Mathematics

‘Mathematics is a creative and highly interconnected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject’ (National Curriculum 2014)

Intent

Maths is a skill we use on a daily basis and is an essential part of everyday life. Maths forms an important part of our curriculum offer for the majority of our pupils and we endeavour to ensure that children develop an enjoyment and enthusiasm for maths that will empower them in the future. We promote fluency as an essential life skill for all learners along with being able to reason and solve problems. Our aim is to develop a positive culture of deep understanding, confidence and competence in maths that produces strong, secure learning although this will differ from pupil to pupil based upon their backgrounds and prior learning before coming to us. Start points vary considerably.  We place great emphasis on the use of concrete resources and pictorial representations at all ages as this supports an understanding of the concepts and principals, when presented with abstract calculations and questions.

Implementation

Our Maths curriculum is based upon individual need; sometimes we will follow a pupil’s own school curriculum and at other times we will use our own progressive programme. Whatever the case, our Maths curriculum provides breadth and balance, is relevant and engaging and is differentiated to match the needs and abilities of all our pupils to ensure that all pupils are able to excel. Most pupils receive a minimum of 3 hours maths tuition each week, which is usually 1:1, although this will vary according to individual need and whether we are aiming to replicate the curriculum of their own school. We use White Rose to guide our own programme of learning but also use schemes from other schools as applicable to individuals.  Sessions are broken down into smaller chunks with plenty of opportunities to revisit, practise and consolidate skills before moving on. Formative assessment is used daily with summative assessments supporting end of unit judgements. Verbal feedback is given daily and is ongoing. Pupils are involved in understanding objectives and targets and have opportunities to comment on their own progress.  Maths is also taught or/and used  in other subjects such as Science and Geography where pupils  might collect and present data sets or analyse information gained from investigations.

Impact

Our Pupils

  • Understand the relevance and importance of what they are learning in relation to real world ideas as we use skills in e.g. visiting local shops, cooking, noticing patterns in architecture.
  • Apply skills learned in Maths across other curriculum areas and in real world contexts for example graphs in Geography and formulae in Science.
  • Demonstrate the confidence to ‘have a go’ and to choose the equipment they need to help them to learn along with the strategies they think are best suited to each situation. Pupils explain their ways of working to us and use resources such as Numicon, clocks and number-lines.
  • Demonstrate reasoning with increased confidence and accuracy. Our White Rose scheme promotes this on a continuous basis.
  • Can talk about their maths with increasing confidence.
  • Meet objectives set for them within their own personalised learning goals. We record these on Seesaw and in pupil books so that pupils can share in their success.
  • Make progress over time during their stay with us. Our tracking data shows this for all pupils but the rate of progress will vary according to individuals.
  • Achieve well at Functional skills/GCSE where this is a realistic expectation for them.