Maths

Rationale

Maths is a creative, practical subject that instils in children a curiosity about the world around them and provides them with the skills necessary to understand it.

A strong start to their mathematics education at Halfway Nursery and Infants will give children the foundation required to both succeed in, and enjoy their mathematics studies as they progress beyond KS1. It equips them with the understanding required to become financially literate adults, and the reasoning and problem solving skills necessary to become critical thinkers.

Our children begin their formal education with a vast difference in prior mathematical experiences. Our curriculum aims to ensure that it provides an adequate level of challenge for those with more mathematical experience, while equipping those who have less prior experience with the key skills and knowledge required to engage fully with the mathematics national curriculum.

Our approach

We base our curriculum on the White Rose scheme of learning. The scheme supports the delivery of high quality maths lessons, focusing on talk using mathematical language, reasoning and problem solving. 

White Rose is both engaging, and tasks are more accessible to children who are less able readers and writers. We believe that following White Rose allows children to develop as independent, creative, aspirational mathematicians whatever their level of literacy.

We adapt White Rose to meet the needs of pupils by ensuring children are supported to reach the learning outcomes. Children use a range of representations including concrete resources and pictorial representations.

Long term planning

The order of delivery of lessons has been adapted from the White Rose Scheme of Learning, giving priority to core fundamentals, and gaps that children may have. The long term plan for each year group is adapted to reflect the starting points and relative strengths and areas for development for each year group.

Although units specify an amount of time for their delivery, teachers move through our maths curriculum at the pace of the children. This may mean that some units take longer to teach, whilst others may be shorter. There is a strong focus on consolidation throughout units, rather than the end of the year or term, to enable children to know and remember more.

Medium term planning

Teachers begin their planning by looking at the assessment for the end of the unit and considering whether the small steps set out are appropriate for their children. Where necessary, teachers will add steps to the sequence to ensure that steps are small enough, and use their knowledge of children’s start points to ensure that all learners are ready to begin the unit.

Teachers identify the core principles of learning upon planning and resourcing each lesson. Core principles are reviewed at the end of each unit.

Teachers adapt the unit of learning based on pupil current skills and knowledge. Resources will be added to support number recognition and place value. White Roses’ flash back 4 is used to ensure subject knowledge is retained, by frequently revisiting previous learning.

We follow an explore, skills, apply approach to plan and deliver all of our maths lessons. Our teachers carefully consider how they use a range of representations to help develop children’s understanding of underlying concepts.

Fluency

Children practise counting every day, and can collect into groups of different sizes, building towards their understanding of place value. Another core principle of fluency is developing children’s numerosity; their understanding of number and how they relate to one another. This will enable children to begin to work flexibly and creatively with numbers, and will underpin their fluent recall of number bonds to 10 and within 20 as well as lay the foundation for their times tables knowledge. In addition to this, we have chosen to follow the Mastering Number programme in KS1. This programme aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children. The aim over time is that children will leave KS1 with fluency in calculation and a confidence and flexibility with number. Mastering Number lessons are taught 4 times per week in KS1, in addition to our maths lessons.

Scaffolds and support

Lessons are adapted using a range of familiar, concreate resources to enable less able children to access lessons. Teachers plan for scaffolding added into lessons so that all pupils are able to access the same learning and for this to be gradually removed, to develop their independent skills. Less able pupils are encouraged to use stem sentences verbally to explain understanding, whilst more able pupils move towards independently reading word problems and writing their explanations in sentences.

Interventions

Children will receive interventions outside of maths lessons to address misconceptions and build secure understanding. Catch up interventions are used to support pupils working below the expected level. Children focus on skills such as one to one correspondence, number recognition and subitising. Keep up interventions are used to address misconceptions that children may have developed during a certain unit of learning, to ensure they are able to keep up. The Mastering Number programme can also be used as an intervention tool to fill in gaps, in addition to Mastering Number sessions taught in class throughout KS1.

Birmingham Toolkit or Locke and Beech profile is used to support teachers to meet the needs of pupils on the SEND register.

Maths yearly overviews

See below for the maths yearly overview for the school for the year. 

See below for the yearly maths medium term plans for each year group.

