By the time children leave Minerva Primary school, they will be able to say that they are mathematicians.
We want our students at Minerva to begin their mathematical journey through play-based learning and purposeful exploration of shape and number. They will explore a wide range of representations and manipulatives, making connections which will enhance their understanding. They will recognise how their mathematical skills can help them in the real world. Every maths lesson will be an opportunity to build on their previous knowledge in small steps, using what they already know to make links to new learning. They will take enjoyment from working collaboratively and they will understand that there is more than one way to find an answer. Children at Minerva will be taught and use rich mathematical vocabulary to explore and explain their thinking and they will be able to work systematically to find patterns. Pupils at Minerva will learn to use efficient methods and develop fluency in number facts and conceptual understanding in tandem because each supports the development of the other. They will be resilient and feel safe in the knowledge that they can learn from their mistakes as well as their successes. They will reflect upon what worked well and how they can do even better next time.
Maths is taught using the CLF curriculum through ‘White Rose’ Maths for 45 minutes to 1 hour every day in the morning. Through White Rose, our children have a carefully sequenced programme of work; learning is coherent, and prior knowledge is built on in small steps of learning. There is a well-considered calculation policy for the main four operations, which ensures the right strategy is being used at the right development age. The White Rose scheme of learning is used in conjunction with the Ready to Progress criteria when planning to ensure that more time is spent deepening understanding of the key concepts that are vital for cohesive coverage between year groups.
Maths lessons are taught in line with EEFs ‘SEND five-a-day’ research to ensure children are receiving quality first teaching: content is taught with the use of carefully adapted White Rose PowerPoints – which include dual coding and pictorial representatives; high quality modelling (based on the CLF calculation policy); paired talk and flexible grouping; and essentially appropriately scaffolded work such as concrete manipulatives, sentence stems and Maths working walls with high quality Mathematical vocabulary and worked examples.
Alongside the daily diet of morning maths lessons, our students receive afternoon MOTs (Maths on Track). MOTs are for around 15-20 minutes daily, after lunch. These sessions are designed around mastering calculation skills, arithmetic and fluency. They are a chance to consolidate, re-teach or pre-teach something new; they are a time to revisit prior knowledge (filling gaps and ensuring a secure foundation to continue to build upon).
In KS1, the children are following the ‘Mastering Number’ programme.
Year 1 consolidate the Early Learning Goals and continue to explore the composition of numbers within 10 and 20, and the position of these numbers in the linear number system. They explore addition and subtraction structures and the related language.
Year 2 have the opportunity to consolidate their understanding and recall of number bonds within 10 and 20; they re-cap the composition of the numbers 11 to 20 and reason about their position within the linear number system; they explore the links between the numbers in the linear number system within 10 to numbers within 100, focusing on multiples of 10 and the midpoint of 50 and they reason about equations and inequalities.
In KS2, the children are following the Ashley Downs Times Tables (ADTT) programme alongside other fluency and arithmetic activities.
Ashley Downs Programme Overview
Year’s 3-6 start every MOT session with a 5-minute ADTT session before completing their MOT task.
For the other tasks, we use a variety of fluency and calculation skills-based activities:
We encourage our staff to structure these MOT sessions heavily around the use of manipulatives and encourage paired reasoning talk.
“If multiplication facts are learnt and stored, rather than being calculated or by skip counting repeatedly, then they will require less activity from the brain, reducing the ‘cognitive load’ and essentially ‘freeing up’ space to focus brain activity on the application of the facts NOT the facts themselves.” Dehaene, S.
Year 6 complete weekly arithmetic tests and half termly mock SATs tests. From this, areas of content is highlighted that needs more weighting and is then delivered through for EMW, MOTs and 1:1 tutoring sessions (delivered by Year 6 and SLT).
