Maths

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Maths Intent

At Oxclose Primary Academy, we believe that pupils should be given the opportunity to develop mathematical fluency, reasoning and problem solving.  Across their time in primary school, we want pupils to become confident mathematicians, who are aware of how to use the skills they acquire in everyday life.  We aim for them to become independent learners with inquisitive minds.

We believe that pupils should be offered fun and engaging opportunities to develop their mathematical knowledge and understanding. Pupils will be provided with a variety of mathematical opportunities which will enable them to make connections in learning leading to greater depth learning, ensuring they are confident mathematicians who are not afraid to take risks.

It is our intent that pupils understand that mathematics is not a stand-alone subject and therefore they are given opportunities to further develop their skills using other curriculum areas, such as: Science, Computing and Design and Technology.

 

Approaches

We understand the importance of children being given different opportunities in which to learn maths.  We feel it is important for children to have the hands-on experience of concrete resources such as Numicon, place value counters or even using coco pops on a place value chart, particularly when being introduced to a new concept.  This can then be further developed through visual representations such as bar models, before moving onto the abstract methods like written calculations.

 

Cross Curricular Links

Subjects such as Geography, Science, Design & Technology and Computing provide opportunities to develop the children’s skills and knowledge e.g.  interpreting data, drawing graphs, measuring and reading scales.  This will help and support the children’s understanding of different concepts and see them being used in everyday contexts. 

Oxclose Primary Academy has close links with Nissan and work with them to develop STEM.  Our Year 6 children have previously taken part in ‘The First Lego League’, where they have had to use their mathematical skills to program a Lego robot to complete several challenges and were very proud of the children when they won the best project award.

 

Life Skills

Our children who access the ARP attend weekly life skills lessons.  As part of these sessions, the children will sometimes visit ‘The Galleries’ shopping centre and buy resources they may need for their sessions.  This involves the children handling money.

 

Maths at Home

Here are some ideas to help support your child’s Maths learning at home:

  • When out and about discuss numbers and shapes your child sees
  • Ask your child to tell the time and talk about periods of time, for example, Tea will be ready in half an hour – what time will it be then?
  • Encourage your child to pay for small items in shops to give them experience of handling money
  • Play bingo or countdown
  • Bake – encourage the children to weigh out ingredients

 

Websites

Below are some websites which can support your child’s Maths learning at home:

BBC Bitesize Maths - https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/z826n39

http://primarygamesarena.com/Subjects/Maths

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button

https://mathszone.co.uk/

https://www.transum.org/Software/

https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/477/Multiplication-Tables-Check

Intent

At Oxclose Primary Academy, we believe that pupils should be given the opportunity to develop mathematical fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Across their time in primary school, we want pupils to become confident mathematicians, who are aware of how to use the skills they acquire in everyday life. We aim for them to become independent learners with inquisitive minds.

We believe that pupils should be offered fun and engaging opportunities to develop their mathematical knowledge and understanding. Pupils will be provided with a variety of mathematical opportunities which will enable them to make connections in learning leading to greater depth learning, ensuring they are confident mathematicians who are not afraid to take risks.

It is our intent that pupils understand that mathematics is not a stand-alone subject and therefore they are given opportunities to further develop their skills using other curriculum areas, such as: Science, Computing and Design and Technology.

Implementation

Mathematics is a core subject within school and the Mathematics Long Term Plan follows the National Curriculum.

Mathematics is taught daily in all year groups. In KS1, sessions last 50 minutes, whereas in KS2, sessions are 55 minutes. The first ten minutes of each session, in both key stages, has an arithmetic focus which enables the pupils to become increasingly fluent in both mental and written methods.

Where new mathematical concepts are being introduced, pupils will be given the opportunity to use concrete and pictorial representations before using abstract methods. The Calculation Policy sets out the order in which strategies should be taught and the method which should be adhered to. Pupils should be made aware of the most efficient strategy which should be used for given calculations.

Within each class there will be a mathematical display, where strategies which are currently being taught are displayed. Pupils’ mathematical work will be recorded in books with squared paper. The size of the squares will be dependent on the key stage.

Pupils’ arithmetic work will be recorded in books with blank paper to allow pupils the freedom to use the strategy they feel will be most efficient.

Assessment will take place across lessons, at the end of each strand and across the school year. Pupils will complete half termly arithmetic tests and termly reasoning tests, these are used to inform further teaching and learning.

Impact

Pupils will be passionate about mathematics. They will talk enthusiastically about their learning and be eager to develop this further. They will become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics and will be able to reason mathematically. Pupils will become keen and resilient problem solvers by applying their mathematical knowledge to a variety of problems.

To enable us to measure the impact, the subject lead and senior leaders will use data analysis, lesson visits, work scrutinies and pupil voice activities across the year.