Maths Curriculum
Subject Vision
The language of mathematics is international. Mathematics is a fundamental part of everyday life, no matter what your background, ability or career. It is an essential tool which enables us to function as children and adults in our communities, as well as understand the world around us. The basic skills of
mathematics are vital for the life opportunities of our children. At Ruislip Gardens School we inspire children, giving all children access to an enjoyable, rich, engaging maths curriculum where they become confident, enthusiastic mathematicians, who can think critically, communicate effective and take pride in their work, aspiring to be the best they can be.
Intent
Our intent for mathematics at Ruislip Gardens is to teach a rich, balanced and progressive curriculum using maths to reason, problem solve and develop fluent conceptual understanding in each area. Our curriculum is frequently reviewed to ensure that is it current and effective and teachers are supported
and aided in their teaching of mathematics through appropriate high quality CPD ensuring confidence in the skills and knowledge that they are required to teach. Maths teaching is underpinned by the belief that all children need a deep understanding of the mathematics they are learning; to foster an
enthusiasm and love of mathematics; to believe in themselves as mathematicians and develop the power of resilience and perseverance when faced with mathematical challenges. A concrete, pictorial, abstract approach provides children with a clear structure in which they can develop their depth of
understanding of mathematical concepts. We intend our classrooms to be ‘vocabulary rich’, encouraging children to talk about their maths, using stem sentences to help children structure and communicate their thinking; use of talk parnters to develop Oracy in Mathematics. Our curriculum allows children to better make sense of the world around them, making connections between mathematics and everyday life.
Implementation
Staff subject knowledge allows the intentions of our mathematics curriculum to be delivered successfully. We continually strive to build upon the excellent understanding of the expectations of the curriculum that our staff have. We achieve this through regular quality CPD which is provided through the subject leader, external courses and external professionals. All staff are encouraged to raise questions, seek support and request further training if needed in order to ensure everyone is confident in what they teach. Good practice is always shared between staff and all CPD is used to inform teaching and learning across school. Resources and equipment are audited regularly so that children have materials of high quality and accuracy to support their learning. Our resources allow us to better use models and images to support learning in each area and enable the progression from concrete to pictorial to abstract. We implement our (CPA) approach through high quality teaching delivering appropriately challenging work for all individuals When children have grasped a concept using concrete equipment, images and diagrams are used (pictorial) prior to moving to abstract questions. Abstract maths relies on the children understanding a concept thoroughly and being able to use their knowledge and understanding to answer and solve maths without equipment or images.
Children are familiar with these resources and can access them independently where needed.
We ensure that the all pupils will move through the curriculum at broadly the same pace. However, based on good and continuous assessment of the children’s needs , our teachers make decisions about when to progress children, and how best to fill gaps in their learning for our children who join Ruislip Gardens part way through a key stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged by ‘going deeper’; being offered rich and more sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Differentiation still takes place, this will often be through the same concept, posing different questions and problems for ‘rapid graspers’ to extend their thinking. Mastery strategies such as ‘Prove it; Compare; True or False are used. ‘Deepening’ through differentiation is important in all year groups. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material, consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice and targeted interventions, before moving on. A ceiling is not put on children’s learning and flexible grouping is adopted based on pre-assessments.
We teach the National Curriculum 2014. Pupils gain understanding of the mathematics relevant to their year group so that is it built upon in subsequent years.
• Our Progression documents provide an overview of the development of concepts across the primary years. These allow subject leaders to have an overview of the progression of concepts over time and allow class teachers to know what children have learnt previously and how the
learning continues subsequently.
• Our Calculation policy outlines in more detail which concepts and procedures / strategies will be introduced and then developed. As leaders within the school attend training sessions and research new pedagogical processes, policies may adapt to reflect the practices that best suit our children.
• Our weekly planning is based on, Deepening Understanding and White Rose Maths – with the addition of Nrich, NCETM, which is tailored to the needs of our children. The progression of ‘small steps’ structure each unit of work being taught. We use many concrete resources throughout the school to ensure children are exposed to multiple representations of a concept. This is part of our CPA (Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract) approach.
