At Maidwelll Primary School, we believe in the 'Talk for Writing' approach.
The Power of Storytelling
Stories are magical...
Overall Curriculum Map for 2015-16
For more information on our approach to the teaching of literacy,
Reading and Writing in Foundation Stage and KS1
Reading and Writing in KS2
Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
Chldren are taught spelling rules and conventions based upon their year group, in line with the National Curriculum. Please use the download links in the sidebar to read the English Spelling Support document.
In the Early Years Foundation Stage and throughout Key Stage 1 (years 1 and 2), the children will use Numicon. Numicon shapes are designed to exploit three key strengths of young children, to help them understand numbers. These three strategies are their abilities to learn by doing, learn by seeing and to exploit their strong sense of pattern. The Numicon shapes have been designed for children to manipulate them, to observe and notice and to explore patterns when using them. Mathematically, the design of the Numicon shapes helps children to see connections between numbers by manipulating and making connections using the shapes. A key understanding for children is that numbers are not just randomly occurring things, but that they form a highly organised system which is full of many kinds of patterns.
It is quite difficult to explain to a child the mathematical concept of 5. In the Numicon teaching approach the aim is to help children develop rich concept images for numbers and, in particular, to ensure that with these concept images the children include systematic visual patterns (Numicon Images), which will help them to make connections among their number images.
As the children move into Key Stage 1, Numicon will help children to explore the patterns of number bonds, spot odds and evens, make links between the operations of + and - and x and ÷.
In KS2 children use their Numicon knowledge from their time in KS1 to build up their mental understanding of place value and then a range of mental calculation strategies for all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). With each of the four calculations, again building on their knowledge of place value and Numicon, children develop their understanding of each calculation as a concept and learn written calculation methods.
At Maidwell Primary we are very conscious of providing children with a core understanding of each calculation as well as teaching them written methods they can use. This core understanding is essential as children move into years five and six, and then beyond in their education, as it provides them with a strategy for estimating expected answers and checking calculated answers are reasonable. Checking answers are reasonable is clearly an important skill when you rely on a calculator in more complex mathematics.
Within the topic of Number, children also gain an understanding of fractions, how they are represented, how they compare to each other and then how they can be used in calculations.
In KS2 children also continue their discovery of shapes including 3D shapes, polygons, named triangles and quadrilaterals and more! They use their knowledge of shapes to understand direction and movement moving on to co-ordinates and angles.
Measures such as length, capacity and mass are also important parts of the children’s KS2 maths as is an ability to convert between different units of measurement by understanding multiplying and dividing by 10, 100, 1000. As with the four calculations above, we also strive to help the children grasp a ‘feeling’ for the scale of each measure using examples such as one millimetre being the thickness of a finger nail, 1 apple weighing approximately 130 grams and the distance from school to the swimming pool would be measured in meters not kilometres!
Finally, KS2 children also spend time learning about the different ways we can handle data and present it as information in charts and tables.
All of these aspects of KS2 maths are underpinned with problem solving and mathematical investigations that are carried out at regular times throughout the year. Additional skills such as considering all possibilities and using trial and error are also used to further develop mathematical understanding.
At Maidwell Primary School we use Switched on Science Rising Stars to support the teaching of Science.
At Maidwell Primary School we use Switched on Computing Rising Stars to support the teaching of Computing.