Maths

Intent – What we are trying to achieve?

• Ensure our children have access to a high quality mastery maths curriculum that is both challenging and enjoyable and aims to develop number fluency, reasoning and problem solving;
• Provide our children with a variety of mathematical opportunities, which will enable them to make the connections in learning needed to enjoy greater depth in learning; 
• Ensure children are confident mathematicians who are not afraid to take risks and to fully develop independent learners with inquisitive minds who have secure mathematical foundations and an interest in self-improvement;
• Develop pupils who are prepared with the knowledge and skills required for the next stages of their learning and any future employment involving mathematical understanding.

Implementation – How will we achieve this?
Pre-teach: Teachers use assessment for learning (AFL) to quickly identify children who may have difficulty or lack confidence in accessing the following day’s learning. These children participate in the Pre-teach intervention to ensure they are well prepared and confident for this lesson

Recap of previous concepts: We understand that children need to see or hear something more than once if they are to remember and understand it. The key to retention of knowledge and skills is through overlearning so this is built into our teaching sequence.

Learning Boards: Teachers prepare learning boards as a visual stimulus for children to refer to during and beyond the daily Maths learning. The learning boards help children to foster independence, provide worked examples (including in concrete and pictorial forms) and display key vocabulary.

Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract: Pupils are introduced to a new mathematical concept through the use of concrete resources (e.g. counters, cubes etc.) When they understand the concept using physical aids, they progress to the use of pictorial representations of the concrete objects they were using. Finally, they are asked to solve problems where they only have the abstract i.e. numbers or other symbols.

Whole Class Teaching: Following the mastery approach ensures that all children are working towards the same common objective. The goal is that most children meet age related objectives, through different levels of support, and children that grasp concepts quicker are encouraged to deepen understanding through complex reasoning.

Marking and Feedback: The purpose of marking and feedback is to identify and address misconceptions quickly which allows them to make progress within lessons. The children are most responsive to individual live marking and whole class marking which gives them immediate feedback to act upon within a lesson. Post lesson marking allows the teacher to identify next steps for learning including consolidating small steps, additional fluency or opportunities to use further reasoning skills.

Impact – What difference will this make?
We aim to equip children with the necessary mathematical fluency, vocabulary and confidence in order to make links to previously learnt mathematical concepts and progress to the next stages of their learning. Throughout each lesson, children will be encouraged to reason and justify their approaches ensuring they have a deeper understanding of the curriculum objectives. Finally, children will revisit previously learnt concepts through overlearning and be able to demonstrate retention of skills through end of term and end of year assessments. We believe that, when children leave Clowne Junior School, they will be equipped with the necessary fluency, arithmetic and problem solving skills and confidence to effectively continue their mathematics education at Secondary school.

Pupil voice is an important measure of the implementation and impact of the Maths curriculum. Quantitative data is gathered through pupil surveys to give a reflection of children's opinions on a number of areas of the subject. At the bottom of the survey, there is an area for any additional comments children wish to make.

Qualitative data is gathered on the depth and retention of learning by asking groups of children to bring their books to a meeting with the Maths leader. Within the meeting, children discuss some pieces of work and how they fit into the sequence of learning. Information is gathered on the knowledge and skills the child has retained through a series of open ended questions and discussion points.

How can I help my child at home?

An incredible 115 parents, carers and grandparents attended the Maths Open Mornings on Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th March 2023. There was a 30 minute presentation from Mr Stewart (Maths Lead) followed by an opportunity for adults to sit with their child during a Maths lesson with their class teachers. During the presentation, topics such as year group expectations, sample White Rose workbooks, developing mathematical fluency and supporting your child at home were covered. It was great to see so many adults attend and, as always, we have received some excellent feedback as we try to allow parents to see how the Maths curriculum is structured and taught in our school. Thank you for your support.

"I thought the Maths session was really helpful and gave a good understanding about the school curriculum." Y5 Parent

"Really interesting talk. It was very useful to have some of the new terms explained. I thought it was great to have some suggestions for 'normal' things to do at home which will help e.g. measure, time etc. Great to see the class in action." Y4 Parent

"I enjoyed the Maths morning. It's good to see how the children learn Maths so we can help in the same style at home. The children are taught in a fun way and encouraged to put their hands up to answer questions. Thank you." Y3 Parent

"Many thanks for todays Maths session. It was great to gather an understanding of expectations and how it is taught within school. Please do share the slides as advised." Y6 Parent

It was fantastic to see over 130 parents, carers and grandparents attending our two Maths Open Mornings (Tuesday 28th September and Thursday 30th September 2021). The sessions consisted of a workshop with Mr Stewart (Maths Lead) who explained how Maths is taught at Clowne Junior School allowing parents the opportunity to experience using concrete resources (manipulatives). Following this, parents were invited into their child's classroom to watch a lesson and sit with their child completing work in their workbooks. It was lovely to see the children's reactions and how eager they were to impress their parents in lessons.

The session also included lots of practical resources, tips and websites to support learning at home as well as details of the key assessments points in KS2 including Year 6 SATS in May and the Year 4 Multiplication Check in June. All of the links can be found of the final slide of the presentation and on some of the pictures within the presentation.

We were delighted with the number of positive feedback slips, emails and conversations we have had since these mornings and hope everyone enjoyed the experience.

"A really helpful and informative morning. Getting the opportunity to watch the teaching in action was a really great idea. The teacher was great at involving all of the class."  Y4 Parent

"After attending this workshop, I now understand why these methods are used to explain things to the pupils. It has given me a good insight into the methods used and helped me support from home." Y5 Parent

"I really found the Maths Open Morning very interesting and insightful. I will definitely be using all of the resources given to support my child's further learning at home." Y3 Parent

"Absolutely loved being able to sit in the classroom and see how my child is taught Maths. The teachers at Clowne Junior School teach with confidence and passion and include all the children in the lesson. They also encourage participation from every child. Loved the chance to experience the morning. Well done everyone!" Y6 Parent

"Today has been a really good day and big step forward. I really enjoyed the Maths Open Morning and it was great to see so many parents back in school. The atmosphere in my classroom was lovely and the children were thrilled that their parents could see them working in lessons. Thank you to all that attended." Mrs Wright - Y3 Teacher and Y3-Y4 Phase Leader

We were delighted to host air fryer cooking classes at our school through Derbyshire County Council's Multiply Programme in Spring 2024. DACES (Derbyshire Adult Community Education Service) run courses for parents wanting to increase their numeracy skills in order to help their children with their maths. The popular course was a great success and parents left with a range of recipes (and a free air fryer to get started!) Due to the success of the course, we will be running another course in the Summer Term for more parents to benefit from.

During and after the course we had some amazing feedback from parents. Here's what they said:

"I enjoyed doing the course, learning new recipes and how easy they are to do in the air fryer. I would recommend the course to other parents" Y4 Parent

"Heidi was very friendly and helpful. Taking away some new family meals to enjoy forever." Y3 Parent

"I've loved the sessions and I would definitely do something like this again. Thank you to Clowne Junior School for organising." Y5 Parent

"I found the course really useful and informative. All the ingredients and utensils were provided and any questions were answered quickly and clearly." Y6 Parent