Maths

Mathematics is an important creative discipline that helps us to understand and change the world. We want all pupils at Woodhouse West Primary School to experience the beauty, power and enjoyment of mathematics and develop a sense of curiosity about the subject with a clear understanding.

At Woodhouse West we strive to foster positive can do attitudes. We believe all children can achieve in mathematics, and teach for secure and deep understanding of mathematical concepts through manageable steps. We use mistakes and misconceptions as an essential part of learning and provide challenge through rich and sophisticated problems.

At our school, the majority of children will be taught the content from their year group only. They will spend time becoming true masters of content, applying and being creative with new knowledge in multiple ways.

We aim for all pupils to:

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics so that they develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
• be able to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including in unfamiliar contexts and to model real-life scenarios
• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language.
• have an appreciation of number and number operations, which enables mental calculations and written procedures to be performed efficiently, fluently and accurately to be successful in mathematics.

Maths Lessons

Maths lessons at Woodhouse West begin with activities which will develop long term memory such as 'Flashback 4', 'Get ready questions' or a mental and oral starter activity which enables the children to continuously develop their retention of past skills. They are also able to listen and use key mathematical vocabulary whilst problem solving. The main teaching then follows and an activity at the end of the lesson helps to recap on what has been taught.

During the main part of the maths lesson children will complete fluency activities and move onto problem solving and reasoning when they are confident with fluency. Teachers assess children to decide when they need to move on to the problem solving and reasoning and if they need a next step to deepen their understanding.

Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract

In maths lessons, it is important that children see maths visually while also having a chance to feel and manipulate resources. This helps to reinforce their understanding, especially when new mathematical ideas and concepts are introduced. CPA stands for Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract. This means that firstly the children will touch and manipulate resources (such as Numicon and base ten) physically to gain an understanding (concrete). They will then move into the pictorial where they will see visual representations, often on the Interactive Whiteboard. Finally the abstract is where the challenge comes in and children apply their learning so far. This also means that the maths problem may be presented to the children in a slightly different way than they have been taught so far to make sure that they deeply understand the concept.

Calculation Policy

The maths calculation policy is produced to ensure all children are taught the same methods to make sure they are prepared for secondary school.

Assessment and Monitoring

Maths is assessed through on going formative and summative assessment and moderated against National Curriculum standards. White Rose Maths Arithmetic and Reasoning and Problem Solving papers are completed to track progress against the content domains outlined in the framework.