At St Helen’s Primary Academy, we aim to ensure that all pupils are fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics and are given the opportunities to reason mathematically and solve problems. Pupils work through a 6 part lesson structure, which ensures that mathematics is accessible for all and all pupils are appropriately challenged. This will give them strong foundations to allow every child to embrace daily learning opportunities with mathematics. We aim to know more and remember more! 

• Teachers to teach mathematics lessons 5 x per week plus 4 arithmetic/timestable focused sessions

• Children to become fluent in the 4 key operations through daily arithmetic and times tables practice (TTRockstar driven), in addition to mathematics lessons.

• All mathematics lessons follow a 6 step structure 

• The content of the lessons are supported by ARK Curriculum plus 

• Pupils have regular opportunities to rehearse and apply the important facts, concepts, methods and strategies that they have learned 

• Practical resources to be used to represent new concepts. 

• Pupils are given the opportunity to learn and practise using mathematical vocabulary 

• Pupils who become fluent are given the opportunity and are challenged to further develop their reasoning and problem solving skills through probing and further extension questions.

• Children have the opportunity to solve rich and complex problems and apply their skills in unfamiliar contexts.

Pupils will learn to be resilient, confident and fluent mathematicians and demonstrate their understanding, leading them to achieve well. Pupils will be able to independently seek support through using mathematical equipment (concrete), visual representations (pictorial) and relate these to the abstract that are demonstrated during the representing stage of the 6 part lesson structure. Children will acquire core mathematical facts, an understanding of concepts and strategies that they are able to apply successfully and efficiently when solving problems. Children can apply efficient and accurate mathematical methods when faced with more complex calculations or unfamiliar problems. 

‘The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics,’ (Paul Halmos)

Micro level - Formative assessment (Task by task) 

Ongoing AFL during lessons through: 

- Eliciting information through questioning and dialogue 

- Providing feedback with clear direction on how to improve 

- Helping children to understand how to become successful (criteria) 

- Fluency and reasoning exposure and activities in representation teaching

Meso level - Lesson by lesson assessment 

- Knowledge checks at the start of the lesson to ensure children are remembering more content and vocabulary over time

- ‘Do now’ retrieval quizzes at the start of every lesson to recall key content and vocabulary from previous lesson

Macro level - End of unit

No end of unit testing. Daily formative assessment to inform coverage of curriculum and interventions 

Mega level - Standardised test 

Standardised tests in Y6 

Baseline tests inform coverage and provides a starting point for the academic year (GL Assessments)

DO NOW

Everyone is engaged in the task.  100% of the time

Everyone experiences success with no taught input

The practice they are doing will a) help them later in the lesson OR b) build fluency in a key skill

NEW LEARNING 

Everyone says the most important kay vocabulary 

The teacher (and children ideally) model using concrete manipulatives 

Everyone uses words and symbols accurately 

Everyone is ready to answer questions 

Everyone answers in full sentences

Misconceptions are anticipated and incorporated 

The Talk task/Let's Explore task is modelled

TALK TASK/LET'S EXPLORE 

Everyone is speaking in full sentences 

Everyone uses words and symbols accurately 

Everyone is manipulating objects when appropriate 

DEVELOP LEARNING 

References are made to previously learnt models/representations/skills/concepts

Everyone is ready to answer questions 

Everyone answers in full sentences 

Everyone uses words and symbols accurately 

Misconceptions are anticipated and incorporated 

Independent learning task is modelled

INDEPENDENT TASK 

Everyone is engaged in completing the task, 100% of the time
Everyone has access to appropriate concrete manipulatives 

Everyone is engaged in learning about the same mathematical concept or skill, with an appropriate amount of scaffolding 

Emphasis on understanding and developing fluency, not rushing to 'cover' ideas 

Extension tasks involve deeper understanding of the same mathematical concept or skill - through solving less routine problems, demonstrating using concrete manipulatives/drawing diagrams, explaining in full sentences or asking their own questions

PLENARY

Collaborately working through a reasoning or problem solving style question

We like to learn new things in maths! - Year 1

I enjoy maths lessons. It starts off hard and then it gets a lot easier! - Year 5 

I find maths easy when my teacher uses objects to help explain things to me - Year 2

I feel proud when my teacher tells me well done! - Year 3 

Arithmetic is my favourite time to practice my skills - Year 6