'Mathematics knows no races or geographic boundaries; for mathematics, the cultural world is one country.'

~ David Hilbert ~ 

How we teach maths

Maths Long term overview

Intent

At St. Margaret’s Primary Academy, we aim for our pupils to enjoy maths, become fluent in the fundamentals and understand how our mathematical knowledge can be used to understand the world around us. To achieve this, we intend for children to know and comprehend core number sense competencies so they can understand what numbers mean, improve their performance of mental mathematics and develop the tools to engage with maths in the outside world.  Our curriculum focuses on teaching conceptual understanding, skills proficiency and the ability to problem solve using mathematical reasoning. 

Mathematics supports many of our everyday activities, from making decisions about our personal finances to being able to read train timetables so we arrive at our destinations on time. Therefore, a good understanding of maths is essential in a world filled with the need for calculations, measurements, graphical interpretations and statistical analysis. 

The maths provision at St Margaret's will enable children to: 

~ Develop a positive attitude towards maths. 

~ Develop logical thinking skill and the ability to approach tasks in a systematic way.

~ Use their knowledge to talk about their work and explain their thinking and reasoning using mathematical language. 

Implementation

The content and principles underpinning the 2014 Mathematics curriculum and the Maths curriculum at St Margaret’s Primary academy reflect those found in high-performing education systems internationally, particularly those of east and south-east Asian countries such as Singapore, Japan, South Korea and China. All lessons consist of opportunities for fluency, variation of representation and problem sloving and reasoning to support the understanding of mathematical concepts. 

To ensure whole school consistency, we follow the White Rose Scheme of learning and carefully constructed long-term overviews, which ensures learning is sequenced effectively, builds on previous learning, and provides opportunities for consolidation and revisiting of previously taught concepts. This sets out the small steps needed to build our mathematical competence and confidence and ensures that, by the time our children leave for high school in Year 6, that they are well-prepared and ready to take on the next steps in their mathematical journey.

Where possible, lessons follow a CPA approach to maths (based on the work of Jerome Bruner 1960): 

• Concrete - At the concrete level, children are exposed to a range of manipulatives e.g. dienes, Numicon, Unifix etc and they use these objects as a 'hook' into the learning. 
• Pictorial - At the pictorial level, the focus is on using visualisation and drawings to help embed the learning. 
• Abstract - At the abstract level, children will be using efficient methods such as column addition to solve problems.

Times Table Rockstars and Numbots are online programmes, which are used to support maths learning at home, but also within school to develop times table knowledge and their mathematical understanding too.

Useful websites