Mathematics

Maths at Riverside Primary School

Intention:

The intention of the Maths curriculum at Riverside Primary School is that children are taught to become competent mathematicians; we strive to embed the skills and processes necessary to enable children to use and apply their Maths learning in a variety of contexts. 

At Riverside, all of our children take part in daily Maths lessons. We ensure that every child enjoys a variety of Maths tasks throughout the school week. Their learning will cover all aspects of the National Curriculum, including

developing understanding of number and place value,

calculating with all four operations, fractions, decimals and percentages,

geometry (shape, position and direction),

statistics (data).

We aim to develop children’s enjoyment of Maths and provide opportunities for children to build a conceptual understanding of Maths before applying their knowledge to everyday problems and challenges. Our approach to the teaching of Mathematics develops children's ability to work both independently and collaboratively as part of a team. By the end of Key Stage Two, children will leave our school prepared for the next step in their Mathematical education.

It is also important that our children are confident in being able to reason and explain how they have solved a problem. From Reception all the way to Year 6, we promote talking in Maths, using Mathematical vocabulary and using full sentences. Children are not only able to use technical language, but they can give examples of what they mean too. We follow the “Maths Mastery” programme and it is language rich which provides children with firm foundations in Reception all the way to Year 6.

Implementation:

At Riverside, we recognise that in order for pupils to progress in Maths they need to have lots of opportunities to use and apply their knowledge in everyday 'real life' situations, as well as using Maths in the environment and in other subjects, such as Science, Computing or DT. Furthermore, provide our pupils the to apply their knowledge to real life situations. These opportunities include termly cooking lessons as well as working alongside a local bank to develop skills such as budgeting. Through the use of concrete manipulatives, problem-solving and enabling opportunities for children to apply their learning to a range of scenarios, we support children in becoming competent mathematicians. We encourage our children to take on a challenge and apply their Maths to a variety of different problem-solving tasks and most importantly we want our children to have fun and enjoy Maths.

From Reception we follow the Maths Mastery programme. As part of this scheme of learning, our children regularly sing Maths songs and chants during transitions, take part in talk tasks and are able to confidently use a range of manipulatives such as bead strings, dienes etc.

In order to support the children’s developing oracy skills, every lesson includes ‘Star Words’, topic specific vocabulary that the children learn then use within their own Mathematical explanations. In addition, all children are encouraged to speak in full sentences, enabling them to reason their knowledge and understanding.

Maths meetings occur regularly across the school, enabling the children time to further consolidate their Maths learning outside of the Maths lesson. This is an extra opportunity to embed our Maths knowledge, reason, sing and practice key skills. During these sessions, Maths games and digital resources are also used in order to engage the pupils in an interactive manner.

In order to motivate our pupils, every teacher chooses a ‘Mathematician of the Term’; a child who has demonstrated fantastic resilience and reasoning within their Maths learning. We celebrate every child’s mathematical successes, contributing to their growing mathematical confidence.

Early Mathematics

Our Reception children are introduced to the “Maths Mastery” programme. Within Reception the children are introduced to early number, ensuring they are confident counting, subitizing and adding and subtracting within twenty. Children use a range of resources including bead strings, Numicon and counters in order to develop a strong understanding of addition and subtraction. Pupils are introduced to mathematical vocabulary which they are encouraged to use within their own explanations.

Key Stage One

Teaching throughout Key Stage One ensures that children in our school are confident to manipulate numbers up to 100. The Key Stage One curriculum provides opportunities for children to develop their competency in place value and the four operations. A high focus is placed on concrete, pictorial and mental strategies to equip children with a readiness for more abstract concepts to be introduced in Key Stage Two. Teachers model correct mathematical vocabulary in full sentences and children are expected to repeat and use this vocabulary to articulate their ideas.

Key Stage Two

Teaching throughout Key Stage Two builds on the solid foundations of the previous key stage. Children are introduced to formal calculation methods in Year Three and these are developed and built on each year in line with age related expectations. The frequent opportunities to reason and problem solve in real life contexts, provided by teachers, develops their conceptual understanding and prepares them for the statutory end of key stage assessments. We continue to place a high focus on the concrete, pictorial and abstract approach to mathematics, ensuring our pupils are able to apply their learning to a range of problems.

We aim for all our children to enjoy Maths and be successful at an appropriate level for their age and ability. Children of all ages should be practising their basic skills (e.g. number bonds, times tables) as much as possible at home, and using their Maths skills in real situations such as finding change when shopping, telling the time and weighing out ingredients when cooking. Playing online Maths games is another great way to improve their skills and speed and the children are able to do this by using websites for homework including Numbots, TTRockstars, PurpleMash and IXL.

Impact:

PiXL and Maths Mastery tests are used throughout the year as a form of summative assessment in order to track children’s progress and attainment. A range of formative assessments methods are used in order to quickly assess pupil understanding, including questioning, whiteboard work and listening to pupil reasoning. Formative assessment takes place on a daily basis and teachers adjust planning accordingly to meet the needs of their class.  Attainment and outcomes in Maths have a prominent focus throughout our academy- Rainham Mark Trust. The teaching of Maths is monitored frequently by leaders through lesson observations, book looks and conversations with pupils.

For further information about our Mathematics curriculum at Riverside Primary School, please find attached annual curriculum overviews for each year group, alongside our calculation policy.

At the bottom of this page is our school yearly planner so you can see the topics taught within each year group.

Please find the programmes of study for each of the year groups who follow Maths Mastery below.

Early Years