Maths Champion

Mrs Fox

My name is Mrs Fox and I am the Maths lead at Fairmeadows Foundation Primary School. I believe that every children is a mathematician. Maths is so far reaching, it is in all we do in our day to day lives.  Having a confident understanding and positive attitude to Maths has a positive impact on our children beyond our classroom walls. 

Vision

We strive for our children to be successful and proficient mathematicians who can solve problems, fluently recall facts rapidly and reason mathematically while justifying their reasoning. This will provide them with the essential life skills, to be capable whilst understanding and contributing to the world around them. It will allow them to create solutions to problems in a range of settings. We want our children to enjoy and embrace learning maths, to have a go at new challenges, to persevere and keep improving showing our schools learning powers in what they do.

Aims and Goals 

Our aims and goals for maths at Fairmeadows is to have every child become a confident, engaged and successful mathematician. 

Characteristics of a Mathematician

• An understanding of the important concepts and an ability to make connections within mathematics.
• A broad range of skills in using and applying mathematics.
• Fluent knowledge and recall of number facts and the number system.
• The ability to show initiative in solving problems in a wide range of contexts, including the new or unusual.
• The ability to think independently and to persevere when faced with challenges, showing a confidence of success.
• The ability to embrace the value of learning from mistakes and false starts.
• The ability to reason, generalise and make sense of solutions.
• Fluency in performing written and mental calculations and mathematical techniques.
• A wide range of mathematical vocabulary.

Curriculum

 A core spine of knowledge built on termly -

Our pupils should be able to organise their knowledge, skills and understanding around the following learning concepts:

• Know and use numbers 
• Add and subtract 
• Multiply and divide 
• Use fractions 
• Understand the properties of shapes 
• Describe position, direction and movement 
• Use measures 
• Use statistics 
• Use algebra 

These key concepts, underpin learning in each learning milestone. This enables pupils to reinforce and build upon prior learning, make connections and develop subject specific language.

Maths will be taught in a cyclic approach revisiting the 4 operations every term.

This curriculum design is based on evidence from cognitive science; three main principles underpin it:

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1. Learning is most effective with spaced repetition.

2. Interleaving (deliberate leaving and coming back to through beginning with exposure then keep returning to explore further) helps pupils to discriminate between topics and aids long-term retention.

3. Retrieval of previously learned content is frequent and regular, which increases both storage and retrieval strength.

 The final week of each term is allocated to a STEM project that allows for the children to apply their mathematical skills to create solutions to problems in a range of settings. Through our Curriculum, the teaching of Mathematics is extended beyond the daily Mathematics lesson. Links are made, where relevant and purposeful, between Topics and Mathematics. This allows children the opportunity to apply Mathematical skills and concepts, as well as enabling children to see that Mathematics is part of everyday life.

Our pupils are encouraged to physically represent mathematical concepts. Objects and pictures are used to demonstrate and visualise abstract ideas, alongside numbers and symbols.

Concrete – children have the opportunity to use concrete objects and manipulatives to help them understand and explain what they are doing.

Pictorial – children then build on this concrete approach by using pictorial representations, which can then be used to reason and solve problems.

Abstract – With the foundations firmly laid, children can move to an abstract approach using numbers and key concepts with confidence.

Assessment 

Assessment is ongoing throughout the year.  Initial assessments is undertaken in the first weeks in September, and this assessment informs planning and teaching. Summative assessment takes place at the end of each term in order to inform future planning, teaching and support.

Our children receive quality feedback both written and verbally. They are given opportunities to respond to this, have a clear understanding of their areas of strength and weakness and how they can improve. This ongoing feedback allows our children to be the very best they can be a reach their full potential.

Internal and external moderation form an important part of our assessment process to ensure that all our judgements are consistent and fair across all year groups and inline with schools across Derbyshire.