Teaching Maths
Teaching Time
To allow adequate time for Maths it is expected that at least 5 hours teaching time will be allocated to Maths each week, however if children are using their mathematical skills in other contexts/ subjects then this is as well as those 5 hours.
To allow adequate time for Maths it is expected that at least 5 hours teaching time will be allocated to Maths each week, however if children are using their mathematical skills in other contexts/ subjects then this is as well as those 5 hours.
Teaching Time Across the School
Reception – Maths everywhere within the indoor and outdoor environment of the Early Years and careful planning of the environment and resources ensures every opportunity for children to access Maths and problem solving skills at all opportunities is key. In Spring 2 Reception children will take part in a 10 minute whole class Maths session using resources mirrored in Year 1. They will follow activities targeted at the ELGs taken from NCTEM and White Rose materials. The physical resources used will then be in the Maths area of the learning environment for children to access during child led, independent learning, times. This will work to support the transition between Reception and Year 1 as well as establishing depth of understanding and talk for Maths.
Year 1 – Autumn 1 to be used as a transition period where teachers are teaching maths in small groups. From Autumn 2 there will be a 50-minute maths lesson every day as well as 10 minutes rehearsal time (time to develop counting, fluency etc). Big Maths sessions will be delivered in addition to Maths lessons and will be timetabled for 20 minutes after lunch every day. These sessions will focus on rapid recall of basic number facts.
Years 2, 3 and 4 – The first 15 minutes of every maths lesson is used to develop fluency targets within the class. The remaining 45 minutes are to be used as the main maths teaching. Big Maths sessions will be delivered in addition to Maths lessons and will be timetabled for 20 minutes after lunch every day. These sessions will focus on rapid recall of basic number facts using all four operations. A ‘learn its’ test will be carried out every Friday with a focus on multiplication and addition facts.
Years 5 and 6 – One hour a week is to be used as a fluency/arithmetic sessions. Targets are then taken and built into regular warm ups either in maths lessons or in register time. The remaining four lessons a week will focus on units of work. Big Maths sessions will be delivered in addition to Maths lessons and will be timetabled for 20 minutes after lunch every day. These sessions will focus on rapid recall of basic number facts using all four operations. A ‘learn its’ test will be carried out every Friday with a focus on multiplication and addition facts.
Maths Lessons
Children are taught in their own class groups by their own class teacher unless there are exceptional circumstances where a child requires a personalised curriculum. The majority of children will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. We believe that all children can achieve therefore all children are given the same starting point in objectives. Children who may be less confident with a concept are given support or interventions and children who have grasped concepts rapidly will be challenged by depth of understanding, not acceleration. To support this, teachers must have ‘Next Step,’ activities prepared in lessons for children who have grasped a concept quickly, they will take the form of yellow, green and blue challenges with Maths for the more able resources ready for gifted pupils.
Every lesson should begin with a short recap of what children already know before introducing new knowledge for the lesson and then giving children a chance to apply their understanding. This provides children with an opportunity to make connections across concepts and ideas. A step-by-step approach, with regular short inputs, is used in lessons to enable children to ‘journey’ through the mathematics involved.
The use of concrete resources and visual models is also essential in helping children fully understand mathematical concepts and so these resources are used regularly in sessions. When children are able to see concepts this way, they then need to understand the same concepts represented pictorially. Children are then ready for abstract representation and applying knowledge across different contexts and situations.
To master a subject fully, we also believe children should be able to explain their thinking and reasoning and confidently teach others. They should be able to investigate mathematics independently, in pairs and in groups. Use of language is therefore a major feature of all maths lessons as it develops children’s reasoning and explanation.
Children are taught in their own class groups by their own class teacher unless there are exceptional circumstances where a child requires a personalised curriculum. The majority of children will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. We believe that all children can achieve therefore all children are given the same starting point in objectives. Children who may be less confident with a concept are given support or interventions and children who have grasped concepts rapidly will be challenged by depth of understanding, not acceleration. To support this, teachers must have ‘Next Step,’ activities prepared in lessons for children who have grasped a concept quickly, they will take the form of yellow, green and blue challenges with Maths for the more able resources ready for gifted pupils.
Every lesson should begin with a short recap of what children already know before introducing new knowledge for the lesson and then giving children a chance to apply their understanding. This provides children with an opportunity to make connections across concepts and ideas. A step-by-step approach, with regular short inputs, is used in lessons to enable children to ‘journey’ through the mathematics involved.
The use of concrete resources and visual models is also essential in helping children fully understand mathematical concepts and so these resources are used regularly in sessions. When children are able to see concepts this way, they then need to understand the same concepts represented pictorially. Children are then ready for abstract representation and applying knowledge across different contexts and situations.
To master a subject fully, we also believe children should be able to explain their thinking and reasoning and confidently teach others. They should be able to investigate mathematics independently, in pairs and in groups. Use of language is therefore a major feature of all maths lessons as it develops children’s reasoning and explanation.