Maths
Intent
At Weedon, we place value on maths as a way of viewing and making sense of the world by organising, analysing and communicating information and ideas to tackle practical tasks and real life problems.
We aim for children:
- To become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problem-solving and reasoning over time.
- To develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
- To develop reasoning and problem-solving skills by following a line of enquiry and developing an argument with justification or proof using mathematical language.
- To encourage children to have mathematical curiosity, a desire to explore ideas through investigation and asking questions that they need to find a solution for.
We want all children to strive for ‘mastery’, rather than progressing upwards through the curriculum and moving on to the next year’s content. We are determined to ensure every learner is supported on their maths journey, regardless of their background, ability or needs. We have set clear expectations of pupils’ maths progression term by term using White Rose as our main school approach.
Implementation
At Weedon, Maths is taught as a daily session. Children are encouraged to share, articulate and explore their thinking, problem-solving and justification. Our aim is to develop a positive attitude to mathematics, in which all children are challenged and gain success and pleasure.
With ongoing assessment opportunities provided by the WhiteRose ‘flashbacks’ and additionally, the pre- and post-assessments, all areas of maths are continually recapped and weaknesses are regularly highlighted.
Termly assessments are also completed to support the teacher's judgement of their progress and attainment. From this, areas of development are identified and this informs planning for the following half-term.
We encourage involvement from parents to share our intent for maths across the school. We ask for regular support at home to develop, particularly the rapid recall of multiplication and division facts using the programme Times Tables Rockstars. This involves regular practice via the app, which is accessible through a variety of means. This rapid recall is also echoed at school by regular, targeted practice of these facts for each individual child.
Children are given RPS opportunities within the lesson, which are provided in both practical, written and verbal methods. In KS1, verbal reasoning skills are the main focus to reduce barriers to learning. Moving into KS2, children begin to develop written reasoning skills and begin to produce written explanations.
Throughout the school, all areas of maths are presented in a variety of ways, including concrete, pictorial and abstract, to develop confidence in maths for all children, regardless of their ability.
Impact
At Weedon, all children understand the importance of maths and its links to the real world. Children have a growth mindset throughout the school, and they have a clear understanding that the journey of learning will begin with mistakes.
Maths lessons are packed with a range of activities showing evidence of fluency, reasoning and problem-solving. All children are encouraged to foster a ‘have a go’ attitude, and they can select the equipment they need to help them to learn, along with the strategies they think are best suited to each problem. As a result, children are reasoning with increased confidence and accuracy.
Children strive to be the best mathematicians they can be and a greater proportion of children are achieving age-related expectations, putting us in line with national percentages.
