Maths

Intent
The 2014 National Curriculum for Maths aims to ensure that all children:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of Mathematics
• Are able to reason mathematically
• Can solve problems by applying their Mathematics

At Booker Avenue Juniors, these skills are embedded within Maths lessons and developed consistently over time. We are committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of Maths in the wider world and that they are also able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in their lives in a range of different contexts. We want all children to enjoy Mathematics and to experience success in the subject, with the ability to reason mathematically. We are committed to developing children’s curiosity about the subject, as well as an appreciation of the beauty and power of Mathematics. We aim to develop efficient mathematicians, who know a range of methods to solve a problem and who can select the best method for a particular task.

Implementation
The content and principles underpinning the 2014 Mathematics curriculum and the Power Maths curriculum at Booker reflect those found in high-performing education systems internationally, particularly those of east and south-east Asian countries such as Singapore, Japan, South Korea and China. These principles and features characterise this approach and convey how our curriculum is implemented:

• Teachers reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards in Mathematics.
• The large majority of children progress through the curriculum content at the same pace.

Differentiation is achieved by emphasising deep knowledge and through individual support and intervention.

• Teaching is underpinned by methodical curriculum design and supported by carefully crafted lessons and resources to foster deep conceptual and procedural knowledge.
• Practice and consolidation play a central role. Carefully designed variation within this builds fluency and understanding of underlying mathematical concepts.
• Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual and procedural knowledge and assess children regularly to identify those requiring intervention, so that all children keep up.

To ensure whole consistency and progression, the school uses the DfE approved ‘Power Maths' scheme. This is fully aligned with the White Rose Maths scheme. New concepts are shared within the context of an initial related problem, which children are able to discuss in partners. This initial problem-solving activity prompts discussion and reasoning, as well as promoting an awareness of maths in relatable real-life contexts that link to other areas of learning. Children may also use concrete resources to help them deepen their understanding. Teachers use careful questions to draw out children’s discussions and their reasoning. The class teacher then leads children through strategies for solving the problem, including those already discussed. Independent work provides the means for all children to develop their fluency further, before progressing to more complex related problems. Mathematical topics are taught in blocks, to enable the achievement of ‘mastery’ over time. Each lesson phase provides the means to achieve greater depth, with more able children being offered rich and sophisticated problems, as well as exploratory, investigative tasks, within the lesson as appropriate.

Impact
The school has a supportive ethos and our approaches support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others. Children can underperform in Mathematics because they lack confidence, think they can’t do it or are not naturally good at it. The Power Maths programme addresses these preconceptions by ensuring that all children experience challenge and success in Mathematics by developing a growth mindset. Regular and ongoing assessment informs teaching, as well as intervention, to support and enable the success of each child. 

Basic Skills

For fifteen minutes each day, pupils study mathematical basic skills. Through counting, teacher modelling and practice, pupils regularly revisit the fundamental skills and knowledge that they need to access the Mathematics curriculum. One day a week, basic skills sessions are dedicated to the teaching and practising of times tables.

Power Maths

Power Maths, recognised by the DfE, is structured around a whole class interactive teaching model that focuses on helping all children to build a deep understanding of maths concepts and confidence in maths.

For each year group, the curriculum strands are broken down into core concepts. These are taught in blocks of lessons giving sufficient time to develop a deep and sustainable understanding of core maths concepts. Each concept is broken down into lessons. Each lesson and concept builds on prior knowledge to help children build a robust and deep understanding of the concept before moving on. Opportunities are provided for same day intervention if necessary and also for deepening activities if pupils master the concept.

Each lesson is divided up into:

• Discover and share activity where children can share, reason and learn.
• Children then consider solutions as a class, with partners and independently.
• Children then get the chance to practice the skills learnt to build fluency and develop deeper understanding of mathematical concepts. Challenge questions link to other areas of maths and encourage children to take their understanding to a greater level of depth.
• Children review, reason and reflect on learning.

Key features of the mastery approach

Teaching resources

• Concrete and pictorial representations of mathematics are chosen carefully to help build procedural and conceptual knowledge together.
• The focus is on the development of deep structural knowledge and the ability to make connections. Making connections in mathematics deepens knowledge of concepts and procedures, ensures what is learnt is sustained over time, and cuts down the time required to assimilate and master later concepts and techniques.

Teaching methods

• Pupils work on the same tasks and engage in common discussions. Concepts are often explored together to make mathematical relationships explicit and strengthen pupils’ understanding of mathematical connectivity.
• Precise questioning during lessons ensures that pupils develop fluent technical proficiency and think deeply about the underpinning mathematical concepts.

Pupil support and differentiation

• Taking a mastery approach, differentiation occurs in the support and intervention provided to different pupils, not in the topics taught, particularly at earlier stages. There is little or no differentiation in content taught, but the questioning and scaffolding individual pupils receive in class as they work through problems will differ, with higher attainers challenged through more demanding problems which deepen their knowledge of the same content. Pupils’ difficulties and misconceptions are identified through immediate formative assessment and addressed with rapid intervention – commonly through individual or small group work

Power maths overview documents

The documents below outline the key teaching strategies and characters used to deliver the Power Maths approach:

Content and Coverage By Year Group

The documents below outline the topics covered in our Power Maths lessons in each year group.

Basic skills objectives

The documents below outline the basic skills objectives that are taught throughout the year in each year group.

Calculation Policies

The calculation policy shows the Power Maths progression in calculation (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and how this works in line with the National Curriculum. This policy shows how the consistent use of the CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach across Power Maths helps children develop mastery in both written and mental methods across all the operations in an efficient and reliable way.

Useful Websites for Children

Should you wish to practise maths at home with your child, the list of websites below may be of use: