Maths

Mathematics 

Maths is led across the school by Mr Cooper and Miss Lawton. If you have any questions about Maths at Bradley Barton, please speak to one of the team.

Our Intent

At Bradley Barton, we are committed to providing our children with a curriculum that has a clear intention and impacts positively upon their needs. Mathematics is taught in Nursery up to Year 6. 

In Nursery and Reception, we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework for Mathematics which intends to ensure that all children: 

Develop a strong grounding in number so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers. By providing 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, it is important that the 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.

In Years 1 to 6 we follow the National Curriculum for mathematics, which intends to ensure that all children: 

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics. They will develop a deep understanding of concepts and their ability to recall and apply knowledge is accurate and rapid.
• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and investigating problems in depth. They will recognise relationships between problems and are able to use mathematical language to justify and prove their thinking.
• solve problems by applying skills and knowledge in a variety of different contexts. They will be able to break down problems into a series of simpler steps and show perseverance when seeking solutions

The expectation is that the majority of children will move through EYFS and then the National Curriculum at broadly the same pace. Children who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged through being offered a rich mastery approach before moving onto new content. Those children who are not as fluent, will need to consolidate their understanding by having additional practice. 

At Bradley Barton, we believe that mathematics is an important part of every child’s development. We want our learners to be confident mathematicians who get excited when they spot the maths in their everyday lives. Our aim is for all pupils to understand that maths is an enjoyable challenge that requires careful unpicking. The children are required to explore maths in depth, using mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain their thinking. They progress through a 'concrete, pictorial, abstract' approach to help them embed new learning. The children are taught to explain their choice of methods and develop their mathematical reasoning skills. We encourage resilience, adaptability and acceptance that struggle is often a necessary step in learning. Where possible, teachers promote real life links to their vehicles within their maths lessons. The progression maps for maths ensure teachers cover everything that needs to be taught in their year group. Teachers are also expected to look at the previous year groups objectives so that they have a good understanding of what they already know. Similarly, they would look at the following year groups objectives, so that they have a view of where the children are heading to next. 

At Bradley Barton, you will see:

• Children retrieving prior learning to enable children to stick new learning to it 
• Fluency practice so that children develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. 
• Children using sentence stems to aid their mathematical thinking and reasoning skills. This is closely linked to our ‘Challenging Learning’ project where children are encouraged to explore their learning in more depth
•  Mixed ability groups which promote high level thinking and appropriate vocabulary use.
• A tailored curriculum for children who are working at a significantly different level to their peers which ensures identified gaps are addressed.
•  Interventions to help support children identified through diagnostic assessments.
• Teachers using a range of Assessment for Learning techniques to ensure that planning and tasks challenge and inspire all children

Implementation

Planning and Coverage 

This year, nursery have starting using a maths scheme to support them with planning maths for our youngest learners. The scheme is called ‘Master the Curriculum’ and it is being used to provide Nursery with a yearly structure to follow. The ’Master the Curriculum’ planning is inline with the Development Matters Guidance (Department of Education, 2021) which provides teachers with the small steps children need to be taught in maths whilst in nursery. In Reception, teachers use the NCETM mastering number programme to plan the majority of maths sessions. Mastering number planning includes 3 of the 6 areas of maths: composition, comparison and counting. In order to give the children a holistic maths curriculum, each week we teach 3 sessions a of mastering number and 1 session of either pattern, shape or measures. This is planned out in our yearly overview to ensure all areas of maths are covered.

From Years 1—6, we use the NCETM’s (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics) prioritisation documents. These documents combine the DfE’s (Department of Education) guidance on curriculum prioritisation with supportive classroom resources. The resource covers the full mathematics national curriculum whilst prioritising the areas covered by the ready-to-progress criteria from the DfE guidance. Teachers use the ready-to-progress assessment sheets (from Jan 2022) to elicit areas of strength and development which help them plan for and focus on key children during particular units. Teachers adapt the NCETM powerpoint slides and create tasks that are engaging and challenging for children to complete within lessons.

Assessment 

In EYFS, teachers and LSAs use Tapestry to evidence children's maths progress and this evidence is used to inform half termly assessments. When assessing whether an individual child is at the expected level of development in mathematics, teachers draw on their knowledge of the child and their own expert professional judgement and are not required to prove this through collection of physical evidence. In maths sessions, teachers assess by noticing and questioning the children to check children are meeting the learning objective. If children are able to meet the learning objective in the session then teachers will adapt their style of questioning, ask them to show it in another way, prove it or ask them to explain their thinking. This will challenge them further and deepen their learning. If children are not quite grasping the learning,, teachers will break the learning down into smaller steps, provide them with additional resources or work with them after, within continuous provision, to ensure they are able to meet the learning objective. Teachers observe and deepen children's learning through continuous provision where maths activities can be accessed. 

In Year 1-6, we use the ready-to-progress documents to assess where the children are currently. We use the NCETM ready to progress assessments to assess children at the start of the unit, identifying what the children already know and what they need to be taught. The assessments provide teachers with the information they need to plan opportunities for challenge for all children. Planning is adapted daily depending on whether the children need more time on an objective or whether they need to move on at a quicker pace. At the end of the unit, we complete the same assessment to show the progress that the children have made over the unit and plan for interventions for those children that have not achieved the objective. Puma assessments are completed from Year 1 in the summer term up to Year 6. These assessments are used alongside daily assessment in lessons and end of unit assessments to inform end of term data. 

Online Maths Tools 

In order to advance individual children's maths skills both in school and at home, we utilise Times Table Rock Stars for multiplication practise and Numbots for early number practise. 

Impact

The impact of these strategies is assessed daily by the class teacher, who will then decide upon the next steps necessary for each individual child. Using mathematical vocabulary, children are able to discuss key concepts, challenge the opinion of others and justify their own thoughts in a clear and precise manner. Children understand that learning is a pleasurable struggle; they recognise that learning is a journey on which they continuously travel. With the skills they learn, pupils feel empowered to tackle this journey confidently. Real life contexts within maths lessons ensure children are able to relate their learning to the wider world. By applying the skills and knowledge they have learnt in a wide range of scenarios, children make good progress which allows them to access the next stage of their learning.