MATHS
"The only way to learn mathematics is to do mathematics."
Paul Halmos
CURRICULUM
At Kingswood, our Maths curriculum is designed to give our pupils secure number understanding by teaching a clear progression of mathematical skills and knowledge from EYFS, through to KS1 and 2. We follow a ‘mastery’ approach which ensures all children have opportunities to apply their basic number skills to a variety of reasoning and problem solving tasks. Our curriculum has been designed to follow the progression of skills and knowledge designed by ‘White Rose Maths’ and we are passionate that using the White Rose schemes of work supports our pupils to be able to explore maths with a variety of fun and engaging mediums.
INTENT
Our curriculum focuses on the understanding of number and place value with varied opportunities for pupils to consolidate and deepen prior knowledge and skills. We aim to:
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Implement the current legal requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) and the National Curriculum (NC).
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foster positive attitudes, fascination and excitement of discovery through the teaching and learning of mathematical concepts.
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ensure pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, developing conceptual knowledge and an ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately
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ensure that pupils can reason mathematically and solve problems
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support children to develop a ‘can do’ attitude and perceive themselves as mathematicians
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broaden children’s knowledge and understanding of how mathematics is used in the wider world
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support children to use and understand mathematical language and recognise its importance as a language for communication and thinking.
IMPLEMENTATION
As we follow a ‘mastery’ approach to maths, our curriculum focuses on providing opportunities for varied fluency, reasoning and problem solving, giving our pupils a real depth of conceptual understanding. Maths is taught 4 times a week across the school, with some children receiving extra maths intervention to support with times table knowledge, reasoning skills and basic number facts. Maths lessons at Kingswood are based on using concrete-pictorial-abstract approaches which allow the children to build number understanding and apply this to ‘real life’ scenarios.
In maths lessons, children use mini-whiteboards, post-it notes and sugar paper and a variety of concrete resources to practice their maths skills and learning is documented using squared paper maths books which support our children to structure their calculations effectively.
At Kingswood we are passionate about linking maths with the wider world and other curriculum subjects. To facilitate this, the whole school participates in Maths challenges in which our pupils are able to compete against each other and other schools across the country. During Kingswood Maths day, pupils are given the opportunity to discover jobs and roles in the community which involve maths and explore how maths links with other areas of the curriculum, including art and PE.
We use the Times Tables Rockstars package to support maths learning at Kingswood as we feel the interactive games help to make maths fun and exciting for our pupils. All pupils in Years 1-6 are given a personal login to use both in school and at home which allows them to practice Times Tables in return for virtual rewards and prizes. We encourage our families to support their children in taking part in the Time Table Rockstars competitions which occur throughout the year and often participate in completing times table races to help raise money for charity.
IMPACT
Children are assessed each half term by their class teacher to capture progress in Maths. Results in these assessments are used to support the planning of future lessons and identify any pupils who may benefit from extra intervention in Maths. Pupils complete end of KS1 and KS2 national summative assessments in maths (SATs). Teachers address misconceptions through daily teaching, feedback and marking and provide children with the opportunity to respond and revisit previous learning through the use of ‘flashback’ tasks.