This document is a statement of the aims, principles and strategies for the teaching and learning of mathematics at Lympne Primary CE School
The policy was developed in autumn 1999 and revised and amended in the light of National Curriculum developments and then revisited in autumn 2004 with the introduction of the revised Framework.
This policy is being reviewed in 2013 in accordance with the School Development Plan: Curriculum review
The revised policy will be presented to the staff and the full Governing Body will be informed.
Ms Allen, who has an Advanced Certificate in National Curriculum Mathematics for Primary Teacher Consultants, has completed the review during the Autumn Term 2010.
Mathematics is a core subject in the basic curriculum to which all pupils are entitled in accordance with the 1988 Education Reform Act.
“Mathematics provides a way of viewing and making sense of the world. It is used to communicate ideas and tackle a range of practical tasks and real-life situations. Mathematics is not only taught because it is useful. It should also be a source of delight and wonder, offering pupils intellectual excitement and appreciation of its essential creativity.”
National Curriculum 1990
“Interactive whole class teaching means using lively questioning, explanation and illustration. It means expecting children to play an active part in lessons by explaining and demonstrating their methods to you and to their classmates.”
National Numeracy Framework 1998
In our teaching of mathematics at Lympne School, the aim is for all pupils to have equality of opportunity.
Principles of the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics
Our teaching and learning strategy is based on the Primary Framework of the National Numeracy Strategy.
Numeracy means knowing about numbers and the four number operations. More than this, it requires an ability and inclination to solve numerical problems, including those involving money or measures. It also demands familiarity with the ways in which numerical information is gathered by counting and measuring; and information presented in graphs, charts and tables.
Numerate pupils should:
Strategies for the teaching and learning of mathematics at Lympne C.E. Primary School
At Key Stages 1 and 2, (20-25%) of the curriculum time is allocated to Numeracy/Mathematics, including links with other subjects.
The Numeracy curriculum will include a full range of mathematical activities covering all aspects of the subject including; number, measures, shape and space and handling data. Using and applying mathematics will be integrated throughout the scheme of work as lessons include practical, investigational, problem solving and oral activities.
Teachers are planning from the Primary Framework for Numeracy; ensuring coverage of all the blocks and the 7 curriculum strands (Revised New Framework for Numeracy see appendix).
The school believes that its teachers collaborate and share good practice to plan, deliver and moderate the teaching of Numeracy in order to ensure that expectations are high and that children are able to achieve to the best of their ability. Teaching approaches will be those laid down in the Primary Framework for Numeracy and this will be delivered in the Numeracy sessions
Lessons will have clear learning objectives, (WALT) and success criteria (WILF) that are communicated to the pupils. The focus is on direct teaching that is oral and interactive. Links will also be made to the Building Learning Power: Resistance, Resilience, Reciprocity and Reflectiveness.
Progression Policy for mental or written calculation
The staff at Lympne Primary School developed a policy for mental and written calculations, this was supplemented with a booklet to support and inform parents of recent changes to the methods used at Lympne. (See appendix).
The pupils at Lympne Primary School should be able to choose an efficient method, mental, written or calculator appropriate to the task.
By the end of year 6, children working at level 4 or above will have been taught, and be secure with, a compact standard method for each operation.
Children in the foundation stage follow, as appropriate, the Curriculum Guidance for Foundation Stage, Stepping Stones and the Early Learning Goals, The early years curriculum follows the units in the Framework and are linked with weekly themes and topics.
The children learn through whole class teaching and small group activities. The activities are differentiated by ability to cover the S.S. and E.L.G. Mathematical development is approached through a variety of activities including; stories, songs, games and imaginative play. Children also develop mathematical skills through child-initiated play where adults link learning and extend play. Activities at the beginning of the year are mainly practical based and recording is generally informal.
During the summer term, elements of mathematics teaching are brought together to create the Numeracy lesson. Children who are achieving over and above level 9 in the Foundation Stage Profile are provided with National Curriculum mathematics. We need to be aware of this and ensure that such children undertake work that is appropriate to their ability. Teacher directed activities are carried out in small groups with the teacher and T.A, during the autumn, and where appropriate, spring and summer term.
Of particular importance will be development of skills in:
Children are assessed over the year during child initiated and teacher directed activities following early year’s assessment policy. This information is recorded on the Foundation Stage Profile document, specifically assessing mathematical learning in; Numbers as Labels and Counting, Calculating and Shape, Space and Measures.
