Maths

Intent

At St Stephens Community Academy we continue to develop our teaching for maths mastery approach, where all children are encouraged to succeed and are challenged every day. 

We believe that :

  • the basic skills of mathematics are vital for life opportunities;
  • every child should see themselves as a mathematician.
Through our curriculum we therefore intend that :
  • all pupils develop positive attitudes towards maths through our  teaching and learning, where they become numerate, creative, independent, inquisitive and confident learners.
  • learners develop a 'can do' attitude when tackling a range of problems, including cross-curricular applications where they make mathematical links through drawing on prior learning,
  • pupils broaden their knowledge and understanding of how mathematics is used in the wider world, 
  • pupils are able to use and understand mathematical language in communicating their thinking.

Implementation:

We use The White Rose SOL along with the DfE Ready to Progress materials to implement the National Curriculum for Mathematics. Through the use of a range of concrete resources, images and real life links all children can :

·        become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately, efficiently, in a variety of problems

·        reason mathematically through developing their mathematical thinking -conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language

·        can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions

·        develop confidence to approach challenges, considering what they already know or what they notice, and broaden their own understanding through selecting  different representations and aiming to apply efficient methods.

 

Number Fluency

At St Stephens Community Academy we encourage rapid recall of known facts in all 4 operations with the building blocks of this starting in the Foundation Stage. EYFS and KS1 follow the Mastering Number programme to develop number sense and fluency, building confidence in number talk.

Key Instant Recall Facts ( KIRFs) are learnt half termly to support this. We also use Numbots and TT Rock Stars to promote number fluency.

 

NCETM & CoDe Maths Hub Maths Specialist: PD through the Sustaining for Maths Mastery Programme: Collaborative, reserach based learning.
 
Ms Neale, our School and Trust Maths lead, is also a Maths Speacialist working with the CODe Maths Hub. Currently this role involves collaborative professional development in the leading of teaching and learning in Maths. We have welcomed maths leads from schools across Cornwall to TRG sessions as part of this process. 

Embedding the Mastering Number Programme: Mastering Number @ Home

At the start of the Autumn Term  2023 we welcomed some of the parents of our Reception pupils into a maths lesson. This was a great opportunity for parents to learn about how maths is taught in EYFS and the importance of early number sense. Parents were involved in some activities with their child, which can be used at home to support ‘subitising’ skills: the ability to recognise how many are in a group without counting and being able to explain if it was ‘3 or not 3’.

EARLY YEARS MATHEMATICS LEARNING RESEARCH GROUP; Cohort 3 ( Supported by the Cornwall and Devon Maths Hub ( CoDe) and the NCETM

January – July 2019

We are delighted that our EYFS and Year 1 teachers were part of this research group.

Mastering Number: supported by CoDe and the NCETM: September 2021-July 2022

Our EYFS and KS1 classes are participating in this project and the pupils are enjoying embedding their Number Sense- a key foundation for maths. 

Mastering Number link for further information

 

 

Year 1- Measures: Questions posed and then children's learning observed and 'reproposed'. 
Year 1 welcomed teachers from St. Marks C of E Primary School to their maths lesson on subtraction. What do you notice? What do you wonder? were key questions to assess pupils prior knowledge. Using First, Then, Now and stem sentences, supported the the structure of this mathematical concept and the pupils' verbal reasoning. 
Please see our Approach to Learning Tab for information on:,
  • PPTs from the Shanghai Teacher Exchange and information on its impact;
Developing our maths learning walls to highlight small steps in learning and the use of concrete resources and images to expose the structure of mathematical concepts. 
Teachers and Maths Leads from 5 Primary schools visited our EYFS and Year 1 classes to learn about the teaching for maths mastery in the Early Years. The pupils showcased a carousel of activities focussing on Number Sense and talked with confidence about their learning. The participants commented that, ' The children were clearly enjoying their activities and were confident in explaining their learning.', ' I will be trying these ideas and activities in my own classroom ,' ' Thank you, it was an enlightening morning.' 
This visit was the 5th TRG ( Teacher Research Group) this year, which is being led by Ms Neale in her role as Primary Maths Mastery Specialsts for the CoDe Maths Hub. 

A list of useful Mathematics based websites for Parents and Pupils:

https://ttrockstars.com Pupils have their individual logins- a fun way to improve recall of multiplication facts.

https://www.mymaths.co.uk/Pupils can log in to practice key concepts learnt in class by working through the lesson slides, play games and complete any maths homework.

www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ - follow the links to the correct Key stage: Years 5 and 6 are KS2, Years 7 and 8 are KS3 – this website is very useful for revision

www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/ - Useful website for KS2 pupils to practice some key skills in maths

www.mathszone.co.uk - Useful website with hundreds of links to other websites – most resources are for KS2 with some for KS3

www.supermathsworld.com - Maths games website aimed at mostly KS2 pupils – pupils can log in as a guest or create an account

www.coolmath.com - Maths games website for pupils with links to lots of other sister websites such as coolmaths4kids.com

www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2numeracy.html - Free online maths games resources for KS2 pupils

www.educationquizzes.com/ks3/ - KS3 revision website – there is a parents as well as a pupil info section – click on the maths link on the left hand side - some resources are free but a login and password need to be set up to access the majority of resources

www.educationquizzes.com/ks2/ - Similar to the KS3 version above – there is also a parents info section as well

www.free-training-tutorial.com/ordering-numbersgam... - A maths games website (with some links to typing practice as well) mostly suitable for KS2 pupils and perhaps some KS3 pupils