through a mastery approach to the curriculum. Planning is produced weekly by teachers and must include brief details of their starter activity, input, differentiated tasks, a reasoning or problem-solving task and a range of key vocabulary and questions that will extend and challenge all pupils. Special Educational needs are addressed on all planning along with vulnerable groups of children to ensure staff are deployed effectively to support these pupils and they can be appropriately challenged.
Our aim is to ensure that the three core areas of the national curriculum are covered in all our lessons: fluency, reasoning and problem solving. We offer children the opportunity to have varied and frequent practice of their mathematical skills with the focus on their ability to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately. ‘Quick Maths’ is a self-designed programme that reinforces these three core areas daily within our maths lessons. Over the course of the year, teachers build and scaffold the skills needed for our Year One pupils to complete their QM independently whilst consolidating their learning from the EYFS and what they have learnt so far in Year One. In Year Two, these sessions are completed by children independently and then revisited as our starter at the beginning of our maths lesson where children self-assess their work by using our ‘purple polishing’ pencil. Pupils cover a key area of maths each day, Number and Place Value, Shape, Time and an area from our School Improvement Plan. This ensures these key areas are repeated and consolidated giving our pupils the opportunity to embed these skills on a regular basis.
Our maths lessons lead onto an input from the class teacher using a range of mathematical structures and representations and develop towards our pupils utilising their skills to complete a task using the proposed method with support from their peers, teachers and the use of manipulatives. At CVIS teachers use the Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract (CPA) approach to learning in Mathematics. This is where any new learning is introduced through concrete resources. Once pupils are confident using concrete resources, they progress to drawing pictorial representations and next to the abstract. Differentiation enables all pupils to be successful in their learning, it is offered as a supported approach to meeting the lesson objective and through a range of scaffolded resources.
Pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.
Impact
Pupils at CVIS understand and remember mathematical knowledge. Their learning in mathematics enables our pupils to become motivated, life-long learners who strive to be the best they can be. Teachers ensure pupils are ready for the next stage of their learning. Planning is carefully sequenced which allows pupils opportunities for problem solving and gain enjoyment through a growing self-confidence in their own abilities.
Whilst in school, children have access to a varied programme, which allows them to discover areas of strength, as well as areas they might like to improve upon. The integral nature of Mathematics and the learner creates an enormously rich palette from which a child may access fundamental abilities such as: achievement, self-confidence, interaction with and awareness of others and self-reflection. Mathematics will also develop an understanding of culture and history, both in relation to students individually and other ethnicities from across the world.
Throughout each lesson formative assessment takes place and feedback is given to the children through conferencing and next step tasks to ensure they have gained the intended understanding before they move onto new or more complex content. Teacher’s then use this assessment to influence their planning and ensure they are providing a mathematics curriculum that will allow each child to progress. The teaching of maths is also monitored on a termly basis through book scrutinies, learning walks and lesson observations. Each term pupils in KS1 group complete a form of summative assessment to help them demonstrate their understanding of the topics covered. The results from both the formative and summative assessments are then used to determine children’s progress and attainment. Regular and ongoing assessment informs teaching, as well as intervention, to support and enable the success of each child. These factors ensure that we are able to maintain high standards, with an aim to achieve at the end of KS1 well above the national average and a high proportion of children demonstrating greater depth, at the end of each phase.