We encourage children to make connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. Children also apply their mathematical knowledge across the curriculum, and particularly in Science and Art and
Design, where relevant.
We regard talk in Maths as important and introduce mathematical vocabulary in an age appropriate way. Each classroom within our school is vocabulary rich, and we encourage children to verbalise their thinking; using STEM sentences; our teachers ensure that pupils build secure foundations by using
discussion to probe and remedy their misconceptions.
In Years 1 to 6 we have Start of Day Activities (S.O.D.A) in each class whereby children are set a maths task to ensure general maths knowledge and fluency are maintained and developed; these may take many forms, for example: arithmetic, specific times tables or several questions about a mixture of maths topics. While the class are solving the questions, the staff are able to support children with consolidation or pre-teaching ensuring they are confident with skills required for the upcoming session.
In order to advance individual children’s maths skills in school and at home, we utilise Times Tables Rock Stars for multiplication practise, application and consolidation; Numbots for basic skills, application and consolidation. Maths homework is set weekly, on Google Classroom, across the school based on
what children have been learning.
Through our teaching we continuously monitor pupils’ progress against expected attainment for their age, making formative assessment notes where appropriate and using these to inform our teaching. Summative assessments are completed at the end of each unit of work to ensure ‘sticky learning’ is taking place; their results form discussions in termly Pupil Progress Meetings and update our summative school tracker. The main purpose of all assessment is to always ensure that we are providing excellent provision for every child.
Impact
The impact of our mathematics curriculum is that children understand the relevance and importance of what they are learning in relation to real world concepts. Children know that maths is a vital life skill that they will rely on in many areas of their daily life. Children have a positive view of maths due to learning in an environment where maths is promoted as being an exciting and enjoyable subject in which they can investigate and ask questions; they know that it is OK to ‘make mistakes’ and that this can strengthen their learning because the journey to finding an answer is most important. Children believe in themselves, are confident to ‘have a go’ and choose the equipment they need to help them to learn along with the strategies they think are best suited to each problem and use acquired vocabulary to communicate, reason, justify their thinking. They have the skills to use methods independently and show resilience when tackling problems. Our children have a good understanding of their strengths and targets for development in maths and what they need to do to improve. Our maths books evidence work of a high standard of which children clearly take pride; the range of activities demonstrate good coverage of fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Our feedback and interventions support children to strive to be the best mathematicians they can be, ensuring a
high proportion of children are on track or above.
Key Concepts
|
Fluency |
Reasoning |
|
At Ruislip Gardens, we believe that every child should be fluent in the four operations of number. Concrete, pictorial, abstract approach, progression of skills and strategies taught from EYFs through to Year 6, in accordance to the calculation policy ensures that children become fluent and confident, calculating mentally and using written methods. Children are able to use and apply these calculation skills fluently across all concepts and in all contexts. |
At Ruislip Gardens, all children need and have a deep understanding of the mathematics they are learning; believe in themselves as mathematicians and develop the power of resilience and perseverance when faced with mathematical challenges. Children use a concrete, pictorial, abstract approach, with a clear structure in which they can develop their depth of understanding of mathematical concepts. Children will make connections across mathematical ideas and apply fluency skills; be able to use age appropriate mathematical vocabulary / stem sentences to reason and explain their thinking in depth. Questioning, using Metacognition, by teachers, adults and peers encourages children to think about their thinking and apply new and prior knowledge effectively. |
|
Problem Solving |
Vocabulary |
|
At Ruislip Gardens, we believe children should understand the importance and relevance of mathematics in the wider world. Understand how mathematical vocabulary, fluency in calculation, ability to reason, all feed into problem solving. Children know and understand that problem- solving allows them to develop their understanding and explain the processes used to arrive at solutions, rather than remembering and applying a set of procedures. |
At Ruislip Gardens, we regard ‘maths talk; as vital; each classroom within our school is vocabulary rich, and we encourage children to verbalise their thinking; using STEM sentences; our teachers ensure that pupils build secure foundations by using discussion to probe and remedy their misconceptions and use of talk parnters, to develop Oracy in Mathematics. Teachers model concepts using and repeating both key vocabulary and stem sentences.
|
Progression Skills
Geometry - Position and Direction