Key Stage 1
The majority of children in Key Stage 1 are banded for mathematics for two sessions a week according to ability.
On Thursdays each class will have a whole class Numeracy lesson; in year 2 this is based on mental calculations, problem solving activities and number strategies. In year 1, alternate problem solving and number strategies. These lessons will include mental and oral number tasks, followed by the teaching of mental strategies. Reinforcement and consolidation may be in the form of pupil books from the Abacus Evolve Scheme and task sheets devised by the class teacher and a variety of number games, also Interactive Whiteboards materials e.g. Education City. Banded Numeracy sessions take place on Monday and Tuesday. Each lesson lasts approximately 60 minutes (9:00 – 10:00 0r 11:00 – 12:00) and follows the Numeracy Framework.
Miss Slater teaches group 1 supported by Mrs Charles.
Mrs Rix/Mrs Cave teaches group 2 supported by Mrs Wood.
Mrs Jackman teaches group 3 supported by Miss Kay.
The banded groups are set according to ability and progress observed the previous year, the bands will be monitored, assessed and reviewed at the end of each term with children being moved as necessary. Consolidation and reinforcement activities are differentiated as appropriate within each band. Teaching resources will be selected from a variety of sources including Abacus Evolve.
Shape and Space, Measures and Data Handling are taught to years one and two on Fridays with the emphasis on practical tasks and where appropriate related work in the ICT suite for the year One.
Key Stage 2
Year three is not included in the banding system. The class teacher, Mr Leech, teaches them Numeracy in a daily mathematics lesson based on the Framework. The activities are differentiated within the class as appropriate and groups, individuals are supported by a teaching assistant.
Years 4, 5 and 6 are banded according to ability for four sessions a week. Abacus Evolve supports the teaching and learning. The groups are set at the beginning of each year by the KS2 staff including: Ms Allen and Mrs Rhodes as headteacher and are based on levels attained in previous summer testing.
Pupil progress and attainment from the previous year is taken into consideration. Four banded groups operate and are reviewed at the end of each term.
Pupils may change groups within the year.
The Framework provides the teaching and learning objectives for the banded lessons as shown below.
In the bands the strands from the Primary Framework A, B, D, E are taught and only C will be taught in class numeracy
On Thursday year 4, 5 and 6 have a whole class Numeracy session taught by the class teacher. Areas such as Shape and Space and Data Handling, that require less differentiation, are covered in these lessons (supported with teaching assistants)
Resources used to support the teaching of the New Framework at KS2 include Abacus Evolve Target Maths, Folens, KS2 Maths Revision and Practice, Pyramid Maths and a range of other resources.
ICT & Mathematics
The use of calculators needs to be included in the daily mathematics lesson (see Appendix for progression). The calculator is a teaching and learning tool up to Year 3 and in the year 4/5/6 is used as a calculating tool. There are important skills to develop in the efficient and appropriate use of the calculator. (Appendix Calculators)
The Abacus Evolve has Interactive White Board materials to support the teaching and learning of Numeracy. Other resources include Maths Wizz, ITPs, IWB website, and Primary Resources website. ICT will be incorporated into mathematical lessons wherever possible. The school also uses the computer suite and lap top to support the teaching and learning of Numeracy
Weekly differentiated home learning is set on a regular, timetabled basis, in accordance with Lympne Primary School’s home learning policy. Home learning activities may include:
Differentiation and Additional Educational Needs
Through using an informed system of grouping and banding, careful planning will ensure that approaches and resources are appropriately matched to the needs of individual children, what ever their educational needs.
Teaching Assistants are utilised to provide Wave 2 and 3 intervention programmes. These are put into place where assessment demonstrates requirements these may include:
Gifted and Talented
In order to challenge pupils who are gifted in mathematics, teachers will set activities that expect pupils to use a range of techniques accurately and efficiently, provide for a higher level of abstraction and lead to more advanced thinking. We aim to provide a maths programme that nurtures pupil’s special talents while both extending and motivating them. Advanced mathematical provision is organised in conjunction with our cluster group to enhance Lympne’s mathematics teaching and extend gifted and talented pupils.
Marking will be carried out regularly and in accordance with the school’s marking policy.
In the short term, teachers will carry out continuous assessment of children’s progress in all aspects of the Numeracy Curriculum and records will be kept in a teacher assessment file. Such assessment will be formative: progress with specific skills or objectives will be assessed with a view to informing the subsequent appropriate teaching and learning for the children. Teachers will develop the use of peer and self assessment with systems such as using traffic light/thumbs up against the learning objective (WALT).
