Intent 

We want all our children to develop enquiring minds and use their skills as Mathematicians to make sense of the world around them with rich life experiences. We aim to equip all children with the fundamental skills along with confidence and resilience to solve problems using fluency and reasoning. Children are encouraged to see that Maths surrounds them and to enjoy developing vital life skills in Mathematics. We will do this through the teaching of a balanced and progressive curriculum. ‘Pupils should make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems.’ 

 

Planning 

1. Long term: National Curriculum 

2. Medium term: Following White Rose Scheme of work 

3. Short term: White Rose, supplemented with other resources such as: Twinkl, NRICH NCETM, I see reasoning 

• Daily lessons include a SMART lesson objective 

• Daily lessons are taught in 4 parts:  

• Starter completed on whiteboards 

• Reasoning re-cap question based on yesterday’s learning  

• Episodic teaching with ongoing dialogue and discussion and the use of CPA representations to deepen understanding 

• Independent Activity including fluency and reasoning questions  

 

 

CPA approach 

Using a CPA approach, enables children to spot patterns and make connections, which leads to a deeper understanding of mathematics. 

Concrete – children have the opportunity to use concrete objects and manipulatives to help them understand and explain what they are doing - equipment is available throughout school and an understanding of how to represent concepts physically is seen in all classes. 

Pictorial – children then build on this concrete approach by using pictorial representations, which can then be used to reason and solve problems. 

Abstract – With the foundations firmly laid, children can move to an abstract approach using numbers and key concepts with confidence. 

The mastery approach incorporates all of these to help children explore and demonstrate mathematical ideas, enrich their learning experience and deepen their understanding. Together, these elements help cement knowledge so pupils truly understand what they’ve learnt. All pupils, when introduced to a key new concept, have the opportunity to build competency in this topic by taking this approach.  

 

Teaching  

‘Quality first teaching’ linked to teaching standards: 

All teachers ‘know where their children are’ and where they need to be through the use of: prior learning, assessment, maths talk.  They know ‘how they are going to get them there’ through the use of a range of strategies to promote independence, mastery and high expectations of ALL. They effectively deploy adults and plan for progression during and between lessons. 

 

Times tables 

Our aim at Middlemarch is that all children, by the end of year 4, develop fluency and accuracy in all their times tables as per the National Curriculum. Knowledge, fluency and accuracy of their times tables will mean that our children are more confident and efficient at grasping new learning throughout their time with us such as area, algebra, long multiplication and ratio. 

In Year 4 explicit times tables teaching will take place 3 x per week, for 15 minutes. In Year 3, pupils take part in one dedicated times tables session alongside three weekly Mastering Number sessions, which focus on developing number sense and fluency as the essential foundations for learning and securing times tables knowledge. Times tables will then also be incorporated into other parts of the day, for example: chanting when lining up, starters, EMW, songs before home time etc. In upper school, times tables will not be taught explicitly but will be practiced throughout the day and incorporated into maths lessons.  

 

Times tables rockstars will also be used throughout school as a practice tool for children and as an assessment tool for teachers. All children will play on Garage mode, this allows an individual heatmap to be created, which clearly shows progress and highlights any gaps in knowledge. Teachers use these heatmaps to inform their planning and intervention groups.  

 

Assessment  

Years 3 and 6 complete baseline assessments at the start of the academic year 

Years 3, 4 and 5 complete summative assessment through NFER papers at the end of each term.  

Year 6 complete past papers and then SATs in May of each year. 

Formative / on-going assessment is undertaken daily 

All of the above will be monitored and discussed during pupil progress meeting and staff performance management.