Intent

Our intent is to create strong mathematicians who have the necessary skills and understanding to tackle mathematical challenges in varying contexts, including the ability to reason and apply their knowledge to solving problems. This should mean that children are able to apply their knowledge to everyday life. We want our pupils to have strong mental manipulation and to use written strategies only when necessary. This will enable them to have a good understanding of maths and not just the ability to follow a procedure. We want them to ask questions and want to find the answers. 

Our Key Values in Mathematics :
Number knowledge – The ability to be able to recall and manipulate number facts is crucial for children to progress to being strong mathematicians. A reliance on ineffective strategies for simpler tasks will make the understanding of the more difficult concepts much trickier. Learning of times tables, number bonds and number facts is essential and children benefit greatly from reinforcement from home.
Process – we value the journey taken to get to a response as more important than just the actual outcome.
Making connections/applying these – we feel that the children being able to spot patterns, connections with previous work and show links is vital for them to gain a better level of understanding. This enables them to apply their understanding in different contexts.
Resilience – Having the skills to tackle any task and not give up means that the children are more likely to master the curriculum. 

Implementation

In Northwick our maths lessons aim to encourage the children to:
Talk – look at a problem or question that needs to be solved and discuss how it can be solved using skills they already have, by making connections with previous knowledge and knowing which facts might help or by recognising that new skills or methods would be needed to tackle it efficiently.
Try – use diagrams, concrete resources and new methods to have a go at solving the problem or other similar ones, as a class and individually.
Test – reason about, question, apply and test their understanding through a variety of tasks. Use CPA and explanations to demonstrate this.
Going Deeper – show their understanding through application in a different context at a deeper level and proving and justifying using CPA and explanations. 

Impact

As a result of our Maths teaching you will see:
Engaged children who are all challenged and enjoying Maths.
Children talking confidently about Maths and their lessons and learning.
Mathematical concepts represented in different ways and a variety of resources used to enable learning.
Learning that is tracked and monitored by class teachers and senior members of staff to ensure all children make good progress. 
 

We have a calculation strategy policy that sets out the way children should be tackling the different calculations they are being asked to do. This policy shows the progression through school. Please be aware that all children are different and learn at different rates so they may be working on strategies that are highlighted for focus in other year groups.

Video clips of the children demonstrating how these strategies are used can be found on School Website

LINK TO VIDEOS