Maths
Maths - Intent Implementation Impact
At Broomfield, we plan and deliver a Maths curriculum that inspires and encourages a love for Maths. Learning opportunities to explore and experience maths in a purposeful and practical way inspire, engage and challenge our pupils to maximise their potential. Maths supports independence at all levels and it is with this in mind that the teaching of maths is a core focus throughout school.
We teach Maths at a level that is appropriate to the learning styles, needs and motivation of each pupil. This might involve discrete daily maths lessons following the National curriculum or be part of a cross curricular, thematic approach to teaching and learning for pupils who have more complex learning difficulties. At Broomfield, the teaching and learning of mathematical skills takes place, not only during structured Maths lessons, but throughout the day, across all areas of the curriculum and in different locations and environments. For many children the provision of planned and purposeful play is essential with a balance of child and adult initiated play. Many children also have opportunities to apply and develop their mathematical skills in practical situations e.g in the local community, cooking and weekly travel training.
To ensure whole school consistency and progression, the school uses the nationally recognised White Rose Maths scheme. The White Rose curriculum is a cumulative curriculum, so that once a topic is covered, it is met many times again in other contexts. For example, place value is revisited in addition and subtraction and multiplication and division. The curriculum recognises the importance of children’s conceptual understanding of number. It is therefore designed to ensure that time is invested in reinforcing this to build competency.
Over the past year we have implemented a ‘Teaching for Mastery’ approach and we believe that everyone, no matter what their starting point is, can learn, love and improve at maths. All pupils will be encouraged to believe that by working hard, persevering and adopting a growth mindset approach to mathematics, including seeing the value of making mistakes and of learning from them, they can succeed in maths.
We have developed our own tailored long term plan which has a bigger weighting of our priority areas: Number, Calculations, Money and Time. We deliver this through the White Rose schemes of work which supports our pupils to develop key knowledge and skills within these areas through the Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) approach with progression onto Reasoning and Problem solving. Pupils are then able to apply this to real life experiences as well as other areas within the curriculum.
Steps are recapped regularly and in daily routines to ensure that pupils are able to retain skills and knowledge into their long term memory. Throughout all stages, students are encouraged to develop their Mathematical vocabulary. Where appropriate, students practise their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division skills, by taking part in flash back 4 activities prior to the lesson input. Flashback 4 is a series of quick questions covering something from the previous lesson, previous week and previous topics. This benefits our students by aiding learning retention and mathematical understanding.
Students ability levels differ in all areas of the Maths curriculum so lessons are tailored and differentiated to ensure every student is challenged effectively. Differentiation strategies may include: by outcome, use of more efficient strategies, use of representations to either support thinking or to prove thinking, efficient reasoning strategies, questioning and scaffolding.
For some of our more complex learners, following the informal curriculum, early Maths skills are developed through play using a multisensory cross curricular approach. Within the exploration and investigation strands you will see links to Mathematics including problem solving skills, numerical patterns, number and shape, space and measure. Approaches include Intensive Interaction, Attention Autism, Tacpac and the use of areas of provision.
Engagement with new topics and the practicing of new skills is promoted with the use of games, quizzes, computer programmes and whole class discussions alongside the more formal learning and written work pupils are expected to complete.
Where appropriate, all Key Stage 4 pupils are entered for Maths accreditation according to their academic level. This includes Entry Level & GCSE.
Useful Maths Websites:
White Rose Maths app – 1 minute challenges
Please ask class teachers for login details specific for your child.
The Maths Team
- Amy Halstead
- Claudia Newton