Intent:
We are committed to providing children with a high quality and engaging mathematics curriculum that is relevant to their lives. We aim to supply children with a firm conceptual understanding of mathematics giving them a solid foundation for enquiry and investigation. By encouraging our children to see mathematical ideas all around them, they will develop confidence and fluency, leading to an ability to discuss and justify their mathematical ideas and methods. Ultimately, our priority is that all children become fluent, reason and explain mathematically and are able to solve problems - all within an everyday context.
Implementation:
At Mary Exton, the children from Reception to Year 6 have daily maths lessons in the morning. Additionally, the children in Years 1 - 6 have daily fluency sessions after lunch to revisit key maths concepts; this 'spaced' learning helps these concepts to stick. In Year 3 and 4, the children have weekly times tables tests, and in Year 5 and 6, the children have weekly arithmetic tests. We also make good use of 'Mathletics' (more information below) to set weekly homework tasks that further embed that week's learning.
The staff use curriculum progression documents to identify gaps in children’s knowledge, and we have weekly interventions to help address these gaps. We adapt our curriculum to ensure that all children can access it. Examples of this curriculum adaptation include:
-
Practice of multiplication facts where this presents as a barrier (e.g. ipad early morning work)
-
Pre-teaching in booster sessions
-
Scaffolds in activities
-
Talking frames to aid children with explanations / reasoning
-
Concrete resources where appropriate, e.g. counters, multiplication squares
Impact:
Half-termly summative diagnostic assessments are used by each class from Year 1 - 6 at the end of each term to identify children not making expected progress. We then have half-termly pupil progress meetings with SLT, class teachers, and the SENCo so that we can assess, discuss, and refine the interventions that are planned and delivered to effectively address gaps.
Members of the SLT conduct termly monitoring to provide an additional method to assess the impact of the learning in each class, and for each child. At Mary Exton, we shape our monitoring as follows:
Planning checks – to monitor coverage of National Curriculum objectives
Book looks – to ensure that the curriculum is being adapted to allow all children to access it
Learning environments – to ensure classroom is supporting children in maths learning (e.g. working walls)
Pupil voice – to establish whether children are developing the appropriate mathematical skills
Mathletics.
If your child is in full time education at Mary Exton (Reception class to Year 6), he or she will have been provided with a username and password for the global online maths programme, 'Mathletics'. This provides your child with access to the programme from home.
Use the Mathletics link above to make use of this excellent resource to help practise and enhance key mathematical skills in a fun and engaging way. If your child has lost or does not know their log-in please ask the class teacher to re-issue it.
Mathletics presently helps over 3 million children around the world to enjoy and improve their maths learning. There are thousands of online activities for all ages and abilities; these are aligned with the National Curriculum. Mathletics also adds a competitive dimension to learning, allowing students to play live mental arithmetic games against other students from around the world.
