Our Vision for Mathematics

Due to facing a greater number of barriers to their learning, children at Peterhouse Church of England Primary Academy often start school with less mathematical exposure and experience than many of their peers nationally. We believe that by delivering mathematics lessons where all children are encouraged to be mathematically curious, ask questions and make links between ideas and concepts, we can offer a curriculum which enables all children to flourish, regardless of background or ability. Through the use of careful questioning and reflective practice, children at Peterhouse are taught to take an increasing responsibility for their learning and celebrate overcoming challenges.

Our Aims for Mathematics

- To support children in developing positive attitudes, fascination and excitement of discovery

- To provide enjoyable mathematics lessons where all children have the opportunity to reason and solve problems

- To teach for deep conceptual understanding rather than just procedural accuracy

- To provide children with the mathematical skills they need in order to be successful in other areas of the curriculum and in the wider world.

- To enable all children at Peterhouse to meet their mathematical potential

How do we deliver Mathematics?

At Peterhouse Church of England Primary Academy, we have adopted a Mastery approach to mathematics (NCETM) , following the White Rose mathematics curriculum and long term plan. This approach is designed so that children can develop a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of mathematics. Achieving mastery means acquiring a solid enough understanding of the maths that’s been taught to enable pupils to move on to more advanced material. Mastery teaching ensures high expectations for all pupils, regardless of background and current attainment, and the use of the concrete-pictorial-abstract approach. This approach develops children’s understanding from Concrete (handling objects, resources, manipulatives), on to Pictorial (visual images and representations), and then Abstract (symbolic stage with more formal strategies).

Every child will access a daily mathematics lesson where the core curriculum is learned. All children follow the White Rose objectives for their year group. While most lessons will follow the lesson structure set out by the White Rose teaching resources (‘Get Ready’ activity, main input, independent activities and reflection/plenary), there is no expectation that every mathematics lesson/all children should follow the same structure and teachers are encouraged to take a flexible approach in order to meet the needs of all learners. Where children are working significantly below age-related expectations and regularly need to work on activities at a different curriculum level, their needs will be discussed with either the Mathematics Lead or SENDco before making significant curriculum adaptations. (See Appendix I: Guidance for the teaching of Mathematics using White Rose)

In addition to their daily mathematics lesson, children take part in a daily 'Maths Meeting' where previously taught skills/knowledge are revisited. The areas covered during these meetings are based on the class teacher's ongoing assessment of their class.

Curriculum Design in Mathematics

At Peterhouse, we follow the White Rose Mathematics Curriculum, long term plan and calculation policies.

White Rose is based on a small steps approach that keeps learners together and ensures a range of fluency, reasoning and problem solving activities. White Rose is designed to support mathematicians who require more time and visual representation to grasp fundamental concepts as well as those who require challenging further in order to achieve greater depth. White Rose uses the Teaching for Mastery model.

At Peterhouse, we carefully consider the ‘Five Big Ideas’ when planning and delivering lessons. This supports children in achieving mastery through exposure to and experience of a range of learning tasks and activities.

We continually strive to overcome children’s barriers and one way we approach this in mathematics is to explicitly teach mathematical vocabulary. Key vocabulary is shared, explained and modelled in mathematics lessons before being revisited throughout a unit of work. Discussion forms a key part of the White Rose curriculum and many of the tasks are designed to facilitate mathematical talk. In addition, teachers at Peterhouse use stem sentences as a way to both scaffold children’s thinking and support them in generalising their learning. (Appendix II: Use of stem sentences)

Our Intended Coverage

At Peterhouse, we follow the long term plan set out by White Rose (Appendix III: White Rose Curriculum Map). This ensures that we cover all areas set out in the National Curriculum as well as providing a range of opportunities for children to develop mastery.

Assessment in Mathematics

Assessment is a vital tool in the teaching of Mathematics, designed to monitor children's progress and measure attainment. It is also used to inform the planning of future lessons and identify children that may benefit from intervention. Teachers are responsible for assessing and recording children’s progress in mathematics.

Summative Assessment: In addition to the statutory end of key stage assessments, children are also assessed regularly through tests and teacher assessment.

- PiXL Diagnostic Assessments take place multiple times a year, following the PiXL Primary Assessment Calendar:

The diagnostic assessments are designed to give pupils the opportunity to demonstrate their skills whilst the Question Level Analysis (QLA) tools allow teachers to analyse assessments forensically so that they inform planning for the cohort as a whole and for individual groups of pupils.

- Teacher Assessments using age-related expectations which are common across all DNEAT academies are completed termly. Progress is tracked using Pupil Asset.

Formative Assessment: Assessment opportunities are built into all mathematics lessons and take many forms, including but not limited to: careful questioning during lessons, observations of individuals and groups, monitoring of written work. Teachers are expected to use information collected through formative assessment to adapt planning in order to meet the needs of all learners in the class.

Peer and Self-Assessment: Regular opportunities for peer and self-assessment are planned into mathematics lessons. There is an expectation that children have the opportunity to mark their own work and reflect on their own knowledge and understanding. In addition, at the end of the majority of lessons, children should record a reflective self-assessment image or comment to reflect their understanding of a new concept/confidence completing a mathematical activity.

I.e.

• Non/Early writers should draw a face with either a smiling, straight or wobbly mouth
• Children who are able to, should write an appropriate reflective comment in green pen/pencil. Where appropriate, a stem-style sentence could be given to support children with structuring this.