Maths

Aims of the National Curriculum Summary: 

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils: 

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. 

• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language. 

• can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions 

What does a Maths lesson look like at Kingfisher? 

The mastery learning model forms the basis of our approach in teaching maths. As a primary school, we have a duty to ensure that children have a solid understanding of the subject knowledge and skills involved. We are teaching for depth and secure understanding, which means spending greater time going in depth on concepts to ensure secure, sustainable knowledge and understanding. 

Based on the mastery approach, the key elements of a maths lesson are: 

Fluency Task – This is a key skill the children should already have. It is an opportunity for them to make connections and become confident, accurate and efficient.  

Recap Task- This includes a task from the previous lesson to support recall and deepen understanding. It is also an opportunity where teachers may pick up on misconceptions from the previous lesson.  

Vocabulary – This is delivered as a “my turn, your turn” so the language is modelled correctly. Teachers will often summarise new vocabulary and address this further in the lesson.  

Make it - the new learning is introduced. It involves the use of concrete manipulatives, stem sentences, ‘What do you notice?’ opportunities, questioning, partner discussion, modelling, ‘my turn, your turn’ (with ALL children actively involved) and use of appropriate concrete manipulatives and images. 

Draw it – This involves the children applying their knowledge pictorially. They are encouraged to use a variety of different models such as bar models, part-whole models, drawing base 10, 10s frames and  

Explain it- This is a chance to build children’s reasoning skills. They often have to explain, spot mistakes, find patterns or see what they notice. This is adapted for each year group and is often heavily scaffold initially to model correct language and reasoning skills. The aim is for all children to be able to reason mathematically.  

Flashback Friday 

On a Friday, every class will have flashback Friday tasks to complete independently. This is an opportunity to recap the week’s learning, identify any further misconceptions and assess children’s understanding before moving on. It is also an opportunity to flashback to a previous unit if further learning is coming up. This will look different in each year group to suit the age of the pupils.  

Use of manipulatives in maths 

At Kingfisher, the use of manipulatives plays a key part in daily maths lessons. Across the school, children have access to a wide range of concrete manipulatives to explore through purposeful activity to support their conceptual understanding. The effective use of manipulatives can help students connect ideas and integrate their knowledge so that they gain a deep understanding of mathematical concepts. 

It has been found that with long term use of manipulatives in maths, children are more able to verbalise their mathematical thinking, find ways to solve problems, gain a deeper understanding of mathematical ideas and concepts and gain confidence in their abilities to find solutions to mathematical problems. 

What is Fluency and Why is it important? 

The first thing to say is that fluency is not only about number - there are other areas of the curriculum where fluency is important. However, it's probably sensible to acknowledge that number is by far the largest part of the primary curriculum. 

Fluency consists of three elements: 
 
Efficiency - this implies that children do not get bogged down in too many steps or lose track of the logic of the strategy. An efficient strategy is one that the student can carry out easily, keeping track of sub-problems and making use of intermediate results to solve the problem. 
 
Accuracy depends on several aspects of the problem-solving process, among them careful recording, knowledge of number facts and other important number relationships, and double-checking results. 
 
Flexibility requires the knowledge of more than one approach to solving a particular kind of problem, such as two-digit multiplication. Students need to be flexible in order to choose an appropriate strategy for the numbers involved, and also be able to use one method to solve a problem and another method to check the results. 
 
So fluency demands more of students than memorising a single procedure - they need to understand why they are doing what they are doing and know when it is appropriate to use different methods.