Maths

Everyone Can Do Maths!

We firmly believe that everyone can do maths. A mathematical mindset across the whole community means all children can access and enjoy mathematics, applying their mathematics to the real world. Our mission is that everyone can achieve, growing children's potential through high expectations. We promote maths as a fun, enjoyable subject, which is relevant to real life.

Curriculum Aims

Wisdom – our children will make rich connections across mathematical ideas and vocabulary helping to develop their fluency, reasoning and problem solving. This will help children to apply their mathematical knowledge in other subjects and real life contexts.

Independence – our children will ensure their thinking is clear to themselves and others. The highlighting of misconceptions and mistakes will ensure that children become adept at spotting these independently and embracing mistakes as part of the rich learning process. Children will select and utilise concrete and pictorial manipulatives to help them see the structure of the mathematics and solve problems independently.

Creativity – our children will become powerful thinkers by making connections, thinking logically and using space, data and numbers creatively. Children will explore the beauty of mathematics by looking at patterns and forming their own lines inquiry. Children will create eloquent reasoning to explain their thinking.

Kindness – our children will develop a sense of curiosity and appreciation of the beauty that mathematics provides. They will work collaboratively with others to develop their reasoning, helping each other develop mathematical thinking with compassion. They will begin to have an awareness of the applications of mathematics in society in helping people to lead healthier and happier lives.

Maths 2023

The Newick Mathematics Mastery Curriculum

Mathematics never stands still at Newick! We are constantly reflecting on our practice and refining it. We strive to make our mathematics curriculum world class by exploring the latest pedagogical research and bringing it into our classrooms. When our previous headteacher, Natalie Alty, took part in the Shanghai teacher exchange in 2014 to see what Mathematical Mastery was all about she noticed that the one factor that really stood out was the amazing curriculum the Chinese teachers had at their finger-tips. Fortunately the NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics) has now written series of useful documents to support the English Curriculum called the PD spines. We adopted a mastery approach in 2014 and continually refine this to best meet the needs of the pupils. We follow the NCETM guidance for mastery, using the Five Big Ideas:

The Newick Approach to Mastery:

We base our Newick mathematics scheme of work on the PD spines and the best resources we can source. This coherent curriculum breaks down concepts into small connected steps that gradually unfold, providing access for all children and leading to a generalisation of the concept and the ability to apply the concept to a range of contexts. We use representations (concrete or pictorial) to help children understand the structure of mathematical concepts, building on their previous knowledge in small steps, developing deep reasoning and problem solving abilities within and across mathematics topics as well as in the wider curriculum. These representations then help children in their understanding of abstract representations of mathematical concepts.

We enhance our curriculum further by using the DFE/NCETM Ready to Progress Criteria, published in July 2020, to help schools prioritise their curriculum in light of the pandemic. These criteria focus on the most important conceptual knowledge and understanding for each year group so that children can progress successfully.

All children work at broadly the same pace with provision for those that grasp a concept rapidly and those that need further help.

Fluency

Fluency is the point at which one no longer has to attend in order to perform.

Mark McCourt

A common example for this is riding a bike. It takes a huge amount of attention when learning this skill, but once it is mastered, no attention is required.

In the article named ‘Is it true that some people just can’t do math’ by Daniel Willingham he states that, “automaticity with procedures and facts is important because it frees [pupils] minds to think about concepts”. We want our children’s working memory to be free to focus on understanding the deeper structure of mathematics and problem solving.

For the past couple of years, we have been teaching a short daily fluency session in Year 1 – 6, using retrieval practice to support our pupils with this aim. Our fluency sessions aim to help pupils gain automaticity as well as gain flexibility, accuracy and efficiency (Russell, 2000). Children need to know which method works best when and therefore which one is the most efficient. Fluency is the central element to the diagram shown here, where accuracy, flexibility and efficiency overlap.

From September 2021 we have been using the NCETM ‘Mastering Number’ project to enhance fluency in EYFS and KS1. This project aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for ALL children. The aim over time is that children will leave Key Stage 1 with fluency in calculation and a confidence and flexibility with number. In KS1, the aim is to develop fluency of the addition and corresponding subtraction facts in the diagram below:

In November 2023, we are excited to be launching the new NCETM ‘Mastering Number’ project in Years 4 and 5, which aims to secure firm foundations in multiplicative relationships. Knowledge of multiplication and division and its application forms the single most important aspect of the KS2 curriculum, and is the gateway to success at secondary schools. We also use our own bespoke fluency programme which focuses on times tables, called ‘Funky Fridays’, which both motivates and encourages pupils, as well as allowing us to track children’s progression through learning their times tables. We use a range of other resources to support fluency, including the NCETM Ready to Progress criteria, which allows us to revisit and consolidate key learning.

Challenge for All

Using the learning zone model shown below, learning takes place when children are in their zone of proximal development - known as the stretch zone.

We aim to support and challenge all learners by teaching responsively. We respond to every pupils’ needs through continual assessment for learning – by asking the right questions in the classroom and checking the children’s understanding. We use immediate feedback and address any misconceptions to further children’s progress. In addition, we use same day intervention to help children keep up. Our bespoke intervention programme ensures all children given the support needed to make progress

Finally we ensure our learning is purposeful, children are given opportunities throughout the year to use and practise maths in context and to solve real life problems.

Any further questions, please contact our subject leads: Claire Clarke and James Winn

Family Maths Challenges

Family_Maths_Challenge_Term_1.pdf Family_Maths_Challenge_-_Term_2_-_Christmas_Tree.pdf Family_Maths_Challenge_-_Term_2_-Tetrahedron-template.pdf Family_Maths_Challenge - Term 3 Big Garden Birdwatch

Family_Maths_Challenge - Term 4

Family Maths Challenge Term_5_-_Multiplication-garden-sheet.pdf

Key Maths Documents

Useful Resources

Maths Morning for EY and KS1

Thank you to all the parents who attended the maths morning for Early Years and Key Stage 1. It was great to see so many of you!

For those who couldn't attend, there is a copy of the presentation and the handouts linked below.

Maths_Meeting_Slides_for_Early_Years_and_Key_Stage_1.pdf

End_of_Year_Expectations_Number_Facts.docx Help_your_child_be_epic_at_maths.docx

Simple__practical_maths_around_the_home.docx

Maths News

Merry Christmaths!

Here are just some of the tetrahedrons that you made at home for our Christmas maths challenge. You can see that we have constructed larger Sierpinski tetrahedrons from the individual ones. This makes them a 'fractal shape': a shape that is made of smaller versions of itself. Well done everybody who took part! Well done everyone - some beautiful designs and accurate nets.