Each teacher will keep a record of the achievements of her/his pupils. The record will indicate the progress made by the whole class against the relevant year scheme. The attainment of groups or individual pupils will be recorded where it is markedly different from the rest of the class. Teacher assessment will take place through questioning in discussion with the pupil, marking with teacher assessment using tests, termly assess and review lessons. The use of APP will be used to monitor the coverage of Mathematics taught in the numeracy banded session as an overview and to help teachers plan for progression and continuity.
In the long term, formal assessments and national curriculum levels will be assessed with the use of SAT’s papers and QCA tests and teacher assessments twice a year (in years 2 – 6). These scores will be monitored and tracked by the assessment subject leader in line with our assessment policy. The outcomes of formal assessments will be recorded for the child’s records and for his/her next teacher. They will be reported to parents.
The QCA tests and the SAT’s tests of both Key Stages 1 and 2 are used to inform teaching and planning and to track individual results in the form of gap analysis. A report, compiled by the Numeracy subject leader, highlighting strengths and weaknesses is passed on to the relevant teachers and the data is used as a whole school focus and identified on the School Improvement Plan.
Formal assessments are used to:
The Numeracy subject leader will monitor the coverage of the overviews of the Primary
Framework by collecting in samples of APP highlighted with the termly coverage.
Targets will be set and assessed by the Numeracy Banding Teacher once a term (six times a year). Targets will have different foci according to staff discussions and gap analysis where appropriate. Sometimes the targets will carry a whole school focus and will be written in accordance to the Primary Framework by the Numeracy subject leader. Targets will be recorded in books and shared with parents and discussed with children. Children will be expected to know their targets and how to achieve them. Older children will be encouraged to monitor their own progress and provide evidence when they have achieved their targets. Targets set and assessed will be monitored by the Target Tracking document. Children who are not achieving their targets will receive a relevant
‘Traffic Light Colour’ and interventions will be planned for.
Records of the targets achieved are kept by the teacher on a summative record sheet in a class file with Attainment Records and are passed to the next teacher at the end of the academic year.
There is a school equal opportunities policy, which is applied to mathematics. Teaching materials are chosen to reflect the cultural and ethnic diversity of our society. At Lympne Primary School we try to avoid stereotyping through gender or race. Pupil’s performance is monitored to ensure that no group of pupils is disadvantaged. In lessons, the full participation of both girls and boys is encouraged and care is taken to ensure that the emphasis on whole class teaching does not disadvantage any gender.
Health and Safety
In line with the schools health and safety policy, children are instructed in the use of all equipment. If children are working outside the classroom they are supervised, especially during cooking and more practical activities. Children will be taught how to use potentially dangerous equipment in a sensible manner e.g. scissors, pair of compasses, weights.
Cross Curricular Activities
Learning skills may be developed across the curriculum. Examples include measuring in technology, charts and graphs in science and geography, time and dates in history, patterns in art, music and dance, scoring and counting in physical education. Skills such as listening, speaking, interpreting and questioning, hypothesising, etc will be integrated into the daily mathematics lesson.
This helps to expand and consolidate mathematical concepts and using maths in a purposeful way in everyday contexts and helps the children to realise that mathematics is important in the real world.
Reporting to Parents
This is done three times a year through open sessions, which vary in style and approach. Each year a record of achievement and a pupil report is sent to each parent, in mathematics this focuses on attitudes competence, application and progress. Test results are reported to parents in the record of achievement and annual pupil report.
A leaflet has been completed to support the calculations policy and will be reviewed. The parents are informed of the targets at parent’s evening. Where appropriate, open meetings are planned to encourage parents to learn the methods of calculations used in mathematics lessons at Lympne.
Resources and equipment is overseen by the mathematics subject leader. The role of the Numeracy subject leader is to support the Numeracy curriculum. Resources are stored in the classroom with a small amount of equipment stored centrally. The subject leader will complete an audit of resources. Standards funding for training is also available to support the CPD of all staff.
Role of The Numeracy Subject leader
To plan for and sustain development and improvement in the teaching of learning of mathematics.
Monitoring and Evaluation
Staff will review this policy and the Full Governing Body will be informed.
The Headteacher reporting to the full Governing Body will evaluate progress.
Reviewed November 2010
Next Review Date 2013