Maths

Rationale

Maths is a creative, practical subject that instils in children a curiosity about the world around them and provides them with the skills necessary to understand it.

A strong start to their mathematics education at Halfway Nursery and Infants will give children the foundation required to both succeed in, and enjoy their mathematics studies as they progress beyond KS1. It equips them with the understanding required to become financially literate adults, and the reasoning and problem solving skills necessary to become critical thinkers.

Our children begin their formal education with a vast difference in prior mathematical experiences. Our curriculum aims to ensure that it provides an adequate level of challenge for those with more mathematical experience, while equipping those who have less prior experience with the key skills and knowledge required to engage fully with the mathematics national curriculum.

Our approach

We base our curriculum on the White Rose scheme of learning. The scheme supports the delivery of high quality maths lessons, focusing on talk using mathematical language, reasoning and problem solving. 

White Rose is both engaging, and tasks are more accessible to children who are less able readers and writers. We believe that following White Rose allows children to develop as independent, creative, aspirational mathematicians whatever their level of literacy.

We adapt White Rose to meet the needs of pupils by ensuring children are supported to reach the learning outcomes. Children use a range of representations including concrete resources and pictorial representations.

Long term planning

The order of delivery of lessons has been adapted from the White Rose Scheme of Learning, giving priority to core fundamentals, and gaps that children may have. The long term plan for each year group is adapted to reflect the starting points and relative strengths and areas for development for each year group.

Although units specify an amount of time for their delivery, teachers move through our maths curriculum at the pace of the children. This may mean that some units take longer to teach, whilst others may be shorter. There is a strong focus on consolidation throughout units, rather than the end of the year or term, to enable children to know and remember more.

Medium term planning

Teachers begin their planning by looking at the assessment for the end of the unit and considering whether the small steps set out are appropriate for their children. Where necessary, teachers will add steps to the sequence to ensure that steps are small enough, and use their knowledge of children’s start points to ensure that all learners are ready to begin the unit.

Teachers identify the core principles of learning upon planning and resourcing each lesson. Core principles are reviewed at the end of each unit.

Teachers adapt the unit of learning based on pupil current skills and knowledge. Resources will be added to support number recognition and place value. White Roses’ flash back 4 is used to ensure subject knowledge is retained, by frequently revisiting previous learning.

We follow an explore, skills, apply approach to plan and deliver all of our maths lessons. Our teachers carefully consider how they use a range of representations to help develop children’s understanding of underlying concepts.

Fluency

Children practise counting every day, and can collect into groups of different sizes, building towards their understanding of place value. Another core principle of fluency is developing children’s numerosity; their understanding of number and how they relate to one another. This will enable children to begin to work flexibly and creatively with numbers, and will underpin their fluent recall of number bonds to 10 and within 20 as well as lay the foundation for their times tables knowledge. In addition to this, we have chosen to follow the Mastering Number programme in KS1. This programme aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children. The aim over time is that children will leave KS1 with fluency in calculation and a confidence and flexibility with number. Mastering Number lessons are taught 4 times per week in KS1, in addition to our maths lessons.

Scaffolds and support

Lessons are adapted using a range of familiar, concreate resources to enable less able children to access lessons. Teachers plan for scaffolding added into lessons so that all pupils are able to access the same learning and for this to be gradually removed, to develop their independent skills. Less able pupils are encouraged to use stem sentences verbally to explain understanding, whilst more able pupils move towards independently reading word problems and writing their explanations in sentences.

Interventions

Children will receive interventions outside of maths lessons to address misconceptions and build secure understanding. Catch up interventions are used to support pupils working below the expected level. Children focus on skills such as one to one correspondence, number recognition and subitising. Keep up interventions are used to address misconceptions that children may have developed during a certain unit of learning, to ensure they are able to keep up. The Mastering Number programme can also be used as an intervention tool to fill in gaps, in addition to Mastering Number sessions taught in class throughout KS1.

Birmingham Toolkit or Locke and Beech profile is used to support teachers to meet the needs of pupils on the SEND register.

Maths yearly overviews

See below for the maths yearly overview for the school for the year. 

See below for the yearly maths medium term plans for each year group.