Our Maths Curriculum

We follow the overviews and small steps from the West Yorkshire Maths Hub.

    

 

Our Maths Vision:

At Todmorden C of E School, we believe that all children can succeed in maths if they are encouraged to have a positive attitude towards thinking, reasoning, experimenting and playing with numbers and mathematical ideas. We encourage our pupils to develop their understanding through learning experiences with carefully selected physical resources that lead to deeper understanding of concepts, before moving onto less concrete drawn representations and finally, efficient and reliable formal algorithms. In this way, they can be flexible and resilient with unfamiliar problems or representations. We don’t want to make children into computational robots who simply follow rules - we want to develop creative thinkers to manipulate the rules to suit them!

We aim that all pupils:

  • Become fluent in the building blocks of mathematics like times tables and number bonds, to recall and apply knowledge rapidly, accurately and instinctively.
  • Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of situations with increasing sophistication, including unfamiliar contexts and real-life scenarios.
  • Can reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry to develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language.
  • Can use the language of mathematics accurately, discussing and explaining their learning with confidence and precision.
  • Enjoy success and build confidence and resilience in mathematics.

We believe that:

  • Ability in mathematics is learnt, not fixed. Everyone can do maths!
  • Developing an inquisitive ‘can do’ attitude to mathematics is essential for success
  • Children learn best when they follow their learning journey together
  • Timely intervention addressing misconceptions is essential for success
  • The opportunity to ‘go deeper’ and reason must be offered to all children to broaden their understanding

To support this, teachers will ensure that:

  • Quality first teaching is carefully planned to match the ability and prior learning of the class using the White Rose Maths planning and a CPA (Concrete resources, Pictorial representations, Abstract methods) approach.
  • Lessons include opportunities for children to work independently as well as collaborate with others to discuss and share their learning.
  • Lessons promote an environment where children feel challenged safely, so they persevere.
  • Lessons include the use of relevant physical resources and other representations in all year groups to develop conceptual understanding, leading to an ability to be flexible.
  • Classrooms have a range of freely accessible resources.
  • Teachers tease out the misconceptions to steer children back on track.
  • Children are given concise, timely feedback and time to think, explore and reflect verbally or with written feedback to challenge or support.

Teaching For Mastery:

What is teaching for mastery?

Mastery is not just being able to memorise key facts and procedures. Mastery is about knowing ‘why’ and ‘how’, and being able to use one’s knowledge appropriately, flexibly and creatively and to apply it in new and unfamiliar situations. The children acquire a “deep, long-term, secure and adaptable” understanding of mathematics.

Developing teaching for mastery

We have embarked on a project to ensure that there is a smooth transition from current teaching to teaching for mastery. This is being supported by West Yorkshire Maths Hub Mastery Readiness Programme (2018-2019) and will be followed by participation in the Teaching for Mastery Programme (2019-2021) and Embedding Mastery (2021-2022) In this academic year, all teachers are now embedding and developing their understanding of mastery to reflect the aims and principles mentioned above.

Challenging All Learners:

Challenge for all groups of learners must be an intrinsic part of maths lessons. It is expected that the vast majority of children will be taught the same content at the same time. Challenge can be incorporated into lessons using skilful questioning; pupils who grasp concepts quickly should be challenged through rich and sophisticated problems – ‘go deeper’ – rather than accelerating into new content. All pupils should encounter challenging reasoning problems, but different pupils will engage with problems at their own depth and with differing levels of support from manipulatives as well as teachers’ guidance.

Structured Intervention:

We aim to work towards a position where our lessons are pitched in such a way that all children are expected and enabled to achieve regardless of their individual starting point. Pupils that are experiencing difficulties and have misconceptions are identified through immediate teacher assessment and addressed with timely ‘keep up’ rather than ‘catch up’ intervention.

Outcomes for our children:

At Todmorden C of E School, we want our children to leave our school as knowledgeable, positive and confident mathematicians who know they either have, or can develop, the skills they need. We want each child to be resilient when presented with the unfamiliar and have the ability and confidence to question why, not just follow sets of procedures. Therefore, our aspiration is for almost all our pupils to achieve the expected standard for maths by the end of KS2, and for all children to learn, make progress and achieve in mathematics.

Our Calculation Policy

 

Click for more information : Maths National Curriculum

Parent Information Booklet

Please have a look below at our information booklet or pick one up at the end of the main corridor.