Mathematics

We are proud partners of Mathematics Mastery.

Learning maths is like building a tower. Children must have a firm foundation and gain specific building blocks in a certain order. If any of the blocks of understanding are missing, then the tower becomes unstable and can fall down at any time when new challenges or learning are presented.

 Maths Mastery is an engaging and accessible style of mathematics teaching. It enhances the mathematical understanding, enjoyment and achievement for every child. The programme brings together established ideas and methods of maths teaching into one approach. Children are focused on securing basic skills, ensuring that they have a deep understanding of what they are learning and how they can apply these skills to solving problems. In maths mastery, children are not rushed through the curriculum, knowledge is not superficially gained, instead time is taken to embed the skills and knowledge, ensuring that firm building blocks are in place. Children use objects and pictures to physically represent mathematical concepts (the concrete>pictorial>abstract approach), alongside numbers and symbols – for example, using Lego bricks to add and subtract numbers. This helps them to visualise abstract ideas and then, as they become more proficient, they will gradually stop relying on the physical props.

More information can be found on the Mathematics Mastery website:  www.mathematicsmastery.org

• Do Now: This is a quick task to introduce the maths lesson. All children should be able to access the activity without any teacher input, this segment lasts for no longer than 5 minutes.
• New Learning: This segment introduces the main mathematical concepts for the day’s lesson.
• Talk Task: This segment focuses on practising the new learning by talking about the maths using key vocabulary.
• Develop Learning: This segment builds on the New Learning content and helps children to deepen their understanding of the concepts.
• Independent Task: Children practise the learning of the key skill of the lesson independently,
• Application Task: Apply the skill in context
• Plenary: The closing segment enables a recap on the lesson, checking on understanding and celebrating success.

The programmes of study for each group can be found below:

Children are also expected to learn key maths facts like times tables and addition facts by heart to free up working memory and give them the mental space to focus on new concepts.  At EWPA we use Club 60/20 to develop our children’s knowledge and fluency of times tables. The programme allows children to practice and consolidate their facts in order to apply them across the curriculum. In Key Stage 1 the children are given 20 questions and in Key Stage 2 they are given 60. All children start with a 5 minute time allocation, every time they score full marks on the questions the time reduces by 30 seconds, this demonstrates that their fluency and recall is improving. When children reach the 2 minute club (i.e. they answer all 20 or 60 questions in 2 minutes), they move onto a new challenge. All achievements are recorded on a class chart.