St Anne s catholic primary school Maths 2015
MISSION STATEMENT Saint Anne s lives and teaches the Gospel values of Jesus in a safe loving and joyful community. 1
Aims and objectives: Mathematics teaches us how to make sense of the world around us through developing a child s ability to calculate, to reason and to solve problems. It enables children to understand and appreciate relationships and pattern in both number and space in their everyday lives. We aim to develop lively, enquiring minds encouraging pupils to become self motivated, confident and capable in order to solve problems that will become an integral part of their future. The National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils: become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions. The Teaching of Times Tables Each year group teaches set times tables so that children have the opportunity to learn them all before leaving their primary education. Foundation Stage Pupils will begin to group small quantities. Year One Through grouping small quantities, pupils will make connections between arrays, number patterns and counting in twos, fives and tens. Year Two Recall multiplication facts for 2,5 and 10 multiplication tables. Pupils connect the 10 multiplication table to place value and the 2 multiplication tables to the divisions on the clock face. 2
Year Three Recall multiplication facts for the 3, 4 and 8 multiplication tables Year Four Recall multiplication facts for multiplication tables up to 12 x12 Year Five Consolidate above Multiply numbers mentally drawing on known facts Multiply whole number and decimal numbers by 10, 100 and 1000 Year Six consolidate above & multiplication using related facts involving decimals. Multiply multi-digit numbers up to 4 digits by a two-digit whole number. Teaching and learning style The school uses a variety of teaching and learning styles in mathematics lessons. Our principle aim is to develop children s knowledge, skills and understanding in mathematics. We do this through daily lessons that have a high proportion of wholeclass and group-direct teaching. They have the opportunity to use a wide range of resources such as number lines, number squares, digit cards and small apparatus to support their work. Children use Computing skills in mathematics lessons through use of the Interactive White board. This is used to enhance learning, as in modelling ideas and methods. Wherever possible, we encourage the children to use and apply their learning in everyday situations. In all classes there are children with differing mathematical ability. Teachers ensure that work is matched to the needs of individuals. Teachers work with a group daily as do the teaching assistants to support the children in their learning. independent learning and MALIT is particularly pertinent in maths lessons. The use of Mathematics curriculum planning Mathematics is a core subject in the National Curriculum, and we use the New Curriculum- Handbook for Primary Teachers as the basis for implementing the statutory requirements of the programme of study for mathematics. We carry out the curriculum planning in mathematics in two phases (medium-term and short-term). The New Curriculum-Handbook for Primary Teachers gives a detailed outline of what we teach in the long-term for each year groups one six. The teachers are also provided with a colour block planner which highlights the sequence and amount of time allocated to each concept. 3
Our medium-term mathematics plans detail the main teaching objectives for each term. For each of the five blocks there is a medium term; the teachers highlight what is to be taught during each term. They ensure an appropriate balance and distribution of work across each term. It is the class teacher who completes the weekly plans for the teaching of mathematics. They use a variety of schemes to plan for mathematics; Abacus Evolve, Hamilton Trust, Primary Strategy, they also research resources on the internet to produce their weekly lesson plans. All the lesson plans are specific to the needs of the class. These weekly plans list the specific learning objectives, the steps needed to achieve the objectives and gives details of how the lessons are to be taught. The class teacher keeps these individual plans but shares them with the management team during a book scrutiny which takes place each term. Mental Maths. Mental maths is taught with various emphasis throughout the school. KS1 and KS2 do this as part of their daily mathematics lesson. In light of the New National Curriculum, the emphasis is now more so on pupils rapid recall skills. Animal Awards is a mental maths initiative, which is proven to accelerate pupils rapid recall skills. It is taught from Foundation Stage to Year 6 as a weekly lesson and also as part of Oral and mental starters. Mental maths is taught as part of a lesson, enabling children to learn and practise mental maths skills as opposed to a test structure. However, class teachers still use mental maths tests occasionally in order to access where gaps in learning may be. Year 6 Mental have maths tests in preparation for their SATS tests. Reasoning skills Once again, in light of the New Curriculum 2014, teachers are focusing more vigorously on reasoning skills and are teaching this as a stand alone weekly lesson or as short (20 min) session, 2 or 3 times per week, during morning/afternoon challenge time, for example. The Foundation Stage We teach Mathematics in our Foundation unit through the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) which underpins the curriculum planning for children aged birth to five. We give all the children ample opportunity to develop their understanding of 4
