Teaching and Learning Policy
MATHS
Policy last reviewed: Reviewed by: Matthew Ascroft Agreed by governors: Shared with staff: Frequency of review: Annually Date of next review: |
Head Teacher: Matthew Ascroft Leaders with responsibility for Teaching and Learning Policy Curriculum : Ellen Parker Reading : Sarah Morris Writing : Nicola Burns Maths : Callum Morrow Early Years : Carla Lapworth
Chair of Governors: Mr Bill Gallagher |
1 Vision
Believe and Achieve!
Stoke Primary School seeks to ensure that every member of the community can
Believe and Achieve.
The learning systems that are established within this policy place each and every child at the centre of their learning. By empowering each child with skills, knowledge and learning systems, they can significantly impact on their own achievement and seek to be the best they can be.
2 Aims and Objectives
Mathematics is essential to everyday life. It intertwines many other disciplines and is critical to science, technology and engineering whilst being essential for financial literacy. The national curriculum aims to ensure that all children develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. At Stoke, we aim to achieve this by fostering a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject. Children learn core concepts through use of the concrete, pictorial, abstract (CPA) approach and this ties into White Rose Maths mastery and deep learning. Children are given the chance to understand and explain what they’ve learned by ‘doing’ first of all, using concrete objects. Developing children’s mathematical vocabulary is key to this and all lessons drive the use of accurate vocabulary and maths displays are built around this so that they become a crucial element of the learning. To plan lessons the teachers follow the white rose overview. The yearly overview for each year group suggests the teaching time needed for every block of learning. The Autumn, Spring and Summer sections are split equally into 12 weeks comprising 11 weeks of blocks followed by a week of consolidation. The objectives in each block are broken down into a series of carefully planned small steps. Teachers teach the content in the suggested order as the step sequence is designed to gradually develop children’s understanding. Teachers then adapt planning as necessary to meet the needs of their pupils.
3 Key Principles of Effective Learning at Stoke Primary
Stoke understands the importance of lifelong learning skills for all our children to enable them the chance to fulfil their dreams. To facilitate this we have three key aspects of effective learning.
Stoke Primary School recognizes that many elements of maths are best taught discretely however where we have immersive topics we seek those opportunities to make meaningful links to contextualise maths skills. Whenever possible, teachers also relate learning to the real world ensuring that children understand that maths is in the world all around them and not just the classroom.
Stoke Primary School considers the Characteristics of Effective Learning, as defined in the EYFS, to be key components that lead to lifelong learning. Stoke Primary School applies a progression of these throughout all year groups as a structure that underpins good learning. The language and its application develops through school and our children learn to develop these characteristics throughout all their learning.
These characteristics support effective mathematical learning:
Active Learning
The small step sequence provides children with a goal to aim for. Children are encouraged to develop their perseverance to mathematical problems and to be proud of their achievements when overcoming adversity.
Playing and Exploring
Children are encouraged to become independent learners, selecting appropriate mathematical resources for themselves that will effectively support their learning and to use accurate mathematical vocabulary in their oral and written explanations.
Creating and Thinking Critically
Children are encouraged to share ideas and their different ways of approaching a question or problem. At Stoke, we are developing the children’s ability to choose their own appropriate ways to present their answers and working out.
At Stoke, maths sequences of learning follow the white rose small steps progression which are a series of carefully learning objectives that children need to master to progress onto more challenging lessons. There are small steps for each year group, which are sorted into blocks of weeks.
as White Rose Maths has carefully planned the order of these steps to help children gradually develop their skills.
Our routes through calculation have been devised to meet requirements of the National Curriculum 2014 for the teaching and learning of mathematics, and are also designed to give pupils a consistent and smooth progression of learning in calculations across the school. We are using the policy from White Rose calculations policy so that they tie in with the White Rose schemes of learning used across the school. Children have access to a wide range of concrete resources throughout the learning sequences.
We believe that through a variety of interactive, visual and engaging techniques, all children can achieve the full multiplication tables knowledge by the time they leave Primary School. The new National Curriculum (2014) states that by the end of year 4, pupils should be able to recall multiplication and division facts for multiplication tables up to 12x12. Children in Year 4 are also required to take a multiplication tables check (MTC) in the Summer Term. The purpose of the check is to determine whether pupils can fluently recall their times tables up to 12, which is essential for future success in mathematics. To support children’s learning of multiplication tables children have access to Times Tables Rockstars and we use regular times tables battles across different year groups to raise the engagement.
To support our children's learning, each class will develop a learning wall for their current learning objective or unit of work. Learning walls contain key vocabulary that has been gathered and discussed as part of the teaching sequence. Our learning walls contain examples of working methods that the children can independently access to support their learning. The learning wall will also contain examples of children's work, a challenge question and examples of resources that the children can use to help their learning.
4 Planning and Assessment
We believe that planning and assessment are inextricably linked and are fundamental to effective learning. Teachers have the responsibility to assimilate core information to ensure that planned learning is tailored to meet the needs of the class and through effective assessment, progress can be clearly defined.
Stoke Primary School has two approaches to curricular topic planning.
Immersive topic plans include maths skills where strong and secure mathematical development is supported. Stoke does not advocate tenuous maths connections being made in topics and instead promotes discrete maths teaching and learning.
Teachers plan in year groups and then tailor plans and resources for each class’s attainment needs. Teachers follow the white rose long term plans which ensure national curriculum coverage. Weekly planning utilises small step sequence of learning to ensure that a cohesive sequence of learning is planned that will cater for the needs of all learners and develop the identified target skills.
Where monitoring identifies planning as insufficient for effective learning or has limited impact on pupil progress, support is provided by subject leaders with the use of established formats and guidance.
Assessment spreadsheets are used to assess and record attainment in mathematics. The spreadsheets contain key developmental skills and enable teachers to measure, track and share children’s attainment. They are used to record formative and summative assessment and provide the supporting evidence necessary to make age-related judgements on children’s attainment.
To aid maths assessment, structured summative assessments are used
Assessment information is used to support effective teaching and learning and to ensure than planning caters for the needs of the cohort.
Moderation is conducted within the network in line with county expectations and as part of professional development in school.
5 Policies that support the Teaching and Learning Policy
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