Mathematics

The Paganel Primary School Maths Curriculum

Maths Intent:

We aspire for all children to leave Paganel Primary School with secure foundations for future life. In our ‘Pursuit of greatness’, we embrace growth mindset and encourage our children to learn from their mistakes and build on successes. In maths, our teachers provide numerous opportunities for children to build on their fluency, through reasoning and problem solving, as well opportunities to reflect on and correct mistakes, through CTGs, peer and self-assessment – in line with our core value of Enquiry. Growth mindset vocabulary is used in all lessons to encourage children to develop resilience – in line with our core value of Perseverance. Class teachers know every aspect of their learners and endeavour to activate and develop prior knowledge, build positive relationships where children have a thirst for new knowledge and experiences, and plan engaging, practical and relevant lessons, where children can achieve their best – in line with our core value of Respect.

Maths at Paganel:

Maths is a core subject and we ensure that we teach all objectives as set out in the National Curriculum.

Each child will engage in a minimum of 5 sessions of Maths per week. This can be taught at any point during the morning timetable, and is occasionally moved to the afternoon to avoid P.E. clashes. Children are taught Maths by their class teacher, unless flexible groupings have been approved by the maths lead and SLT, to better support the progress of children in a specific year group.

Our calculation progression documents and maths assessment grids underpin our approach as they outline all objectives within the national curriculum and how we delivery them with a systematic and progressive approach.  Much of the calculation progression documentation has enhanced strategies from the CPA approach, which introduces children to new concepts in a concrete and visual way before applying to abstract contexts.

We ensure that all of our maths lessons are appropriately pitched and have sufficient pace and challenge to support all children in the class, regardless of ability. Each lesson is planned around three key components – fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Each lesson will also give the children the ability to activate prior knowledge, through a ‘check it’ activity at the start of the lesson. This takes the form of a 2/3/4-a-day activity, appropriate to each year group. The ‘check it’ activity should be used as an assessment opportunity, checking that children can remember previously taught skills. The main body of a maths lesson should focus on the fluency/reasoning/problem solving skills needed to allow children to become fluent in the maths area being taught.

Maths learning journeys should always follow the correct structure. Children are introduced to a big problem, are taught the fluency based skills to be successful, before being challenged to use their reasoning skills to further enhance their fluency and solve problems. Problem solving could include logic problems, visual problems, problems that have many possibilities and word problems. Above all, it should focus on mastery of skills.

At Paganel Primary School, we use an online program to help our children develop their multiplication and division skills: Times Tables Rockstars.

All children in our school have a login and can access a variety of fun and engaging times tables games, and they can compete against other children in their class in competitions and activities. Children can create an avatar, which they can customise with their rewards. Login information is provided by class teachers and all children are actively encouraged to use the Times Tables Rockstars website at home and at school.

 

As well as the website activities on Times Tables Rockstars, in preparation for the new Year 4 multiplication test, Years 2-4 complete paper based Times Tables Rockstars worksheets throughout each week. These paper based activities are also available to practise at home. Improvement in the children’s times tables skills is celebrated in our weekly phase assemblies with the award of certificates for Rock Stars, Rock Legends and Rock Heroes.

Below are some useful websites to support with maths at home:
Don’t forget to look out for maths parent workshops lead by class teachers. Dates will be shared on curriculum newsletters.