Shaw-cum-Donnington C.E. Primary

Planning
Curriculum design ensures a coherent and detailed sequence of essential content to support sustained progression over time. Evidence shows that children need to be able to understand a concept, apply it in a range of situations and then be creative to really understand it. Our chosen scheme, White Rose Mathematics (a DfE recommended scheme), is at the heart of our maths curriculum and is adapted to suit our pupils. It teaches maths sequentially and has, at the heart of it, a Maths Mastery approach to teaching that gives pupils a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of mathematics. Additional quality materials are also used to supplement learning.

Progression is structured using the topic headings as they appear in the National Curriculum:

• Number and Place Value
• Addition and Subtraction
• Multiplication and Division
• Fractions (including decimals and percentages)
• Ratio and Proportion
• Measurement
• Geometry - properties of shapes, position and direction
• Statistics
• Algebra

See separate document for progression across Year groups.

The way we structure our lessons ensures a consistent approach to teaching maths and a greater emphasis on the sequence of learning. The mastery approach we use ensures that there are high expectations for all children; little chance for passive learning as there is a greater emphasis on talk in maths, collaborating and exploring; use of equipment which is actively encouraged and planned opportunities for children to make connections between subjects. The scheme has the concrete-pictorial-abstract (CPA) method at its heart which encourages children to use and discover through the use of equipment (concrete - such as cubes or tens and ones) then they progress to representing this in picture form (pictorial) and finally using equations and mathematical symbols (abstract). The CPA approach allows all children to access maths and deepens their understanding of key topics whilst also making crucial links between them.

Teaching Time
Children in KS1 and KS2 receive 75 minutes of maths lessons daily. The initial 15 minutes are for the teaching of arithmetic and number facts to support fluency and ensure children are best equipped to work efficiently in their maths lessons. In KS1, we use this time to deliver the Mastering Number scheme of learning, which is wholly consistent with and complementary to the Mastery Approach and strengthens children’s understanding of number. In KS2, our time focuses on the teaching of times tables and division facts and the fluency of arithmetic skills.

Maths in the EYFS begins the academic year with 10 minutes allocated to the whole-class teaching input; Maths’s learning extends whole class input through our continuous provision, which is carefully planned to deepen understanding and encourage exploration of learning. The length of maths lessons gradually increases throughout the year inline with the age and developmental stage of the class.

The remaining 60 minutes of the lesson are typically within the format outlined below, however the nature of teaching does require for flexibility and the opportunity for teachers to adapt lesson structures to best suit their class’s needs, therefore not every lesson will follow this outline in this exact order, but it will be formed using the same principles.

A typical Lesson

• Retrieval practice to over-learn key procedures and knowledge, content of these sessions is informed by assessment data.
• Main teacher input – this is presented to children through an ‘I do, We do, You do’ model and provides children with opportunity to observe the processes being taught, rehearse them with a partner or through whole-class collaboration and then independently apply their learning.
• Independent tasks – tasks are designed in accordance with the Mastery Approach, providing children opportunity to complete the taught skill; address misconceptions or identify errors in worked models; and apply their learning to abstract contexts.
• Moments to pause and reflect on or deepen knowledge – teachers will use their assessment for learning strategies to identify opportune moments to provide additional moments of whole-class instruction to enhance pupils’ learning.

• Flexible groupings and adult support groups – staff will use a plethora of tools (such as live marking, listening or observing responses to questioning and conversations with pupils) to actively assess pupils’ understanding throughout the lesson, allowing them to provide immediate and specific additional input to support students with their new learning or deepen their understanding further.
• Lesson reflection – a whole-class review of key learning points from the lesson.

Mathematics across the curriculum
Mathematics contributes to many subjects within the primary curriculum and opportunities will be sought to draw mathematical experience out of a wide range of activities. This will allow children to begin to use and apply mathematics in real contexts. These opportunities will be identified in all appropriate schemes of work but other opportunities will be taken as and when they occur.

Information and Communication Technology
ICT will be used in various ways to support teaching and motivate children’s learning for example the apps Times Tables Rockstars, Minute Maths from White Rose, and Doodle Maths.

Assessment
Assessment procedures can be categorised in two ways, formative assessment and summative assessment:

Formative (AFL): ongoing assessment of how children are learning, undertaken by the teacher during the course of the learning process. These may be in the form of questioning, observations, conversations or analysis of written work. All AFL will be low-stakes and informal in nature and provide teachers with the information that they need to adapt in the moment and address misconceptions in the moment.

Summative: This is the assessment of learning that takes place after the learning process, in order to measure how effective the learning has been. At the end of every unit of learning, children complete a short, low-stakes assessment to check for retention of key knowledge and skills that have been taught in the unit of learning. The data from these is used to form revision or intervention groups to address any misconceptions.

Termly, children in Years 1 - 6 will also complete Headstart Assessments, which checks their understanding and retention of knowledge against their age-related expectations. These assessments allow us to monitor students’ progress and support teacher assessment to report on children’s current attainment. The outcomes will be recorded on a school mark sheet, discussed within Pupil Progress Meetings and analysed for areas of development. Where possible these judgements will be moderated with colleagues and/or the Maths Leader. In addition, the data from these is used to form revision or intervention groups to address any misconceptions learning. 

Additionally in the summer term, Year 4 will have the Multiplication Check and Year 6 will also sit their end of Key Stage 2 Assessments in Mathematics; consisting of 3 papers (an arithmetic and two reasoning papers). Accurate information will then be reported to parents and the child’s next teacher and the local authority. Analysis of progress will be regularly carried out by the Maths Lead throughout the year. Where children appear to be making little progress the Maths Lead and Headteacher (and the SENDCo, if appropriate) will discuss interventions to support the teacher that will help the children to accelerate their learning.

Marking
We endeavour to mark in the moment, or live mark, as much as possible. Research shows that addressing misconceptions as soon as possible enables a better chance of correcting them and embedding the correct knowledge of key facts or procedures than at a distance. It also enables us to converse with children about their learning and provide powerful moments of deep discussion, which strengthen understanding.

See our marking policy for further information on this.

Impact
At Shaw-cum-Donnington we expect that by the end of Year 6 pupils will:

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics
• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and drawing conclusions and generalisations
• solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication.