Intent:
At Gainsborough Primary School, we aim to develop confident mathematicians who have stamina and resilience when faced with a problem. We aim to develop children’s fluency of core place value knowledge and arithmetic, whilst ensuring that all children have developed a solid conceptual understanding of numbers. Our aim is for every child to recognise the importance of Maths and that they are able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in a range of different contexts.
The 2014 National Curriculum for Maths aims to ensure that all children:
- Become fluent in the fundamentals of Mathematics
- Are able to reason mathematically
- Can solve problems by applying their Mathematics
Vocabulary is taught explicitly to support their understanding of key concepts. We aim for their skills to be embedded and developed consistently over time. We want all children to enjoy Mathematics and to experience success in the subject. We use support and extension to ensure equity for all, which is facilitated through our CPA (concrete, pictorial, abstract) approach. We encourage children to be reflective about their learning through self and peer assessment and to approach mistakes as opportunities for learning. This helps build children’s growth mindset in approaching challenges with motivation and without the fear of failure; a mindset they can take into their community.
Implementation:
We follow the CPA approach in our teaching of Mathematics. Children use concrete resources to support and deepen their understanding, they then move to the pictorial in order to support with consolidation of this understanding, and then they finish with the abstract approach, which involves higher-level reasoning and problem solving skills. We place an emphasis on mathematical vocabulary and speaking opportunities in order that children are able to demonstrate their conceptual understanding of the learning. We have clear long and medium term planning, which teachers follow, so our children’s lessons are in a strong sequence to close gaps in understanding, reinforce knowledge and understanding, and ensure progression across the school.
Teachers use careful questioning to draw out children’s discussions and their reasoning. The class teacher then leads children through strategies for solving the problem, including those already discussed; using the ‘Review, teacher, practice apply approach. Independent work provides the means for all children to develop their fluency further, before progressing to more complex related problems. Mathematical topics are taught in blocks, to enable the achievement of ‘mastery’ over time. Each lesson phase provides the means to achieve greater depth, with more able children being offered rich and sophisticated problems, as well as exploratory, investigative tasks, within the lesson as appropriate.
Impact:
The school has a supportive and inclusive ethos and our approaches support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills. Children underperform in Mathematics because they think they can not do it, but we are successful in embedding a growth mindset in our children. We use resources which help address preconceptions by ensuring all children experience extension and success in Mathematics. Lesson structure is purposeful and impactful, as are the sequence of lessons. Regular and ongoing assessment informs teaching and planning, as well as intervention, to support and enable each child’s success. These factors ensure that we are able to maintain high standards, with achievement at the end of KS2 well above the national average and a high proportion of children demonstrating greater depth, at the end of each phase.