Mathematics

What we say about Maths at Dean Bank Primary School

Riley – I enjoy using the objects to help me find my answers.
Libby – I like the challenges and being able to use maths outside of school.
Grace – I like having answers to recall.

Our Intent

At Dean Bank Primary School, we aim to inspire all children to reach their full academic potential and we believe that it is vital that a positive attitude towards mathematics is encouraged amongst all of our pupils in order to foster confidence and achievement in a skill that is essential in our society. We believe all children can achieve in mathematics, and teach for secure and deep understanding of mathematical concepts through manageable steps. We use mistakes and misconceptions as an essential part of learning and provide challenge through rich and sophisticated problems.

At our school, the majority of children will be taught the content from their year group only in order that they make genuine progress and avoid gaps in their understanding that provide barriers to learning as they move through education. They will spend time becoming true masters of content, applying and being creative with new knowledge in multiple ways. In mathematics this means ensuring a curriculum that is fully inclusive and aims for of all pupils to:

become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics so that they develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
be able to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including in unfamiliar contexts and to model real-life scenarios
reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language.
have an appreciation of number and number operations, which enables mental calculations and written procedures to be performed efficiently, fluently and accurately to be successful in mathematics.

In addition to the National Curriculum for Mathematics, elements of the Mastery approach, in conjunction with White Rose Maths, are used as the basis for the teaching of maths across school. The decision to use this approach was based on the school’s need to further develop pupil’s problem-solving skills and reasoning. It is also recognised that a high proportion of pupils enter school with mathematical skills that are below and well below average. For this reason, the maths curriculum is also heavily focused on developing basic understanding of number, fluency of factual recall and fluency of mathematical procedures. It is also recognised that children have only a limited mathematical vocabulary and, because of this, its development is prioritised in the Early Years and across the school. Through mathematical talk, children will develop the ability to articulate, discuss and explain their thinking. Children are encouraged to spot patterns, make connections and use mathematical language to justify their views. We will provide the children with the necessary resources to allow all children to access the curriculum and encourage them to use this where appropriate to explain their thinking and reasoning.

Children are taught maths each day with a focus on developing their mathematical knowledge and problem-solving and reasoning skills. We also have additional sessions throughout the week to focus on developing fluency of understanding of the times tables that children are expected to know for their year group:

Year 2: 2x, 5x, 10x
Year 3: 3x, 4x, 8x
Year 4: 6x, 7x, 9x, 11x, 12x
Year 5: All x and ÷ facts (12×12)
Year 6: All x and ÷ facts (12×12)

To support and encourage pupils to learn their times tables, we use Times Tables Rock Stars as a motivational learning tool which children have access to in school and can also use at home. Class teachers will provide login details and further information to support children with this.

Mathematics Policy
Calculation Policy

Maths in Action 2023-2024

October 2023 – Y4 Problem Solving

Children in Y4 have been working on their problem solving skills to develop strategies to help them find all possibilities. They worked well practically and used this to help them develop ways of recording this.

September 2023 – Y4 Active Maths

Children in Y4 loved taking part in an active maths session to help them improve their knowledge of times tables. We’ve realised that many children need to do a lot of work to build up their confidence with times tables so fun activities like this will help them.

September 2023 – Y2 Partitioning Work

Y2 children have been using manipulatives to flexibly partition numbers to 100.

Progression in place value

Place value is one of the most important areas of the primary maths curriculum so children in all year groups spend focused time on a variety of concepts related to this in order to underpin further learning in other areas of maths. The work shown in the photos highlights the range of skills taught and the progression across the school. Children use manipulatives and visual representations to develop their understanding in the early stages of maths and continue to use these where necessary to support and embed their learning.

Using concrete resources to compare objects and numbers in Y1.

Using pictorial representations to compare objects in Y2.

Identifying numbers to 1000 on number lines in Y3.

Flexible partitioning of numbers to 10,000 in Y4.

Rounding to the nearest 10,000 in Y5.

Reading and writing numbers to 10 million in Y6.

Maths Week England

As a school, we all celebrated Maths Week England which aims to show children how maths is about having fun with your brain, looking for patterns, spotting connections, making predictions and solving problems. All children took part in a variety of activities planned by their class teacher over the course of the week whilst those in KS2 also participated in the Times Tables Rockstars England Rocks tournament. Congratulations to Y5 for winning the tournament. They all put in a huge effort, especially Priya!

Our top 3 pupils and other class leaders were:

Priya (Y5)

Jessica-Leigh M (Y6)

Alfie (Y6)

Lilly-May (Y4)

Lilly (Y3)

Here is a selection of some of the activities that children enjoyed together:

As part of Maths Week England, Year 1 practised adding and subtracting within 10 as part of an interactive trail in which the children had to hunt outside for the answers. They read the number sentence and calculated the total. They worked together to find and identify the correct number/total before recording the total.

For maths week, Y3 did a maths scavenger hunt. We hid the clues around the room and the children were put into groups. They had a race in their groups to see who could crack the pirate code the fastest! Everyone had lots of fun.

Children in Year 4 worked together to complete the Three Cubes challenge. They also completed an interactive NRICH task which challenged the children to find the largest possible two-digit even number which uses the computer’s digit, and one of their own. As they completed this, they were asked to think about:

· How are you deciding which digit to choose?

· Can you describe a strategy that means your first ‘guess’ is always correct?