Maths

Intent

At Bowes Primary School, our goal is to create life-long mathematicians by creating a learning environment that ensures all children can succeed. Our vision is for all pupils to become independent learners with lively enquiring minds who enjoy and are confident active users of maths.

To do this, we have introduced ‘Mathematics Mastery’ across the school. The Mathematics Mastery curriculum has been developed to ensure every child can achieve excellence in mathematics. It provides pupils with a deep understanding of the subject through a concrete, pictorial and abstract approach. This ensures pupils fully understand what they are learning.

Implementation

The Mathematics Mastery curriculum is cumulative – each school year begins with a focus on the concepts and skills that have the most connections, and this concept is then applied and connected throughout the school year to consolidate learning. This gives pupils the opportunity to ‘master maths’; by using previous learning throughout the school year, they can develop mathematical fluency and conceptual understanding.  

All children take part in a daily mathematics lesson following a six-part structure. This provides pace to the lessons as well as opportunities for feedback and assessment. Great emphasis is placed on reasoning and problem-solving. Children are expected to explain their mathematical thinking using appropriate language throughout the lesson. Children are encouraged to apply their increasing mathematical knowledge at all stages of the lesson.

Through every Maths lesson pupils will be taught:

Conceptual Understanding

Pupils deepen their understanding by representing concepts using objects and pictures and, more abstractly, with words and symbols. They make connections between different representations and consider what different representations stress and ignore.

Language and Communication

Pupils deepen their understanding by explaining, creating problems, justifying and proving using mathematical language. This acts as a scaffold for their thinking and deepening their understanding further.

Mathematical Thinking

Pupils deepen their understanding by giving an example, by sorting or comparing, or by looking for patterns and rules in the representations they are exploring problems with.

If a pupil has a meaningful understanding of the maths they are learning, they will be able to represent it in different ways, use mathematical language to communicate related ideas and think mathematically with the concept. This will enable them to apply their understanding to a new problem in an unfamiliar situation.

Impact

In Mathematics Mastery assessment is continuous. From the beginning of every lesson, teachers will be assessing what their pupils are, or not understanding and use this to scaffold each segment of the lesson.

During and/after lessons, pupils are assessed through informal assessment techniques: questioning, conferencing, reviewing written work against learning objective/success criteria and short retrieval activities.

Termly Rising Stars tests are undertaken for Maths.

Beyond the Curriculum

• Our innovative use of ICT supports the learning of multiplication tables and promotes increased engagement both at school and at home.
• Times Tables Rock Stars tournaments.
• Enterprise opportunities are planned for to enable pupils to tackle maths tasks in a real life context. 
• Maths days/events are celebrated.
• Pupils are provided with weekly 'MyiMaths' home learning and this also provides opportunities for families to view lessons before completing the tasks. 
• KS2 Maths Booster Groups.
• Third Space Learning Targetted Support.

For more information about Mathematics Mastery, please click here.

Video - Supporting Children at Home with Maths. 

Please find available for download the Maths Primary National Curriculum and our Curriculum Maps.