Maths

Subject Lead = Ms Kalisz

What Maths looks like at St Augustine's

During their time at St Augustine’s School, not only are we aiming to ensure that pupils become fluent in mathematics; are able to reason mathematically; and are able to problem solve, we also guide our children to develop a positive attitude to mathematics and to develop enquiring minds with an ability to think clearly and logically in mathematics.

The teaching of Maths at St Augustine’s follows a Maths Mastery approach through the use of White Rose.  Mastery means that learning is sufficiently embedded, deep, connected and fluent.  For this to happen, our maths lessons are sustained, built upon in small steps and connected to previous learning and to the world we live in.  Maths is all around us!

In Early Years,  mathematics is defined through the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile and is developed through play.  Mathematics is delivered through adult-led explicit maths teaching and is then consolidated through child-led exploration, conversation, practical activities and play.  Both adult lead and independent investigations allow children to learn about the mathematical world we live in and their place in it.

Intent

At St Augustine’s, we strive for our children to develop lively and inquiring minds and to become confident and proficient in all their mathematical work.  We foster mathematicians who make rich connections not only across the mathematics curriculum but the wider whole school curriculum as well.  Throughout their time at St Augustine’s, our children are taught to think clearly and logically in mathematics in order to grow in confidence, flexibility, independence and perseverance.

From Early Years right through to Year 6, we encourage a growth mindset and for children to foster a ‘have a go’ attitude.  Even when they get ‘stuck’ our children are encouraged to believe in themselves and work the problem. We learn from our mistakes and so our children become attentive and intentional in their learning, noticing and making connections through investigations, discussions and explorations.

We want all of our children to aim high, where they use all their acquired skills to be the best they can be.    

Implementation

At the heart of our Mathematics Curriculum lies the maths mastery approach.  Mastering maths means acquiring a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject.   Mastery requires that pupils use mathematical concepts, facts and procedures appropriately, flexibly and fluently; recall key number facts with speed and accuracy and use them to calculate and work out unknown facts; and have sufficient depth of knowledge and understanding to reason and explain mathematical concepts and procedures and use them to solve a variety of problems. 

Under this mastery umbrella, we use a’ small steps’ approach that allows children to meet carefully thought-out milestones to successfully progress through the National Curriculum. We use White Rose Maths as a framework supplemented by other high-quality resources, including National Centre of Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) and NRICH.  Through careful planning of small steps incorporating precise choice of mathematical language, problem solving and reasoning in different representations, variation of problems and exploration with practical resources, children are able to apply their understanding in different contexts.  

Integral to White Rose and to Maths Mastery is the CPA approach.  This approach, though presenting differently across the school, is integrated in lessons as appropriate.  Children are initially introduced to new concepts through the use of concrete resources or manipulatives.  These physical resources that children handle and manipulate to aid their understanding of different mathematical concepts make it easier for children to ‘see’ the maths that they are doing and make sense of the mathematical concept being learned.  

When children are comfortable solving problems using physical aids, they progress to drawing pictorial representations or quick sketches of the objects.  By doing this they are no longer manipulating physical resources but still benefit from the visual support the resource provides.  These pictures are pictorial representations of the concrete objects they have been using and may come in the form of part whole models, bar models, tens frames etc. 

Once there is a secure understanding of the concept through the use of concrete resources and visual images, children are able to move onto the abstract stage.  This stage usually involves numerals and has less reliance on concrete or pictorial representations.  However, for the most effective learning to take place, children need to constantly go back and forth between each of the stages.   

By using this approach, we can deepen and strengthen our pupils’ understanding of mathematical concepts; improve their problem solving and reasoning skills; increase their use and understanding of manipulatives and modelling; become fluent in key number facts to ultimately improve their confidence and enjoyment of mathematics.

What a typical lesson looks like:

Impact

The impact of our mathematics curriculum is that our children understand that maths is a vital life skill and that it permeates into every aspect of our lives.  Thus, our children understand the relevance and importance of what they are learning in relation to real world concepts.  Our children are also instilled with a joy of mathematics.  They have a positive relationship with maths due to learning in an environment where maths is promoted as being an exciting and enjoyable subject in which they can:

Explore

Investigate

Ask questions

Children know that it is reasonable to make mistakes because they understand that making mistakes strengthens their learning through the journey of finding an answer.  Children are confident to ‘have a go’ and are confident in choosing the equipment, models and strategies they require to help them solve their problems. Our maths books show work of a high standard, demonstrating that the children clearly take pride in what they are doing.  The small steps approach is evident throughout the books, demonstrating good coverage of fluency practice, reasoning and problem solving and challenge. Our feedback and interventions support children to strive to be the best mathematicians they can be, ensuring a high proportion of children are on track or above. Our school standards are high, we moderate our books both internally and externally and children are achieving well.

By the time children in Year 6 leave us, we want them to have the following experiences and understanding:

Knowledge and Skills:  Most children will have the knowledge and skills to be able to:

• Meet National Expectations.
• Calculate efficiently with integers, fractions and decimals.
• Measure accurately.
• Interpret statistics effectively.
• Recognise shapes and their properties.
• Reason mathematically.
• Solve problems related to all of the above.
• Explain and represent their thinking clearly.
• Understand and use maths to enhance their learning across the curriculum.
• Learn from mistakes and persevere when they meet challenges.

Monitoring, Evaluation and Review

At various points in the year the following take place:

• Learning walks, formal lesson observations and book looks
• Pupil voice interviews/surveys
• Moderation of learning through book looks (in- school, MAC wide) 
• Data analysis (individual, class, whole school)
• Pupil progress meetings
• Staff meetings that facilitate continual reflection on teaching practices and how to improve the teaching of mathematics

Each monitoring period allows the school to further develop and support the provision of mathematics within the school, which include opportunities for:

• Observing good practice / participating in team teach sessions
•  Participation in further CPD
• Developing the whole school curriculum to meet the needs of the children