Maths
Intent
The intention of the maths curriculum at Abbey Park Federation is for children 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, which includes everyday life.
We follow a ‘mastery approach’ to teaching mathematics; an inclusive method based on our firm belief that all our children can achieve. Mastery of maths means developing a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. We aim to build children’s conceptual understanding of maths before applying their knowledge to everyday problems and challenges.
Mathematics is taught through three key areas of mastery and we strive for the children at Abbey Park Federation to have:
- fluency (rapid and accurate recall and application of facts and concepts)
- a growing confidence to reason mathematically
- the ability to apply maths to solve problems
Our approach to the teaching of mathematics develops children’s ability to build resilience, develop a greater sense of number and confidently articulate their thinking.
Implementation
At Abbey Park Federation, our maths is supported by the White Rose Maths scheme of learning to ensure full curriculum coverage. Within this scheme, each National Curriculum objective is broken down into fluency, reasoning and problem solving. With support from the NCETM Glow Maths Hub, our teaching staff teach for mastery – an approach to support, extend and deepen learners within the classroom.
To raise fluency standards in Maths, we use KIRFs (Key Instant Recall Facts) as a whole-school program. The KIRFs are designed to be a set of facts that need to be learnt thoroughly and can be recalled instantly as they build on each other year on year. The KIRFs also include key facts that may need to be revisited in order to catch up or revise any learning missed due to Covid.
At Abbey Park Federation, we use Times Table Rock Stars for the children to practise their times tables at home and at school. We have recently started to use Number Stacks as a Maths intervention to raise the attainment of those children who are below age expected for their year group.
Children are taught in mixed ability groups and teachers and teaching assistants move around the classroom, ‘helicoptering’ to actively respond, challenge and support children with their learning. Working walls are used to display strategies that are being used and include key vocabulary as well as sentence stems.
Our lesson structure includes:
- Retrieval quiz – Flashback 4 (Taken from White Rose Maths)
- Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs)
- Anchor Task – To find out what the children already know
- Episodic teaching – Where the teacher can model work and the children are actively involved in representing, calculating and discussing. Here the teacher can assess what the children can do and who may need support in the independent tasks.
- Independent tasks in the style of: Do it, Twist it, Deepen it (Designed by Steve Lomax from Glow Maths Hub)
Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) displayed at First School
Impact
As a result of our Maths teaching at Abbey Park Federation, you will see:
- Engaged children who are challenged
- Confident children who are proud of their work and can talk about Maths and their learning
- Different representations of mathematical concepts
- Learning that is tracked and monitored to ensure all children make good progress
In Key Stage 2, summative assessment takes place following the Pixl assessment calendar for each year group. The information from these assessments are discussed with senior leaders and used to inform future teaching. Attainment and outcomes in mathematics have a prominent focus throughout our school and is a priority on our School Development Plan. The teaching of mathematics is monitored frequently by leaders through lesson drop ins, book scrutinies and pupil voice interviews.