The development of mathematics at The Oaks is a continually evolving process which develops through our research within school, work with our maths hub and reflects the teaching found in high performing education systems internationally. We carefully consider the specific needs of our children, embed our mathematical approach in metacognitive research and ensure that every child approaches maths with a ‘can-do’ attitude. This has led to us developing a Teaching for Mastery curriculum that provides the children with a greater understanding in mathematics.

Intent

The curriculum that we have constructed is supported by the belief that maths is a core means of introducing essential everyday concepts, skills and thinking strategies and we aim for every child to enjoy and relish the mathematical opportunities we provide. From Early Years through to our transition work with our local high schools, our consistent, yet ambitious curriculum is designed to allow all learners, including the most disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, the mathematical understanding to be successful in life. 

At The Oaks, we delight in our children making connections, asking questions and being actively curious within our systematic and connected curriculum. It encourages children to be daring mathematicians who query their answers with resilience and reasoning, supporting every child’s high expectations of their mathematical fluency, understanding and flexibility in solutions. 

As we believe that each child can be a successful mathematician, the opportunity to extend every child’s understanding is made accessible, actively encouraged and weaved in through the expertise of all teaching staff. Through the ongoing research within school, we recognise the considerable weighting that great depth challenges have and believe that they are an essential part of the mathematical learning journey.

Throughout every year group, the curriculum is designed to be rooted a Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract Approach which continually and consistently connects each mathematical concept. Formal methods that are included are deep-rooted in mathematical research and underlying concepts.

Our mathematical journey is weaved in throughout the curriculum, to ensure each child’s development into a successful adult. We understand the crucial contribution that mathematical understanding has to financial literacy, science, technology and engineering, and its contribution to our culture, society and economy.

Implementation

…of our Curriculum

Using the Department for Education’s, Teaching Mathematics in Primary School guidance, the Curriculum Prioritisation guidance and other recent research including the Department for Education’s Research Review, we have created cohesive, high-quality curriculum materials for the teaching staff. Teachers follow the detailed and structured White Rose Maths alongside NCETM Primary Mastery PD materials and the Ready to Progress Maths criteria in conjunction with our research-based calculation policy. This gives all our teachers the freedom to use their ever-increasing mathematical expertise, knowledge of the children within their cohort and understanding of differentiated approaches to create an effective mathematical learning journey for all children.

Impact

The development of this mathematics curriculum is inline with our 3 year school development plan. 

What will it look like when we have achieved our intent?

Our successful approach developing this curriculum will result in a fun and engaging curriculum that embeds understanding and knowledge through hands-on, practical activities. 

Children will leave The Oaks inspired to learn more mathematics across a range of areas and ready for the challenges that they will encounter throughout high school and into adult life. We endeavour for all children to be able to articulate their mathematics journey throughout school and have an understanding of the areas outlined in the Mathematics Programme of Study (gov.uk, 2013)

  1. become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics
  2. reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language  
  3. can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication

There will be a ‘buzz’ around mathematics within school and these are the aspirational characteristics of a young mathematical learners that we aim to nurture: 

  • confidence and engagement
  • eagerness and motivation
  • curiosity and an inquisitive nature
  • resilience and a ‘have a go’ nature
  • seeking out challenges
  • being open to suggestions
  • a communicative attitude
  • an understanding of how to plan and predict
  • an awareness of real life purposes for maths
  • independence and a collaborative learning attitude

All teaching staff will feel they have a deep understanding of mathematics teaching within school, be able to use their knowledge to create purposeful and responsive mathematics lessons and have the confidence to acknowledge their areas of improvement within teaching mathematics. As a school, teaching staff will have a common mathematical language that sets a high standard for children and staff. 

 

Supporting Mathematical Understanding

To support the development of fluency, we have introduced a web-based learning tools that can be used at home and in school.Doodle Maths and Doodle Tables allow children to practice their times tables or their number bonds plus other mathematical concepts with a view to them becoming increasingly more able to recall number facts and solve reasoning problems.

Doodle https://doodlelearning.com/

We also make sure that children reason around number bonds and time tables and that they solve a variety of fluency questions through Intelligent Practice as part of their daily Maths lesson at home or at school.

We created our Calculation policy and we use the White Rose Mastery planning in every year group from Reception to Year 6 together with the NCETM Mastery and Greater Depth Documents and the NCETM Progression Maps in Reasoning.

The Oaks Maths Addition and Subtraction Calculation-Policy

 

Due to GDPR, Twitter have changed the way that hashtags are used. Our twitter feeds are still live and constantly update, please click the link on the right hand side to see all of the fabulous work done by our children.

NCETM Mastery and Greater Depth documents: https://www.ncetm.org.uk/resources/47230

NCETM Progression Maps in Reasoning: 1_Progression_Map_Place_Value_Reasoning

Useful Websites: For Greater Depth problems: NRICH https://nrich.maths.org/

Mathletics: http://uk.mathletics.com/primary/

Times Tables: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/hit-the-button