Maths

Our curriculum intent, implementation and impact

At Wroughton Junior school, we believe learning maths provides our children with diverse and rich opportunities that makes maths an integral part of all that we do. The teaching of maths is essential to everyday life and how our children will understand the world now, and in the future. Maths will be taught creatively and with a sense of enjoyment so that children build an ever-growing appreciation of maths.

Through our mathematical learning, children will explore maths in depth, using mathematical vocabulary and making rich connections, to become fluent in the fundamentals of maths, to reason and explain their learning and apply their mathematical knowledge to help them solve problems.  

For more information on the maths curriculum here at Wroughton Junior School read our subject on a page document here. 

           

Maths Mastery Curriculum

In our school, we use a mastery approach for the  teaching and learning of maths based upon the NCETM's five big ideas, which have been developed in partnership with our local Maths Hub. We support all children to achieve the small step in learning through adaptive teaching methods. As we develop this approach, we aim to deliver a maths curriculum that focuses on four key areas that are highlighted in the national curriculum. 

     

        Understanding                     Fluency                    Problem Solving                   Reasoning

We use the White Rose Maths scheme to sequence our learning and provide a coherent learning journey for our children. Mathematical concepts from the national curriculum are sequenced into small, carefully designed steps which will develop their mathematical understanding and skills. For more information on the scheme of learning, as well as advice and guidance for parents, please click on the logo below. 

For further information on White Rose Maths calculation policies please click on the logo and the links below.

 

What does it mean to be fluent in maths?

In maths, we aim for all children to become fluent through varied and frequent practice over time. Fluency is about developing a strong sense of number, applying the most appropriate method for the task at hand and the application of skills to multiple contexts.  At Wroughton Junior School, we have been working with the NCETM and use the mastering number materials to help devleop mathematical fluency.  These fluency sessions are taught daily, in addition to our core maths lesson, with the express aim of developing and embedding the three main areas of fluency in maths. These areas are:

Efficiency: children are able to choose strategies that they can carry out easily, whilst keeping track of sub-problems, to help them solve problems.

Accuracy: children are able to carefully record their learning, apply their knowledge of key number facts and number relationships and finally double-check their results. 

Flexibility:  children have knowledge of more than one approach to help them solve problems and as a result they can be flexible in their choice of method and use another method to check results. 

What are the key fluency concepts children should learn?

Learning key number facts is vital for children to develop their mathematical fluency. When children are able to recall these facts quickly it helps them to become more efficient in their learning. As well as key number facts, there are foundational concepts that can support children in all areas of their mathematical leanring. These number facts and concepts have been set out for each year group in our progression document below.

Progression of knowledge and skills for Maths Fluency

 Key Number Facts: Multiplication Facts

The maths curriculum has been designed for children to learn multiplication facts up to 12 x 12 in year 3 and year 4. These facts are vital for future mathematical learning. If you want to know more about how we teach and learn our multiplication facts here at Wroughton Junior School, please click on the presentation from our parents workshop below.

How can I develop maths fluency learning at home?

Short, regular practice of the key number facts at home will be crucial to the children becoming more fluent in their mathematical learning.  They are an important foundation which will help children to progress and develop their mathematical skills.

Please look at the class pages for further resources on how to support you children with their maths learning at home. Click here to be taken to the class pages and then select the year group for your child.

 Devleoping Problem Solving

 

Problem solving is a key area of the curriculum and all children are given the opportunity to explore and disccover problems and see how mathematical knowledge can be applied to the situation.  In our maths teaching and leanring, we view problem solving as a starting point not a skill to be matsered once we have become fluent. 

Each core maths lesson starts by using goal-free problems which are open-ended problems that do not have a specific answer in mind. Instead, they invite children to explore a problem in depth and discover all of the different ways that mathematics can be used to solve it. 

Developing Mathematical Reasoning

Reasoning mathematically is interwoven into every area of our maths teaching and leanring here at Wroughton Junior School. Chidlren are faced with lines of enquiry and using their reasoning skills they spot relationships and build generalisations. We use structured sentence stems to help chidlren to think and reason mathematically by scaffolding the languaage they require. These opportunities are woven into our fluency and core lessons.