Maths

Intent

At St Clement’s & St John’s CE Infant School our vision is for all children to have equal opportunities to develop the mathematical foundations needed to be skilled and articulate mathematicians in life within and beyond school. We want each of our children to develop true fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills through a curriculum that is meaningful and that will engage and excite confident mathematicians who have a passion for number.

We believe that a high-quality mathematics education should provide a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject (National Curriculum for Mathematics 2014).

The aim of our Mathematics teaching is;

• To develop pupil’s fluency in the fundamentals of Mathematics through varied and frequent practice so that, over time, they develop confidence in their conceptual understanding and their ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. We then want the children to have confidence in applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication. We want our children to have the confidence to be risk-takers within their learning.
• To inspire pupil’s curiosity in Mathematics and a deeper level of thinking. We want our children to ask questions, to notice things within their Maths and to ‘wonder if’. We want our children to develop and follow their own lines of enquiry because they have a desire to find out more!
• To develop creativity in the pupils’ Mathematics. We support the children in finding and creating new ways to solve routine and non-routine problems and to persevere in seeking solutions.

Implementation

 The National Curriculum is at the core of our maths curriculum here at St Clement’s and is taught through the White Rose and Big Maths programme.  

In EYFS we use the White Rose Maths programme of study in our teaching of Maths. 

It supports children’s development of early number sense and promotes reasoning about number. Across the year, we build children’s knowledge and understanding of amounts up to 20 through carefully planned use of manipulatives and concept images. Alongside developing children’s early number sense, we explore shapes, space and measure through understanding and using comparative vocabulary and reasoning skills. All Maths is taught through adult-led activities and applied through child-initiated learning. 

In KS1 (Year 1 & 2) we teach using the ‘BigMaths’ programme of study. It is a logical progression of skills that embeds core number facts.The Big Maths approach uses basic Mathematical skills as the foundation for all mathematical concepts and develops true fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills in a fun and engaging way. Big Maths helps our children to understand the links between core numeracy (the basic principles that underpin all maths) and outer numeracy, which is the application of these core principles. Big Maths is a rigorous, systematic and structured approach that provides the children with fun and lively experiences as they learn through songs, games and the Big Maths characters.   

The Big Maths approach provides small, learning steps within larger progress drives. These progress drives cover all aspects of the Mathematics curriculum to counting and addition to shape and measures and take the children on a progressive journey from the beginning of Reception to the end of Year 2. The scheme encourages mathematical talk and the movement between concrete, pictorial and abstract representations to allow for a deeper learning experience. Children are much more able to see what they are doing when working out calculations and can easily make connections, consequently building the knowledge to explain and reason about their learning.

Impact

We aim for all children to achieve age related expectations in Mathematics at the end of EYFS and KS1 and for all children to have made good progress in their journey to becoming skilled and articulate mathematicians. Additionally, we aim for our higher attaining children to reach an Exceeding/Greater Depth level in their Mathematics at the end of EYFS and KS1.

Over the past 5 years, the impact of the following the Big Maths approach has proven to achieve what we set out for it to do. It has hugely developed our children’s mathematical foundations including their conceptual understanding and their ability to recall and apply knowledge. Additionally, the children are really developing their ability to explain and reason about their learning.

Impact is measured and can be viewed in a number of ways at St Clement’s School, including the following;

• Within the children’s CLIC and Maths books
• Weekly Learn It’s (recall) and CLIC challenges
  (Data is collated on the Big Maths Profile and analysed by teachers and SLT)
• Termly Assessments (e.g. SATs papers in Year 2)
• Standardised Assessments (SATs)
• Pupil progress meetings
• Performance management meetings
• Moderation - in house, across Coastal Learning Partnership and at BCP moderation events (Year 2).

How do we teach Maths?

In EYFS, a typical lesson will look like:

-Warm up (5 minutes) 

The children will revisit prior learning through interactive and engaging games and tasks. This could be activities that strengthen their number sense and/or revisit key terminology such as names of shape. 

-Main Session (25 minutes)

The children will recieve a whole class input to learn or practise a mathematical skill. The class teacher will model and demonstrate skills using the concrete, pictorial abstract approach. The children will then be given opportunities for paired or group application of this skill. 

This learning will be reinforced through 'play to learn' activities (continuous provison) throughout the day. 

In KS1 (Year 1 & 2), a typical lesson will look like:

-Counting (5 minutes)

Children need to be able to count forwards, backwards and in multiples whilst reading and writing numbers.

When counting at home, it is vital that you not only count forwards but backwards too as children tend to find counting backwards more difficult. Start at random numbers- not just 0!

-Learn its (5 minutes)

Learn its are addition and times table facts. Children learn these and practise them so that their recall is instant. When asked ‘What is 7+3?’ they instantly respond with 10!

Children also learn fact families, if they know 4x3=12 they also know 3x4=12.

-Its Nothing New (5 minutes)

This is a very important step. Children count objects – pasta, cars, bricks etc so that they understand that counting objects can then be applied to more abstract numbers.

They know that 5 ‘things’ and 3 ‘things’ is equal to 8 ‘things’ and can then apply that to 5 tens + 3 tens = 8 tens. This means that children can quickly see the link and apply these number facts to different units such as centimetres, millilitres, metres, grams. Children will also look at prior learning such as doubles, halves and number bonds.

-Calculation (5 minutes)

This step focuses on fluency and children progress through addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. These number facts are mapped out for the children and teachers will work through them, aiming them at the right level for the children in their class, in line with the Maths lesson.

Examples of children's learning in their 'CLIC' books. 

-Followed by the main lesson objective e.g. shape  (approximately 40 minutes)

Planning follows the concrete, pictorial, abstract approach that is highly effective in developing an understanding in Maths.Big Maths lessons are fun and the pace is quick. Children work in separate draft books and are aware of the needy to be efficient. Children need to develop their speed with recalling number facts so they do not have to rely on their fingers or other slower methods.

All children also receive an additional 15 minute SAFE (Shape, Amounts, Fractions, Explaining data) session each week as revision or as preparation for the following week’s learning. Teachers also plan for cross-curricular mathematics opportunities wherever possible such as collecting data in science.

Maths Home learning for KS1:

Children will be sent home with LearnIts challenges each week.

These are timed challenges. The children are given a specific amount of time to complete these mental arithmetic challenges (this differs between 20 seconds to 1 minute). Practise learning these mental arithmetic questions with your child as quickly as they can so that they can move onto the next challenge.  

Below is an example of a LearnIts Challenge.

Your child will also be sent home a CLIC challenge weekly. 

These challenges are not timed. Your child is allowed as much time as necessary to complete them.

Please practise any highlighted questions with your child. (Try changing a few numbers to support their understanding e.g. instead of counting back from ‘83’ each time, count back from ‘47’ or ‘76’.

Below is an example of a CLIC Challenge. 

Extra resources:

Here are some examples of applications and online resources we recommend your children play or watch to support their learning.

We are however, not responsible for any pop up adds that may appear on each of these websites/ applications.

- White Rose 1 Minute Maths Application 

- BusyThings         https://www.busythings.co.uk/play/#

- Purple Mash        https://www.purplemash.com/sch/stclementsbh1

- 'Numberblocks' on BBC Iplayer          https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b08bzfnh/numberblocks

- Topmarks           https://www.topmarks.co.uk/

- KS1 Karate Cats         https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zjkphbk/articles/zf4sscw

Full Maths Progression document at this link