Mathematics- Curriculum
From September 2020, Power Maths has been used as our whole school scheme. Power Maths is a whole-class, textbook-based mastery resource that empowers every child to understand and succeed. Power Maths rejects the notion that some people simply ‘can’t’ do maths. Instead, it develops growth mindsets and encourages hard work, practice and a willingness to see mistakes as learning tools. Best practice consistently shows that mastery of small, cumulative steps builds a solid foundation of deep mathematical understanding.
Power Maths combines interactive teaching tools, high-quality textbooks and continuing professional development (CPD) to help you equip children with a deep and long lasting understanding. Based on extensive evidence, and developed in partnership with practising teachers, Power Maths ensures that it meets the needs of children in the UK.
Power Maths makes mastery practical and achievable by providing the structures, pathways, content, tools and support you need to make it happen in your classroom. To develop mastery in maths children need to be enabled to acquire a deep understanding of maths concepts, structures and procedures, step by step.
Pewithall Primary School is part of the Maths Hub Cheshire and Wirral. Miss Webster attends sessions organised by the hub and then feedbacks to staff about developments or news we can use to support the pupils in our school.
This year we are part of the Mastering Number trial which is focusing on fluency in EYFS- Y2
Mathematics Curriculum Intent
We teach Power Maths everyday in our school. When teaching mathematics at Pewithall School, we intend to provide a curriculum which caters for the needs of all individuals and sets them up with the necessary skills and knowledge for them to become successful in not just in school but in their future working lives. We are embedding a mastery approach throughout school from EYFS, so that the teaching and learning is consistent and will support all pupils with their understanding and retention. Pupils are required to explore maths in depth, using mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain their workings.
We aim to provide our pupils with fluency skills in basic arithmetic, timetables and number facts. We teach our pupils the methods needed to calculate solutions to life like problems they could face in the future and prepare them to access the skills in their next year group/key stage. We also strive to empower our children with the confidence to discuss and explain their reasoning to certain problems using different representations, concrete resources and verbal discussions.
This academic year, we are embedding the journaling process and modelling journaling to our pupils so they can record their ideas and thoughts down when solving problems or exploring ideas
Implementation Curriculum Implementation
Maths is taught every day in every class. Some lessons may include every part of the Power Maths structure. Some lessons may carry on the following day, if pupils require more time to access the practice book, or the concept/topic hasn’t been mastered in one lesson and the teacher has used their own assessment to revisit the concept. Each lesson will have a specific objective which will be worked towards through whole class discussion, exploration, and then independent work through the pupils’ practice books.
Fluency is addressed across the school through several methods. All children have log in details to TT Rockstars and Sumdog which support pupils’ fluency in timetables and other areas of maths through Sumdog. Children can access these apps in school and at home. Teachers also use oral starters, IWB games and board games within their classrooms to promote the quick re call of number bonds, times table facts, number facts and other information which will support their pupils’ fluency.
All pupils record their discover problem in their blue Maths book. Before the pupils record any of their thinking, the whole class discuss their initial ideas and can offer support to one another and also choose to agree or disagree with a peer’s idea. This allows pupil to consider different ways of thinking which may have been different than their own but they can still understand their peer’s way of thinking. Pupils are encouraged to explain their working out using sentence starters as well as being able to use pictorial methods or print outs which their teacher has handed out. The teacher may give the pupil additional questions to answer or further exploration questions like- could you prove this?
Once the discover problem is answered, pupils compare their working methods to the share part of the text book. To ensure that the skill covered in the discover problem is secure, think together activities are completed by the class. The children then complete their practice books independently demonstrating their understanding of the concept taught from their discover problem.
Mathematics Curriculum Impact
The Power Maths scheme taught across the whole to school allows all children to experience challenge, mathematical discussions and success in Mathematics by developing a growth mindset and journaling their thoughts and ideas in their work, which can be reflected upon and assessed.
Through the use of: fluency apps, discussions within lessons, a consistent scheme which can be used across year groups to support gaps in learning or to reinforce previously learned skills; our children can expand their knowledge of maths and grow in confidence. Pupils are able to retain number facts and links learned previously which supports them in assessments or their next lesson.
We hope that as our journey towards embedding journaling and implementing the Power Maths scheme for another academic year: We will have children who are more articulate when discussing mathematical concepts and go on to answer complex reasoning questions. We will see progress becoming more accelerated due to the way lessons are structured and the impact of immediate, consistent steps across all year groups.
In EYFS, we hope to see the children explore mathematical concepts through their continuous previous and weekly journal. This journal experience then prepares them for the Power Maths lessons in year one.
In Year 2, we hope to equip our children with efficient methods and logical thinking in order to met the mathematics expected standard at the end of KS1. We hope to continue to teach our pupils to articulate their ideas in discussions and encourage exploration.
In upper key stage 2, we hope to see more children accessing reasoning problems and displaying efficient fluency so they are able to apply it quickly in lessons and assessments using the remaining time on further exploration and discovery. We hope to have a high proportion of children meeting the expected standard in mathematics at the end of KS2.