number, shape, space and measures. The activities provided cater to the objectives set out in the EYFS. Contribution of mathematics to teaching other curriculum areas English Mathematics contributes significantly to the teaching of English in our school by actively promoting the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. For example, we encourage the children to read and interpret problems in order to identify the mathematics involved. The children explain and present their work to others during plenary sessions. Younger children enjoy stories and rhymes that rely on counting and sequencing. Older children encounter mathematic vocabulary, graphs and charts when using non-fiction texts. Computing Children use and apply mathematics in a variety of ways when solving problems using Computing skills. Younger children use Computing skills in order to communicate results with appropriate mathematical symbols. Older children use it to produce graphs and tables when explaining their results or when creating repeating patterns, such as tessellations. When working on control, children use standard and non-standard measures for distance and angles. They use simulations to identify patterns and relationships. Computing is identified on the numeracy planning in two colours; one for teacher demonstration and the other when used interactively with the children. Science Children use mathematics during science to interpret data from tables and graphs. They also use mathematics to complete end of topic assessments. Teaching mathematics to children with special educational needs We teach mathematics to all children, whatever their ability. It is part of the school curriculum policy to provide a broad and balanced education to all children. We provide learning opportunities that are matched to the needs of children with learning difficulties. Work in mathematics takes into account the targets set for 5
individual children in their Outcome Support Plans and is evident in the teacher s planning. Target groups of children have been identified from each class. These children are supported through close monitoring in classroom sessions, intervention groups and support. They are reviewed throughout the year and the class teacher will decide whether or not they still need to be targeted. Maths Interventions Key Stage 1. Within Key Stage 1, Mission maths intervention and TA led interventions take place on a daily basis. Key Stage 2. In Key Stage 2, we have a Mathematics intervention teacher who leads Success@arithmetic interventions every morning with pupils from Years 5 and 6 in order to move children on from a Level 3C. These sessions focus rigorously on number and place value aspects of the curriculum, Orrets Meadow maths is an intervention is led by a teaching assistant assistant to revisit and consolidate maths skills in order move children on from a 3C. Theses pupils access the intervention 3 times per week for 45 minutes. An intervention teacher supports groups in both Key stage 1 and 2, taking various target groups throughout the week. Assessment and recording We assess the children s work in mathematics from three aspects (long-term, mediumterm and short-term). We make short-term assessments which we use to help us adjust our daily plans. These short-term assessments are closely matched to the teaching objectives. We make medium-term assessments in mathematics to measure progress against the key objectives, and to help us plan the next units of work. These are completed on a termly basis. For these assessments we use a range of materials, e.g. Abacus Evolve, STAR, QCA Tests, old SAT s papers etc. 6
We make long-term assessments towards the end of the school year, and we use these to assess progress against the school and national targets. We can then set targets for the next academic year and make a summary of each child s progress before discussing it with parents. We pass this information on to the next teacher at the end of the year, so that s/he can plan for the new school year. We make longterm assessments with the help of end-of-year tests (optional SATs) and teacher assessment. We use the national tests for children in Year 6, the national tests and teacher assessment for children in Year 2, plus the optional SAT s tests for the children at the end of Year 3, 4 and 5. In light of the New Curriculum 2014, as a school, we are now using O-Tracker, which is an assessment program. As national levels are no longer, our vision as a school is to use STAT Sheffield assessment grid, which is principally extremely similar to APP and presents that children are expected to make 3 steps progress a year. Within those steps, there are statements or stars which have to be achieved. Resources There is a range of resources to support the teaching of mathematics across the school. All classrooms have a number line, a Numicon set and a wide range of appropriate small apparatus. Calculators and a range of other equipment are in labelled boxes available from a central storage area (meeting room). Monitoring and review Monitoring of the standards of children s work and of the quality of teaching in mathematics is the responsibility of the management team and the TLR responsible for Maths. The work of the subject leader also involves supporting colleagues in the teaching of mathematics, being informed about current developments in the subject, and providing a strategic lead and direction for the subject in the school. Samples of children s work are monitored by the management team each term through book and planning scrutiny. Members of staff are then given feedback regarding the findings. 7
Subject Leaders Training The TLR with responsibility for maths has attended subject leader training during this academic year. This training has focused on promoting good practice and raising standards. Support from the local authority has also been provided to support teaching and learning. Review Date: Spring Term 2017 Signed and approved. 8