Intent

At Willow Bank Junior School, we believe that children should experience the awe and wonder of mathematics as they learn to solve problems; develop ways of looking at patterns; discover efficient strategies and make links between the different areas of maths. In line with our whole-school curriculum intent, our maths curriculum provides children with a rich depth of knowledge, the skills to recall key facts as well as support to apply these facts independently in a range of situations. We intend for Willow Bank children to develop a love of maths, being curious, confident and unafraid to ask questions or make mistakes. We want children to be able to articulate their thoughts and ideas and be able to make connections between different mathematical concepts and skills.

We believe all children can achieve in mathematics, and teach for secure and deep understanding of concepts through fluency, reasoning and problem solving. The maths curriculum allows children to frequently return to previous learning which enable a rich depth of knowledge and understanding. We use mistakes and misconceptions as an essential part of learning and provide challenges through rich and varied problems. We encourage children to use approaches, which work for them, by equipping them with a range of efficient strategies and ensuring an understanding of them. Pupils should have a strong understanding of different concepts so that they are able to apply their knowledge to different situations and problems. At our school, the majority of children will be taught age related content and will be supported in understanding this through pre-teaching and corrective teaching when necessary. We aim to make maths an exciting and varied experience to enable children to flourish and achieve.

Implementation

Our medium and long term plans are developed through termly discussions with staff in each year group and the maths lead and follow the White Rose mastery approach combined with the DfE curriculum prioritisation guidance and Ready to Progress criteria.  Mathematical concepts and skills are broken up across the different year groups and our calculation policy focuses on the CPA approach (concrete, pictorial and abstract). A concept is taught and will be revisited the following year, but in greater depth in order to build upon prior knowledge. We tailor our sequential plans to individual cohorts.

There are 6 Core Principles agreed by the whole school which should be apparent in every classroom for every mathematical concept. 

Whole School

• Key skills – This will be either times tables, mixed arithmetic, Numeracy Ninjas (upper school) or Minion Maths (lower school).
• Last lesson; last week; last term – a starter that revisits previous learning (one question related to last lesson; one question related to topics learnt a week ago; one question related to an old topic from the previous term – in Autumn, term this question will be used to refer back to learning from the previous year group).
• A purposeful and meaningful hook to give children with a real life scenario/context
• Guided/episodic teaching – otherwise known as ‘ping pong’. This teaching will feature the following:
  • Stem sentences
  • Children will speak in full sentences, using displayed sentence starters as support.
  • Oral rehearsal
  • Use of the CPA model with resources which are providing the appropriate structures
  • Challenge language and questioning throughout
  •  Reasoning and deep understanding (contexts and representations of mathematics)
  • Use of misconceptions to develop reasoning and understanding
• Independent practice, which is the same for all children (except SEN children who will have an adapted curriculum when necessary), with conceptual and procedural variation. During the independent practice, some children may require additional adult support or scaffolding through questioning and resources.
• Challenge boxes used to deepen children’s understanding.

Impact

Progression is mapped out through the school using long term planning, which shows which topics are covered across each year group.

We utilise summative assessments at the end of each topic (White Rose end of topic assessments and Ready to Progress assessments) and at the end of the three school terms we use NTS standardised assessment. A question level analysis is completed after each standardised to determine if any changes needed to be long term planning.

The maths curriculum is monitored and evaluated across the school by:

• • Lesson observations with specific feedback and targets are conducted
  • Learning walks
  • “Book looks” with specific and purposeful criteria
  • Pupil voice
  • Termly data in INSIGHT
  • Termly question level analysis from NTS tests
  • Termly discussions with staff per year group.