Our Position Statement for Recovery September 2020

At the end of the summer term, class teachers will use government guidance to identify specific areas of the curriculum that were not covered due to school closure.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-mathematics-in-primary-school

This information will be passed onto the next teacher, so they are aware of missed units. Teachers will begin in September as normal, focusing on place value and number during the first term. Pre assessments will be used before new units are introduced, to gauge understanding in their class. These will inform the planning and coverage of the next unit. Interventions will be set up later in the first half term, with a focus on children who are not making their expected progress to reach either age related expectations or greater depth within maths, as well as addressing any significant gaps identified in children's learning. Teachers will follow the maths overviews planned for the year. Years 1 to 5 will use the Singapore maths chapters to select appropriate lessons, being aware that not all lessons will need to be taught from the textbooks. Some units in Singapore maths include many lessons, which we do not feel are always necessary for the children in order to grasp a concept. Our planning and lessons are based on children's understanding, not following a scheme to the letter and teachers will use their judgement as to which lessons are most appropriate to cover. At the beginning of the Autumn term, we will remind staff of Maths CPD from this school year, to ensure all staff are fully aware of the expectations for maths. This includes teachers planning one lesson a week which is separate from the Singapore maths lessons. During these lessons, the teacher may work with a particular focus group of children, while the rest of the class work independently on tasks which consolidate the learning done that week, or challenge and deepen their understanding further. Resources such as manipulatives will be set out on tables for children to use as and when appropriate. Children will have access to independent resources such as hundred squares and times table grids, but manipulatives such as base 10 and multilink will be shared in pairs and cleaned before being shared with other children. Assessment will take place from week 4 onwards, in order to plan interventions and inform parents and pupils of next steps.

Our Vision for Maths:

• To have a solid understanding of number and shape and measure.
• To develop children who are independent learners and can use a range of strategies to solve different mathematical problems.
• To provide learning experiences that encourage a reasoning and mastery approach.
• To develop children who are confident to independently use a range of concrete and pictorial resources to aid their learning.

Shaping Our Maths Curriculum: 

The Maths curriculum at our school focuses on encouraging children to question, reason, investigate and solve problems. We use a variety of strategies to allow this, which give children the opportunity to explore their thinking and ideas. Wherever possible, practical, ‘real’ activities are used to introduce concepts, transfer skills learnt and reinforce learning objectives, ensuring the children are engaged through enjoyable, stimulating activities.

The main areas taught are:

• Number and place value,
• Addition, subtraction,
• Multiplication and division
• Fractions
• Measurement
• Geometry: Properties of shape, position and direction
• Statistics
• Algebra, ratio and proportion at year 6.

Singapore Maths

Our approach to mathematics teaching is based on Singapore Maths. The principles are based on a concrete – pictorial – abstract – cycle of learning. There are many reasons that this approach develops understanding so well, but one key factor is that it is step-by-step and can be used at home or in the classroom.

The Singapore method begins by allowing children to start learning about Maths by playing with real objects, blocks or cut-out pictures. They build confidence with the basic ideas of adding and taking away. There is then a second stage of drawing pictures representing the objects. And only later do they gradually start to add numbers to their drawings.

This effective Maths approach is supported further by the use of ‘Maths No Problem’ textbooks, in Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 which are based on the Singapore approach. Year 6 uses the Singapore maths approach through the use of a range of different resources.

Here are some links to further explain this approach:

http://www.mathsnoproblem.co.uk/parent-videos

http://www.mathsnoproblem.co.uk/singapore-maths

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/0/24925787

Features of Singapore Maths:

• Emphasis on problem solving and comprehension, allowing students to relate what they learn and to connect knowledge
• Careful scaffolding of core competencies of : visualisation as a platform for comprehension, mental strategies to develop decision making abilities,  pattern recognition, to support the ability to make connections and generalise
• ​Emphasis on the foundations for learning and not on the content itself so students  learn to think mathematically as opposed to merely reciting formulas or procedures.

Our Maths curriculum is also drawn from: 

• White Rose maths

• NCETM

• Times Table Rockstars

• Rising Stars

Please see the whole school Progression and Overview documents below: