Maths
Intent
At Lingdale Primary School we recognise the importance of having a robust and circular curriculum (where skills are revisited regularly throughout each year) to allow children to gain an embedded knowledge of mathematics that helps them function in the outside world. We aim to begin each year with the key skills of place value and number followed by the four operations to lay a foundation for the other area of mathematics that rely heavily on this understanding.
We build on these foundations and strive to develop a mastery based curriculum where children use the basic fluency and skills to solve problems, use mathematical reasoning and raise further questions of their own to give each child the opportunity to challenge and gain a deeper understanding of what they are learning.
This begins in the Early Years Foundation Stage where children are exposed to the basics of number through an exploration of number sense, physical maths, and recognising patterns. As children progress through school, the curriculum remains progressive – constantly building on skills learnt previously to challenge and extend their knowledge and understanding. In the ever changing digital world that we live in, children are given opportunities to practise skills using an app called Numbots. This allows children to problem solve through practical games on the app beyond their classroom learning. Staff give children opportunities to show their mathematical understanding away from the classroom where the opportunities arise through discussions and practical opportunities such as in the dining hall and at unstructured times.
We are passionate about children being able to rapidly recall their multiplication facts and have them embedded by the end of Year 4. Children have log ins to Times Table Rock Stars – an app on iPads where children play timed games with the intent of improving their fluency of both multiplication and division facts up to 12 x 12.
Please click the links below to see an overview for each year group.
Implementation
Mathematical concepts are taught every morning through structured lessons. Each lesson has three key elements – multiplication practice, basic skills and the main maths lesson. The purpose of this is so children become fluent and maintain fluency. Children also have the opportunity for regular arithmetic practice in ‘morning job’ time.
Multiplication
We use a range of methods to teach and support the children with their multiplication tables and associated facts. The use of multiplication songs, written practice and the Times Table Rock Stars app gives children exposure to the tables starting with the 2x, 5x and 10x in KS1; through the 3x, 4x and 8x in Year 3 and culminating in a knowledge of all tables by the end of Year 4. In Years 5 & 6 children continue to practise in the same ways to maintain their knowledge of multiplication.
Basic Skills
Each lesson has basic skills time where children will – through the use of practical and mental maths – revisit, consolidate and build upon key concepts that will support their future learning. Depending on the focus of the lesson, this is often linked to the new learning that will be undertaken in the main lesson.
Main Lesson
As a school, we ensure that we have a spiralling curriculum – revisiting areas of maths regularly throughout the year to allow children to hone and master the skills required to be successful mathematicians. To support this, we use the White Rose Maths scheme as a basis to build from. This enables the children to deepen their understanding through reasoning and problem solving once they have a secure understanding of the skill. It also provides open investigations to allow children to work towards mastery in any given area. In addition, Testbase provides questions similar to those asked in the end of key stage tests; giving children exposure to the types of problems they will encounter.
During the lessons, live marking often takes place that enables the teaching staff to move children’s learning forward in the form of challenge questions. In KS1, children are given a challenge question at the start of the following lesson to support the next steps in their learning. Children in KS2 are a given either a Challenge A question – to extend their learning – or a Challenge B question – to consolidate their understanding of the previous lesson.
Inclusion
In the event that children haven’t grasped the learning from the previous session, they work as part of a target table at the start of the next lesson. This enables a member of staff to work closely with a small group of children to cover misconceptions and ensure they keep up with their peers.
For those children who are significantly behind, we have further interventions to support this. We identify their needs through the Sandwell Early Numeracy Test. This gives children a maths age and can help us determine the best intervention for them.
For children in KS1 and Year 3 who aren’t at the expected standard, we offer the First Class @ Number 2 intervention and for children further up school the Success@Arithmetic intervention supports calculations using the four different operations.
Impact
We are determined that ALL children will leave Lingdale Primary School with a good mathematical understanding and are able to use computational thinking to solve problems – exploring different ways to tackle the same question.
Since the introduction of Times Table Rock Stars, we have seen an increase in fluency when answering multiplication questions.
Click here for our most recent KS2 attainment figures.
Click one of the links below to view some of the resources we use.
