Maths

Intent, Implementation and Impact

Intent - At Goat Lees Primary School, we believe that it is essential that we take the “Teaching for Mastery Approach.” This means that we want our children to be confident and competent Mathematicians who enjoy the subject and crave challenging Maths questions.

The intent of Maths teaching and learning at Goat Lees is:

• To support pupils to leave our school with a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of Mathematics.
• To ensure that our pupils are fluent in maths – able to use rapid and accurate recall and application of facts and concepts.
• To encourage a growing confidence to reason mathematically.
• To enhance their ability to apply Maths to solve problems and test out ideas.
• To encourage clear oracy in Maths, making sure that our pupils use and understand the correct mathematical vocabulary when it is useful to them in Maths questions and their own lives, outside of the classroom.
• To offer exciting opportunities to enjoy Maths in more active ways, by measuring, testing and discussing concepts in classrooms and our amazing outdoor learning spaces too.
• To provide opportunities for pupils to engage in their Maths learning at home and involve their families as well, to ensure that the clear Maths vocabulary and understanding offered by teachers, can be given by as many parents and family members as possible too.

Our Mastery for Maths approach gives pupils Mathematical tools for life, which is just as valuable as their short-term ability to answer questions in test or exams.

Implementation:

• Children in each class will learn from the same curriculum targets as one another, regardless of ability. Teachers and teaching assistants will ensure that pupils can work through these objectives, by adapting their teaching with support, resources and the pace of their learning.
• In all classes, teachers will aim to ensure that pupils have a secure understanding of number and the number concepts that are essential to them learning new curriculum topics. For example, before learning how to use times tables, in Year 2, pupils will firstly make groups and then look at numbers arranged in rows and columns, so that they understand how multiplication works.
• Our teachers utilise a “ping-pong” method to base their planning and delivery. This means the whole class will work in small chunks through their arithmetic and reasoning questions that day. This allows pupils and teachers to discuss their ideas and approaches with arithmetic methods and solving reasoning questions, giving them greater confidence and vocabulary to complete these ins smaller chunks. Teachers will share skills and knowledge, then allow pupils time to discuss their ideas, before answering written questions.
• The White Rose Maths scheme provides the basis of our curriculum planning and our termly plans. Teachers may use resources from other sources where they feel these can offer opportunities to extend pupils’ learning or offer clearer representations for pupils who have misunderstandings of a concept.
• Classes will revisit concepts at the start of each lesson as well as in assessments, helping to embed these ideas and to help teachers to assess which pupils need additional support of extension tasks in their Maths lessons.
• To support our pupils in their independent Maths skills, as well as their test techniques, our pupils will have “Assessment Practice Fridays” sessions where their whole class will answer arithmetic or reasoning questions from all areas of the Maths curriculum. This will help them to practise skills that they are learning each week, revise previously learnt skills and to learn new skills and concepts that are forthcoming in their main Maths curriculum. Teachers can also use these sessions to practise a particular skill that pupils have been learning that week of that they find difficult too. The data from these sessions will also provide teachers with up-to-date analysis of their pupils’ progress and understanding of Maths, allowing them to more quickly adapt teaching resources and interventions for pupils that need it most.
• In Year 3 & 4, classes will also have set lessons each Friday to learn their times tables, where they will learn, revise and then practise a times table each week in Terms 1, 3 and 5. There is also a Times-Tables Club offered to Year 4 children, so that they can try out some other active and enjoyable ways of practising this key skill, in preparation for their MTC test and to secure their knowledge of these key number facts that are so important to so many other areas of Maths.
• Pupils and teachers can use the Goat Lees Maths Curriculum planning sheets to see which curriculum objectives are coming up that term, and they can review what they have learnt as well. This will help pupils to see all of the amazing skills and knowledge they learn each term.
• The Numbots and Times Tables Rockstar Apps and websites are used by our pupils in school and at home, to provide our children with an enjoyable way to practise and embed their key Maths skills on their favourite devices. Each month, the class with the most practice on Numbots and TTRockstars, will receive the school trophy and rewards for their efforts, while individual pupils who practise the most on these apps will receive House Points and certificates.
• Where possible, teachers and the Maths leaders will offer guidance to parents on how to solve arithmetic and reasoning questions that they find challenging, thus encouraging engagement in Maths at home as well as in school.
• The school Maths Leader and teachers will work together to offer competitions and other external Maths activities that offer inspiring opportunities to our pupils to use their Maths elsewhere, such as competitions and learning experiences at secondary schools in Ashford.

Impact - Our thoroughly planned Maths curriculum ensures that our children will:

• Improve in their understanding of number facts.
• Be more confident when taking on arithmetic and reasoning questions.
• Be able to use their Maths skillset more securely, including in their everyday lives in the future.
• Utilise their Maths skills in other key subjects at school, where arithmetic, logic, statistics and other skills are vital.
• Take ownership of their Maths learning as they discuss and assess their own abilities as well as the meaning of key vocabulary.
• Make as much progress as possible, thanks to careful planning by teaching staff and analysis of assessment data, using White Rose to provide the learning targets for our different classes throughout the year.
• Have NFER and White Rose assessments throughout the year to help pinpoint curriculum areas which need to develop and to focus our interventions towards pupils who are having difficulties with Maths. Year 2 and Year 6 pupils will also have formal SATs tests. In Year 2 these form the basis of our teacher assessments, while in Year 6 they provide the overall assessment for the end of Key Stage 2.
• Enjoy Maths learning throughout the school and in different settings and curriculum subjects too.

Therefore, Maths teaching and learning at Goat Lees should provide our pupils with a love of Maths, allowing them to make good progress and to be more confident and competent in this key curriculum subject.

If you would like to see an example of our termly target sheets which the children refer to in their books, please click here.

You can also see an example of our Year 4 curriculum if you click here.