At Old Mill our Mathematics mastery curriculum is designed to ensure that all learners, regardless of their starting points, make progress throughout their primary education, culminating in a strong foundation for secondary school and beyond. We follow the White Rose Scheme of Learning (Version 3.0) and supplement the scheme using the NCETM Professional Development Materials.
Key objectives of our curriculum include:
An unflinching belief that everyone has the ability to master the Mathematics curriculum – having a positive mindset whereby children feel confident, challenged and successful.
Development of fluency – children become fluent in the fundamentals of Mathematics, ensuring they can recall and apply knowledge accurately.
Encouragement to think mathematically, making connections between different areas of Maths and applying knowledge to reason and solve problems.
We develop our mathematicians by placing an equal emphasis on fluency, reasoning and problem solving, advocating at all times for children to understand the ‘why’ as much as they understand the ‘what’.
To achieve excellence in Maths, we follow a carefully sequenced and knowledge rich curriculum which is derived from the National Curriculum requirements and the statutory frameworks for EYFS. We do this by:
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Following the White Rose Scheme of Learning (Version 3.0) - https://whiteroseeducation.com/resources
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Most Maths lessons are delivered daily by teachers or trained higher level teaching assistants. Four, one hour lessons a week are more formal lessons following the teaching sequence and one, one-hour lesson is mental arithmetic based. Additional to the White Rose Scheme, we support Maths skills and understanding through the use of Mastering Number, Number Stacks and NRICH. |
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To ensure Maths lessons are successful, whole classes are taught together, with the majority of lessons using the mastery approach with all children taught the same objective. Most lessons involve a retention activity, a misconception feedforward, shared objective/vocabulary and learning chunks to support all learners. Teachers use this structure flexibly and adapt lessons to suit all pupils. |
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Retention Activities Succinct retention activities are used to ensure children have retained knowledge from previous lessons, to support continuity of skills and avoid gaps emerging. |
Feedforward Concise feedforward addresses misconceptions highlighted in previous lesson. |
Objective and Key Vocabulary Objectives are shared and relevant vocabulary is clarified, discussed and subsequently interwoven into lessons. |
Learning Chunks and Independent Work Learning is split into chunks to ensure children master concepts and cognitive overload is avoided. |
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Questioning is used throughout learning as a tool to discuss strategies and assess children’s understanding. To help pupils answer effectively stem sentences are shared and displayed. |
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The Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) approach is used within lessons to ensure children develop a deep understanding of mathematical concepts. Conceptual variation forms the backbone of the way teachers plan their lessons. Staff carefully plan in exposure to standard vs non-standard examples as well as examples and non-examples. Through this, children are not learning to be effective problem solvers not just careful rule followers; they are curious learners who are constantly exploring the ‘why’ of different concepts. In most lessons, resources are used to support these approaches. For example, rekenreks, place value counters and dienes. |
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The learning needs of individuals are addressed through careful scaffolding, questioning and appropriate rapid intervention where necessary, to provide the appropriate support and challenge. Depth is achieved through extension activities which encourage children to represent their think in multiple different ways. Greater depth activities are planned by teachers and also accessed through the NCTEM teaching for mastery materials. |
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To support fluency, children are exposed to a variety of activities which use different strategies, like chanting number bonds or multiplication tables. These are then recapped and applied during independent work. Additionally, classrooms display working walls which can complement learning. To further support fluency, number sense and/or arithmetic activities are completed. Key stage one pupils reinforce their understanding through the use of the Mastering Number programme alongside the use of NumBots. Pupils in key stage two access NumBots and Times Tables Rock Stars. A small number of pupils may receive intervention using the Number Stacks programme or may work in small groups, with teachers, accessing pre or post teaching. |
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Each unit of mathematics is explored in a variety of contexts through University of Cambridge NRICH Investigations (https://nrich.maths.org/curriculum-linked-problems-primary-teachers). These provide children with the opportunities to reason, problems solve and become curious, confident and resourceful mathematicians. |
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Assessing pupils’ learning is done through formative assessment: assessment information is triangulated from summative assessment data (NTS test), end of unit tests and teacher judgements on the child’s ability of how to approach and solve problems. During lessons, teachers assess children through questioning, quizzing and responses to flashback four. |
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SEND children are supported through scaffolded resources (additional mathematical equipment- such as hundred squares, multiplication grids or adapted worksheets) and adaptive teaching. For children who require it, pre or post teaching is delivered. Additionally, children with English as an additional language are supported by the use of the CPA approach.
The Number Stacks programme is used to support specific children master the foundations of Maths. A number of SEND pupils access this programme.
Pupil Premium pupils benefit from ‘Quality First Teaching’ and teachers follow our ‘Pupil Premium First’ strategy. Pupil premium children may have additional resources to support them in the classroom and are checked in on first when tasks begin.
The impact of our Maths curriculum can be best seen in children’s confidence, engagement and positive attitude in their mathematical skills and knowledge. Pupils who can be fluent in the foundations of Maths, engage in high quality discussion using mathematical vocabulary, can reason mathematically, are able to problem solve by applying skills and knowledge and can confidently make and represent connections in their learning.
We measure pupil progress towards these ideas through a range of formative and summative assessments, as mentioned below. Teachers have an informed knowledge of their class, knowing when children are secure and confident in a concept before moving learning on or when to further adapt teaching to ensure all pupils reach objectives. As mentioned above, some children may receive additional support and interventions to support whole class teaching.
We regularly review our Maths curriculum and teaching practices based on feedback, assessment data, and current research.
Formative
Children are assessed through questioning, whiteboard work, teacher pupil interactions and daily book assessments. Through the book assessment, children are simply assessed as having met or not met expectations. Those who have not met expectations receive rapid intervention. Any general misconceptions are discussed in feedforward during the following lesson.
Summative
National Test-style Standardised (NTS) Assessments (Years 2 – 5) or Statutory Assessment Tests (Year 6) are taken at the end of every term.
Children in Foundation Stage are assessed throughout the year against on our school curriculum (White Rose objectives and statements from the DfE Development Matters documents) and at the end of the year, they are assessed against the Early Learning Goals (ELG).
Year One children are assessed using the end of unit assessment criteria outlined by White Rose.
Formative and summative assessment informs end of term data which is tracked on OTrack – children are identified as Working Towards Expected Standard (WTS), Working at Expected Standard (EXS) or Working Above Expected Standard (GDS). There may be some children who are on the SEND register who may be marked with Pre-Key Stage descriptors.
Old Mill Primary School
Station Road
Broughton Astley
Leicestershire
LE9 6PT
Old Mill Primary School
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