Maths Mastery at Stenson Fields Primary Community School

Our Vision:

“At Stenson Fields Primary Community School, all children will become resilient, fluent mathematicians with an ability to tackle problem solving.”

Intent:

Our key principles:

• All children can learn to do maths.
• Fluency, Reasoning and problem solving are embedded within all year groups.
• Children are supported in their understanding through the use of concrete, pictorial and abstract.
• Engage in cross-curricular and outdoor learning to enjoy maths in real-life situations.

Implementation:

What will typically be seen in a maths lesson:

• Children enjoying maths, eager to explain their learning and being engaged in what they are doing.
• Children being taught within mixed ability classes by their class teacher
• Mornings incorporate daily ‘Flashback 4’ that encourage children to develop their mental strategies, recapping work from the previous day, week, topic and year. They help explore efficiency and discuss different ways of working things out.
• Flexible groupings may be used to provide support for children, through peer support, the class teacher or teaching assistant.
• Children have the opportunities to work independently, within pairs or as a group.
• Concrete manipulatives are available in every classroom and are accessible for children to use as directed or independently.
• Challenges are readily available for children to move onto at their discretion or as directed by the teacher or TA.  
• Children are encouraged to use the correct mathematical vocabulary and use their reasoning skills when answering questions.
• Teachers and TAs move round the classroom and actively respond, challenge and support children with their learning.
• Through their time at the school, children will develop their written calculation methods in line with the Calculation Policy.  
• Working walls are used to display strategies that are being used and include the key vocabulary being taught in that unit.
• Opportunities are given to develop multiplication facts, including the use of TT Rockstars in school and at home.

Planning:

• Each year team plan for maths together, with a focus on the children’s needs.
• White Rose medium term plan is used to ensure coverage and progression of skills.
• A Smart Notebook is developed for each week which all members of the year team use for their teaching to ensure continuity across the year group.
• The Smart Notebook includes: lesson objective, starting the lesson with a worded problem, key teaching slides with methods, key questions for teacher to ask, use of pictorial and abstract, opportunities for reasoning and problem solving and challenges.
• Activities are provided for children to work on the skill for that lesson.
• At the discretion of the class teacher, lessons may be adapted or additional lesson added according to the needs of the class. However, across a year group, classes largely remain in line with each other with regards to their teaching.

Specific Groups of children:

• Children will be identified for specific interventions in maths, such as FirstClass@Number (KS1) and Success@Arithmetic (KS2).
• All pupil premium children will be monitored, with interventions provided where support is  needed. Further work might be provided to support the achievement of any specific target the child requires and time is given for the child to complete the work set, as necessary.
• SEND children will predominantly be covering the curriculum content of their year group. Their learning will be supported through the use of models, scaffolds and manipulatives. Specific targets are set which focus on a gap in their learning. Additional work will be set to support the child in meeting this target. TAs will support these children at points within their learning, both within and outside the maths lesson.
• All children, including ‘more able learners’ are encouraged to explore their understanding at a greater depth through: open ended tasks, reasoning and problem solving and investigations.

How we monitor our children’s learning:

• Marking and feedback within books and verbally during lessons
• Assessments; formal and informal
• Assessment of objectives using ‘Insight’
• Termly pupil progress meetings
• Learning walks, including governors, and lesson observations
• Senior leaders/governors monitoring of books alongside planning
• Senior leaders/governors looking at the data and identifying area for focus
• Pupil interviews

Staff CPD:

• Maths cluster meetings, termly.
• Termly SLT meetings to meet and discuss books and planning
• Staff meeting/INSET time as applicable
• Maths leads – continue to have links with Maths Hub 2 year programme (Sep 2018- July 2020) which included termly meetings and observations of mastery within other schools; support within own school. Regular TA meeting. 

Impact:

The impact of our teaching:

• Confident children who are resilient, fluent mathematicians
• Children making expected or accelerated progress across the school

Mathematics Curriculum in School

Mathematics

Mathematics is taught daily in all classes. There are also opportunities to practise key skills in the morning as 'Flashback 4' and to apply learning in cross curricular mathematics activities. The mathematics curriculum aims to ensure that all pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. Children are taught to reason mathematically, solve problems and apply their mathematical skills in a variety of real life contexts.

White Rose Maths Hub and the NCETM

Our lessons are planned around the activities outlined by the 'White Rose Maths Hub' documents, which allow our staff to plan up-to-date sessions developing children's fluency and involving rich and diverse reasoning and problem solving activities.

The NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics) has produced documents which provide activities for our staff to deliver which allow children to demonstrate their depth of knowledge towards the objectives. They are also used to support same-day/week interventions through the 'Ready-to-Progress' materials. Children are challenged through a range of activities including Power Maths activities, Classroom Secrets and nRich tasks. 

Calculation Policy

The school has a calculation policy that reflects the renewed focus from White Rose on providing children with opportunities for practical mathematics before they engage with abstract problems.

Our policy adapts some approaches being taught in countries like Singapore where children experience 'concrete' mathematical activities which they then begin to represent with 'pictorial' representations. Once the children are comfortable with these approaches they are then introduced with the more recognisable 'abstract' problems.