Mathematics is an important creative discipline that helps us to understand the world. We want all pupils at Bellfield Primary School to experience the power of mathematics and develop a sense of curiosity and enthusiasm about the subject. We are committed to foster children’s deep, long-term and adaptable understanding of the subject of Mathematics. As a school we believe that all pupils can succeed.  We want our children to experience a sense of awe and wonder as they solve a problem for the first time, discover different solutions and make links and connections between different areas of mathematics within our topics.

Our ambition:

To deliver a maths curriculum that equips children to think mathematically and have the reasoning skills to solve problems, preparing them for life beyond school.

At Bellfield Primary School, our teaching for mastery curriculum is characterised by the belief that all children can succeed in this subject. Pupils are provided with a deep understanding through the use of a concrete, pictorial and abstract approach. All lessons focus on the main aims of the National Curriculum: fluency, reasoning and problem-solving. Our planning and teaching of maths is underpinned by the 5 big ideas for teaching for mastery.

We want children to acquire a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. In order to ensure that children have a secure and deep understanding of concepts, our teachers carefully break down the curriculum objectives into small steps. Learning will focus on one key idea, where connections are made across mathematical topics.

We strongly believe that all children should be given the opportunity to succeed in maths so, as a result, we teach maths as whole classes, where our teachers consider the scaffolding that may be required for children struggling to understand concepts in the lesson and provide challenge ‘depth’ questions for those who may grasp the concepts quickly.

Resources

Teaching for mastery resources, including White Rose Maths and The NCETM, are used for planning and to support teacher subject knowledge. Teachers also have a Power Maths teacher handbook (a DfE approved resource).

Pupils have their own Power Maths practice books for independent work. As well as this, they also have a maths journal which acts as an ongoing record of children’s mathematical thinking, understanding and approaches to calculations/problems. These books are always used for children’s journaling tasks.

Lesson design

All maths lessons at Bellfield Junior School follow the same/similar structure unless there is a valid reason for a one off change.

• Tables chanting/counting
• ‘Anchor task’ – children are encouraged to explore a problem to see what they already know. The ‘anchor task’ helps children to pull out key concepts for the lesson. During this task, the teacher and teaching assistant will spend time observing and questioning the children. After this, the children and teacher come together to discuss methods and rules that could be followed.
• ‘Think together’/Journaling tasks – the children will explore the concept further, possibly in a change of context, in mixed ability pairs
• Quick Check – completed independently by the children. The ‘quick check’ is a further opportunity for the teacher to address any misconceptions as well as identify children for in-class ‘clinics’
• Intelligent Practice – the children then complete their independent work, working through activities where variation is key in deepening the way they think through a concept
• Reflect – the class come together to complete a reflect activity, in order to check understanding.

During the ‘anchor task’ and ‘think together’, teachers and teaching assistants will circulate the classroom to identify any children who may require extra support. The children identified will then be given same day catch up to ensure that they understand the concept before moving forward. Same day catch up can be completed in class with a teacher or after the lesson with a teaching assistant.

Fluency sessions take place in a separate timetabled slot for 25 minutes each day. Within these sessions, children practise their procedural fluency as well as have an opportunity to retrieve prior learning. Year 4 and Year 5 children take part in their Mastering Number sessions during this time.

Working Deeper

To promote depth, we ensure there is variation in lessons, which is one of the key ideas underpinning teaching for mastery. For example, a child who provides a quick and correct answer may be asked to solve the problem using more than one procedure or use it in a different context. This ensures that children have a deep understanding of the concept/objective being taught.

For children working beyond ARE, we do not move onto the next stage in the curriculum but instead ensure challenges encourage children to think more deeply about the same concept. These questions are displayed in blue on the teacher’s planning boards.

SEND

From monitoring and evaluation there is evidence that a small number of our pupils with Special Educational Needs require a different approach to their Maths curriculum. This approach needs to be based on the needs or ability of the child, be able to build on previous learning/knowledge, be accessible in order to foster independence skills and give the pupil the opportunity to succeed.

Despite a different approach being required for particular pupils, all children are involved in the anchor and think together parts of the lesson.

Staff development

All teaching staff and most teaching assistants have completed The NCETM subject knowledge training, delivered by Central Maths Hub.

All staff attend regular training by the maths lead to keep up to date and progress subject knowledge. The maths lead is an accredited PD lead for the NCETM and also a Maths Mastery Specialist Teacher.

‘Open lessons’ are provided termly for teachers and teaching assistants which are then used as lesson study to pull out areas for development across the school.

Assessment

Assessment occurs daily and informs clinics and planning to ensure all children progress through their learning.

Diagnostic arithmetic tests are completed regularly across the school to inform planning, particularly the planning for fluency sessions.

The results of all quizzes/tests support teacher assessments, which are taken to pupil progress meetings to discuss which children need further support or focus and any interventions that are required.

Impact

Pupils have a deeper understanding of the concepts in maths and can explain and reason answers clearly, with more confidence. 

Pupil conversations tell us that pupils enjoy maths and like to learn using the mastery approach, as the models help them to understand the concept and rule repetition embeds new strategies.

Teacher subject knowledge is improving and all teachers are confident maths teachers who believe that all pupils are capable of understanding and doing mathematics, given sufficient time. Pupils are neither ‘born with the maths gene’ nor ‘just no good at maths’.

With good teaching, appropriate resources, effort and a ‘can do’ attitude all children can achieve in and enjoy mathematics.

Our Maths Mastery Curriculum has been developed to ensure every child becomes confident and successful. We teach to develop a secure and deep understanding and encourage children to be creative with their application of mathematical skills. We use misconceptions as an essential part of our learning experiences and provide challenge by encouraging application of taught concepts to problems before moving onto new content. Our Maths curriculum will challenge and develop fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills, through the use of a wide range of resources, representations and technologies. Being confident, resilient, able to persevere and show determination is at the core of what we want to achieve.

Why are we using this approach?

Mastery of Maths means a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject of Mathematics. This way of learning is something that we want pupils to acquire, so a ‘mastery mathematics curriculum’ aims to help pupils, over time, acquire mastery of the subject. There are a number of elements which will help children develop mastery of Mathematics

• fluency (rapid and accurate recall and application of facts and concepts)
• a growing confidence to reason mathematically
• the ability to apply Maths to solve problems and to test hypotheses

Mastery of Maths, which will build gradually as a child goes through school, is a tool for life, and immeasurably more valuable than the short-term ability to answer questions in tests or exams. We will take longer over each mathematical topic (shape, measure, addition etc.) so that early understanding is cemented deeply within each child.

Some Key features of this approach  

There will be a significant amount of time devoted to developing basic number concepts. This is to build up children’s fluency as number awareness will affect their success in other areas of mathematics. Children who are successful with number are much more confident mathematicians.

A mastery approach:

• has number at its heart. A large proportion of time is spent reinforcing number to build competency
• ensures students have the opportunity to stay together as they work through the curriculum as a whole group.
• sets challenges to extend pupils, ensuring that a depth and breadth of each key concept is gained.
• provide plenty of time to build reasoning and problem-solving elements into the curriculum.

Concrete – Pictorial – Abstract

All pupils, when introduced to a key new concept within Maths, will have the opportunity to build competency in this topic by taking the approach Concrete – Pictorial – Abstract, described below.

• Concrete – children will have the opportunity to use concrete objects and manipulatives to help them understand what they are doing.
• Pictorial – children will then build on this concrete approach by using pictorial representations. These representations can then be used to reason and solve problems.
• Abstract – with the foundations firmly laid, children will be able to move to an abstract approach using numbers and key concepts with confidence.

Main Goal- Everyone Can Succeed