Mathematics

Gwladys Street Community Primary and Nursery School is proud to announce that we achieved the SILVER Liverpool Maths Quality Mark.  Thank you to all the pupils, parents, governors and staff who made this happen!

Intent

The intent of our Mathematics curriculum is to design a curriculum, which is accessible to all and will maximise the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement. In Mathematics we would like to ensure all children leave school with their basic skills, an enthusiasm towards Mathematics, secure knowledge and resilience towards problem solving by applying skills learnt to enable them to thrive in the modern world.

We aim to do this by:

  • Fostering and nurturing a curiosity towards the subject that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
  • Providing ‘Real life’ opportunities so pupils make links and understand its purpose.
  • Providing opportunities to apply their mathematical knowledge to other areas of the curriculum confidently.

Children should develop fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills across the mathematical curriculum.

Implementation 

To ensure our Mathematics curriculum is accessible for all pupils, school uses the DFE approved Power Maths approach.   The school’s ongoing engagement with the DFE funded Maths Hubs programme continues to ensure that staff at all levels understand the pedagogy of the mastery approach.

  • To develop resilient learners’ pupils’ work in mixed ability pairs allowing them to share and discuss their ideas.
  • Power ups start the lesson where pupils develop their understanding of basic skills through counting.
  • Lessons begin with an initial problem-solving activity prompts discussion and reasoning, as well as promoting an awareness of maths in relatable real-life contexts that link to other areas of learning.
  • At the beginning of every lesson, key vocabulary is shared, discussed and explained.
  • Within the lesson, pupils are encouraged to use resources and equipment (concrete manipulatives) and models and images.
  • Teachers use careful questions to draw out children’s discussions and their reasoning. The class teacher then leads children through strategies for solving the problem, including those already discussed. Independent work provides the means for all children to develop their fluency further, before progressing to more complex related problems allowing them to reason and problem solve.
  • Mathematical domains are taught in blocks, to enable the achievement of ‘mastery’ over time. Each lesson phase provides the means to achieve greater depth, with more able children being offered rich and sophisticated problems, as well as exploratory, investigative tasks, within the lesson as appropriate.
  • Our curriculum has been carefully devised to ensure that each year’s learning opportunities and assessments are embedded with essential knowledge, skills and understanding which accelerates progress and outcomes over time.
  • Real life experiences are provided through visitors and National initiatives including Money Week and the Fiver Challenge.
  • Basic Skills are underpinned through daily Basic Skills sessions where pupils practice ‘5 a day’ activities including the use of Times Table Rock stars.
  • Once a week each class participates in Active Maths to provide additional opportunities to recall knowledge and skills previously taught in a fun and active environment.
NCETM Mastering Number 
In EYFS and Key Stage 1, we are following the NCETM’s Mastering Number Programme to secure firm foundations in basic skills.  This happens four times a week seperate from the main Maths lesson.
We are also following the NCETM’s Mastering Number at Key Stage 2 Programme in Years 4 and 5 to secure firm foundations in multiplicative relationships.  Again, this happens five times a week seperate to the main Maths lesson.
Knowledge of multiplication and division and its applications forms the single most important aspect of the KS2 curriculum and is the gateway to success at secondary school. This programme enables pupils in Years 4 and 5 to develop fluency in multiplication and division facts, and a confidence and flexibility with number that exemplifies good number sense.

Impact

Throughout each lesson regular formative assessment takes place and feedback is given to the children through marking and next step tips to ensure they are meeting the specific learning objective.

  • Assessment informs teaching, as well as intervention planning and ensure to allow each child to progress and achieve success.
  • Same day interventions are used to support pupils who did not achieve the lessons objectives.
  • Teachers assess pupils’ achievements at the end of each domain and this supports their overall judgement when submitting data during our planned data drops.

These factors will ensure that teachers have expectations from the pupils they teach.

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