Maths
Vision
At Barling Magna Primary Academy, we have high expectations for all of our pupils and believe that they can all achieve highly and become confident to apply mathematical skills to the real world.
We strive for all pupils to be curious about mathematics and to understand the importance of the subject in their daily lives.
Introduction
Mathematics is important in everyday life. It is integral to all aspects of life and with this in mind we endeavour to ensure that children develop a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards mathematics that will stay with them along with a rich lifelong love of learning.
Curriculum
The National Curriculum for mathematics (2014) describes in detail what pupils must learn in each year group. Combined with our Calculation Policy (see below), this ensures continuity, progression and high expectations for attainment in mathematics.
Throughout the school pupils are taught using a mastery approach to mathematics with skills and concepts being taught in a systematic way. The scheme Inspire Maths is used alongside materials from the White Rose maths hub to ensure that all concepts are taught using the concrete, pictorial, abstract approach.
Every mathematical unit and concept will be taught following our class working walls. Our walls will consist of examples from each of the concrete, pictorial and abstract stages. The pupils will then work through each stage with guidance from the teacher at their own pace. By following the process our pupils will endeavour to have a secure knowledge in key concepts and be able to problem solve and explain their thinking. To encourage children to problem solve and reason, we use key statements such as: Prove it! Explain how! Can you find another way of finding the same answer? Explain your strategy in less than ten words.
Mastery
At Barling Magna we are committed to ensuring that all pupils achieve mastery in the key concepts of mathematics, appropriate for their age group, in order that they make genuine progress and avoid gaps in their understanding that provide barriers to learning as they move through education. An emphasis on investigation, problem solving, the development of mathematical thinking and development of teacher subject knowledge are therefore essential components our approach to this subject.
Grapple Tasks
Where possible, a new unit will begin with a Grapple task. A Grapple task is an exploration task which the children try to solve by applying their current knowledge. With the class teacher, the pupils identify the skills they need to learn to enable them successfully solve the problem. After being taught these new skills, the children then go back and complete the same grapple task.
Progression
In the Early Years, mathematics is developed through purposeful, play based experiences and will be represented throughout the indoor and outdoor provision. The learning is based on pupil’s interests and will focus on the expectations from Early Years outcomes. Pupils are encouraged to record their mathematical thinking when ready.
From EYFS to Y6 pupils follow a structured curriculum map which is flexible to the needs of the pupils, allowing for revisiting of concepts which need consolidation. It is vital that all children quickly become fluent in mathematics and then are given opportunities to deepen their knowledge and improve their reasoning skills through rich and relevant problems.
Mental arithmetic
At Barling Magna Primary we acknowledge that for our children to have a secure ability to apply mental maths arithmetic skills we need to ensure children recall: counting, number bonds, multiplication and corresponding division facts, multiples and factors instantaneously (responding as quickly as if they were asked “What is your name?”) This requires explicit teaching using a wide range of strategies.