'Let your light shine as a mathematician'
Intent
At Tritlington C of E First School we recognise that mathematics is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering and necessary for most forms of employment.
We believe that all children can achieve well and develop a love of mathematics. Children’s chances of succeeding in mathematics are maximised if they develop a deep and lasting understanding of mathematical concepts and procedures.
We want our children to have a “can do” attitude towards mathematics and we promote a Growth Mindset approach for all, the belief that you are in control of your own ability and you can learn and improve. Skill comes from practice and effort and this leads to success and resilience.
We aim to give our children the skills, confidence and curiosity to solve problems through fluency with numbers, reasoning and explaining their mathematical ideas. We believe problem solving opportunities are vital to engage children in real life mathematical problems and to prepare them for life outside school.
Our work with the Great North Maths Hub is helping us to embed the mastery approach to mathematics, building solid foundations for our children from which they will become confident and efficient mathematicians.
Implementation
At Tritlington C of E First School we follow a mastery approach to the teaching of mathematics and follow long and medium term plans written by the White Rose Maths hub. These plans support teachers to carefully plan lessons to promote depth of learning for the children.
Mathematical concepts and skills are taught in extended blocks in order to allow children sufficient time to practise, refine and ultimately master concepts and procedures. Lessons are carefully sequenced so that skills and knowledge are continually revisited and applied. Opportunities are planned to ensure all children access rich, problem solving tasks and assessment is used in the lesson to determine whether children need further guided practice or independent practice. Children engage in activities designed to build fluency, spot patterns and make connections in their learning. We teach children to use concrete resources such as counters to represent numbers, record their work using diagrams and models such as the part-whole model in order to develop their mental agility and understanding of the abstract number. In most lessons, children practise reasoning style questions which give them the opportunity for mathematical thinking, reasoning and explaining. We use a variety of maths equipment including Numicon, Dienes/base 10, place value counters, tens frames and place value charts. There is a working maths wall in each classroom to provide current guidance and support so the children have visual reminders of what to do and can access their learning.In the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), we relate the mathematical aspects of the children's work to the Development Matters statements and the Early Learning Goals (ELG), as set out in the EYFS profile document. Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children are taught to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers. Children are provided with frequent and varied opportunities to build and apply this understanding - such as using manipulatives, including small pebbles and tens frames for organising counting - children will develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built. In addition, our curriculum includes rich opportunities for children to develop their spatial reasoning skills across all areas of mathematics including shape, space and measures. It is important that children develop positive attitudes and interests in mathematics, look for patterns and relationships, spot connections, ‘have a go’, talk to adults and peers about what they notice and not be afraid to make mistakes.
There are opportunities for children to encounter Maths throughout the EYFS (both inside and outside) – through both planned activities and the self-selection of easily accessible quality maths resources. Whenever possible, children’s interests are used to support delivering the mathematics curriculum.
Impact
Children at Tritlington C of E First School say they enjoy mathematics. We want them to develop a real passion for maths and to build on this throughout their educational journey. Through the mastery approach we aim to give children confidence, develop their resilience and believe that making mistakes gives the opportunity for their learning to grow.
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