Intent
At Rosecliffe Spencer Academy, our intent is to provide children with a firm foundation of mathematical understanding to prepare them for their futures. We intend to teach a progressive curriculum with mastery at the heart where children will become fluent in number and be able to recall and apply knowledge rapidly, able to problem solve with increasingly sophisticated problems and reason mathematically. Children will be able to articulate their learning and be proud of their achievements in maths regardless of their starting points. At Rosecliffe, we want them to know that maths is essential to everyday life and have a confident, ‘can do’ attitude towards all aspects of their mathematics learning.
Implementation
In order to achieve our intent, at Rosecliffe Spencer Academy we follow the DfE recommended scheme, Power Maths, which is carefully designed to provide our children with opportunities to master mathematical concepts and ideas from F2 to year 6. This scheme is not simply something we follow as a programme of study but one which is core to our wider pedagogical understanding of what excellent maths teaching and learning looks like. We use it alongside other carefully chosen materials such NCETM (where needed) to ensure that all children gain a deep and secure understanding of mathematical concepts alongside a procedural fluency.
In our daily maths lessons, we teach for mastery and organise the lesson structure to give children the best chances of becoming masters of maths. Our children are in mixed ability groupings and this is fundamental to our belief that all children can achieve in maths. Scaffolding through concrete, pictorial and abstract is key to ensuring this success of all and we carefully select the manipulatives we use to ensure they expose key mathematical structures to the children.
Fluency is integral to the success of children in mathematics – it is an essential tool in improving children’s confidence when embarking on more complex mathematical reasoning and problem solving. We prioritise building a strong number sense for our younger children through songs and rhymes and daily fluency. In KS2 we target this through daily fluency and through TimesTables RockStars. We assess termly which allows teachers to target interventions for those who need support in those areas.
|
Daily maths lessons
From F2 to Year 6, daily maths lessons are taught to the children following the Power Maths scheme. These lessons follow a Power Up (accessing prior knowledge); Discover (children investigating the problem); Think together I do (teacher led teaching) and Think together You do (child led demonstrating understanding). In nursery (F1), children are exposed to this language ready for their next step.
Children in KS1 and KS2 then move to work independently in their Power Maths workbooks. Feedback and personal challenge is provided through Purple Pen editing in maths books. Verbal (VF) and in the moment marking in promoted to address misconceptions immediately.
|
Technology
To support leaners who are EAL, children have access to apps such as Say Hi and Google Translate.
To promote a love of learning, healthy competition and a confident recall of the times tables, we subscribe to TimesTables RockStars for KS2. This is something that can also be accessed at home as is promoted in our homework sheets.
We also utilise Learning By Questions in KS2 which is endorsed by the Education Endowment Framework. This tool allows teachers to assess previous knowledge required for an upcoming unit, it allows for immediate feedback and challenge and allows teachers to pause for in the moment reflective feedback to questions. |
Working walls
Working walls are there to promote current learning and for children to think back to previous knowledge. The boards will take CPA (concrete, pictorial and abstract) into consideration and where possible these links will be evidenced on the board to support high quality teaching for all children.
Working walls will reflect language children should know by the end of the unit and have a working model to demonstrate how to solve problems.
|
|
Arithmetic lessons
In year 6 until Summer 1, children have a discrete session a week which focuses on developing confidence in arithmetic methods and efficiency.
|
Homework
Homework is sent home from KS1 and KS2 in maths to support furthering school learning at home. The books have been selected so that children have access to marking their own work, taking responsibility for their learning at home.
In EYFS, F2 parents are sent a task once every other week which helps to promote maths talk and skill sharing at home (Rainbow challenge)
|
Staff CPD
Staff have access to CPD termly during staff meetings depending on the current needs of the school.
Power Maths was chosen as a scheme because of the high quality CPD it offers to staff. Staff have access to a guide book, videos and resources to guide them with their short term planning.
|
|
Maths in the wider curriculum
Throughout the curriculum children have access to mathematics learning, where they are able to put their skills into different areas. For example, in year 5 and 6 there are opportunities for children to create a range of graphs in geography and to create tables of data in science. In computing, children begin to learn about probability and averages in the computing curriculum in year 6.
|
Booster sessions
Based on assessment data and in class formative observations, children are invited to sessions at 8am once a week in KS2 to timely interventions to ensure that no child is left behind and is making excellent progress alongside their peers.
|
Whole school maths celebrations and Pupil Voice
National Numeracy Day on the 17th May 2023 was celebrated by the year 6s with children exploring and writing songs and raps to show how important numeracy and maths is to our lives.
We aspire to have a team of maths ambassadors in the 2023-2024 year to further promote the love of maths at Rosecliffe Primary School.
|
Intended Impact
Children will leave Rosecliffe Spencer Academy happy, confident learners who have developed a love of maths with the key skills and knowledge necessary for the next stage of their learning. They have high aspirations, can communicate well when applying their skills and want to further their learning. Children know what strategies to employ if they struggle with an area of learning and they are confident with doing so. Pupils will leave primary school being able to effectively apply their mathematical skills to solve problems and parents and carers will have a good understanding of how they can support pupils’ mathematics development at home. We aspire for our children to speak confidently about their strengths and which areas they feel they need more support in.
Our impact will be measurable by:
- The % of pupils working at ARE within each year group will be at least in line with national averages.
- The % of pupils working at Greater Depth within each year group will be at least in line with national averages.
- There will be no significant gaps in the progress of different groups of pupils (e.g. disadvantaged vs non-disadvantaged).
Supporting maths at home
It is important that we work together and support maths learning at home too. Children have opportunities to continue their maths learning through their Rainbow Challenges or in their homework books. However, finding moments in your child’s day to show maths in real-life is a fantastic way to grow their confidence with the subject. For example, measuring when cooking and making meals; using money to make amounts or to find change; counting in patterns up and down (for example in 2s, 5s, 10s) and discussing the temperature and time together is all maths in action. You could even challenge them further with researching temperatures and times around the world and comparing these!
Below are a list of websites that may help to boost confidence too, but please always check content before going on at home.
- https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/z826n39
- https://ttrockstars.com/