Mathematics

Maths

Intent

At Great Missenden, we want to make sure that every child receives the best possible opportunities and experience in maths, and is able to develop their mathematical thinking in a high quality, supportive environment.

We encourage an atmosphere where mistakes are valued, growth mindset is seen as part of the learning and everyone is challenged. We believe that given suitable opportunities and the right environment, we know that all children can maximise their potential at maths, opening doors to many opportunities where maths is used in the wider world and in other subjects.

Our aim, through a 'Maths Mastery' approach, is to develop deep learners, with the ability to explain and articulate their maths knowledge in various ways (verbally, through pictures, in concrete or abstract form). Through class based mastery maths, we are committed to ensuring that all pupils are challenged, secure in their understanding without moving on prematurely and that all children receive the same opportunities. 

Implementation

At Great Missenden, maths is taught in mixed ability class groups with a focus on Challenge For All. Work is differentiated to ensure all learners can access the curriculum. The White Rose Scheme of work ensure complete coverage of the curriculum and develops mastery maths. To retain knowledge, we use feedback starters, keep up not catch up interventions and reflective sentences, which provide an opportunity for children to look in the mirror and reflect on their own learning.  Talk and the ability to explain understanding is a key feature of our lessons to develop reasoning skills.

The curriculum overview show the content that we cover each term. Please note, all of the content is covered over the course of the year and children are assessed termly.

Impact

To truly understand the impact of our maths curriculum, you have to come and see us!

The impact of our maths curriculum is that our children, across all abilities, move through the curriculum at a similar pace. Our teachers are encouraged to use their professional judgement at all times, meaning that children are given sufficient time to learn and practise each topic area of maths before moving on to a different area of maths. This means that children are able to develop a deeper understanding of each area of maths by reducing cognitive load.

At Great Missenden School, we tell our children that it is OK to be ‘wrong’ because the journey to finding an answer is most important. Our maths books are packed with a range of activities, showing evidence of fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Our feedback and interventions are supporting children to strive to be the best mathematicians they can be, ensuring a greater proportion of children are on track.

Children persevere when attempting to solve problems, and choose the equipment and strategies they think are best suited to each problem. Experiencing a range of mathematical problems gives our children with the chance to look through windows into the wider world to see how maths can be applied to a wide variety of real problems. Our Maths Mastery approach ensures that their knowledge is well embedded and gives them the right educational keys to unlock the doors to solve problems in different contexts. Children are developing skills in being able to reason verbally, pictorially and in written form. Across the school, children are becoming more familiar with using sentence stems to help them explain their reasoning, both through spoken and written forms of reasoning.

The teachers use formative and summative assessment to ensure children are making progress from their starting points. These assessments show the percentage of children at Age Related Expectations and Greater Depth Standard is above National Average. We use PIXL testing and data analysis to monitor progress very closely and to efficiently identify and support children not making enough progress.

Pupil Voice Impact Analysis

Year 1: "I love my maths teacher, she uses so many pictures and toys to help me learn."

Year 2: "In our maths lessons, we use things like counters, Numicon or Dienes to solve problems. It really helps me to understand my answers."

Year 3: "Our teacher makes us explain our answers and how we know the answer. We call these STEM sentence starters." 

Examples include: 'I know this because...' or 'This is different because...'

Year 4: "I love to see how pictures, manipulatives and symbols are all linked in maths."

Year 5: "I like that we do feedback starters at the beginning of our lessons. It is a good way to remind us what we did in the previous lesson and go over anything we didn't quite understand."

Year 6: "After our lessons, we are encouraged to write our own reflective sentences about what we have learned. It helps us to gather our thoughts and explain what we now know in words rather than symbols."

Our children leave our school with a passion for Maths and a confidence in applying their knowledge to different contexts. We love Maths at Great Missenden School!

What does Maths look like at Great Missenden?

Useful links:

https://mathsbot.com/manipulativeMenu

https://whiterosemaths.com/parent-resources

Times Table Rockstar Practise and Numbots

Times tables and number bonds play an important role in the children's maths development. Each week, along with the regular maths home learning, it is expected that the children in KS2 practice their times tables and KS1 practice their number bond work.  With the introduction of Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots, children can practice online either independently or they may like to challenge other children in the class or school. Here is the link to the website:

https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school

Parent Support with Timestable Rockstars and Numbots at home

Please watch the following videos and read the following handout for further support with using timestable rockstars and numbot at home with your child:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZxZbRVvbYM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24sqgVgwBOg

We would always encourage parents to frequently practise times tables and number bonds with their children too. This can be done almost anywhere, whether sitting down formally or informally testing them in the car on the way to school!

To aid you in this, you will find some practice grids and resource suggestions below.

Mathletics

Maths home learning has now started!

Maths home learning will now be set via Times Tables Rockstars or Mathletics - which is a fantastic website. Children have been given usernames and passwords so that they can access the areas on the website. Here is the link to the website:

https://login.mathletics.com/

Each week you will be set some activities on the website that mirror the work we have been doing in class. Once you have finished it you can submit your work to your class teacher and they can see how you got on. If you are struggling with using Mathletics or the work set please do ask your class teacher for support. 

There are lots of great activities and games you can be doing on the website, on top of the maths home learning set each week to practise your maths. Enjoy!

Parent Support with Mathletics home learning

For further support with how to use mathletics at home, please watch the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6XlZwChDWE

Maths Vocabulary

Please click the pdf under the image to access a document that guides you through Maths vocabulary used across the school. 

Maths Calculation Policies

Please find below Great Missenden School's Maths Calculation Policies

Curriculum Overviews- Long Term Plans

Age Appropriate Maths Vocabulary

Problem Solving Parent Workshop Handouts 

Practice Grids