Mathematics

At Lyndhurst, we aim to grow leaders of life, both personally and professionally. We hope to create life-long memories for our children whilst they are pupils at our school. We believe that our children should be offered opportunities to prepare them for anything that life throws at them. We believe that they should leave Lyndhurst with the skills, knowledge and learning behaviours to enable them to flourish in whichever path they choose. The intent behind the Maths curriculum links with the school’s curriculum intent because it allows children to take control of their own learning.
Intent

o Mathematical skills and knowledge should be delivered, explored and revisited through conscious decision making and awareness of learning and progress needs and abilities. We want the curriculum to enable all children - including those from a more disadvantaged backgrounds - to become fluent in Mathematics and create a love of number to support them in the next stage of their learning, and in later life.
o We want children to be able to apply their learning in maths to a range of different contexts and real-world problems. We want to encourage children to be brave and resilient learners; to understand their strengths and weakness with their learning and how to develop these; and to have the ability to explain the reasoning behind the mathematical process.
o The collaboration between peers, and the relationship between learners and their class teacher should drive the learning and inform the content, strategies and real-world contextualisation to maximise on the progress and learning opportunities.

Implementation

o In each year group, children are required to problem solve and reason which relies on them identifying their own strategies when confronted with a question and being able to implement these effectively.
o In Mathematics lessons, we teach a range of strategies and allow the children to explore and select the one most appropriate for them.
o Each year groups content builds on prior learning, embedding basic skills in EYFS and KS1. Whole school bar model training was provided to further support problem solving and reasoning from September 2019. Basic skills are a prerequisite for fluency, problem solving and reasoning. Morning interventions and Keep Up Not Catch Up sessions with LSAs ensure that the majority of children keep up with the curriculum content. An agreed calculation and bar model policy are in place, ensuring that the Mathematics curriculum is sequenced appropriately.
o By introducing the teaching for mastery approach in 2020, all children should access reasoning and problem-solving questions in every maths lessons. Teachers model and explain their reasoning during teacher-led discussions. More time is spent on partner work and whole class discussions around maths learning to enable children to understand the reasoning behind the mathematical process.
o Staff meetings (led by maths lead) develop teacher’s knowledge and skills in teaching maths using the mastery approach.
o Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are taking part in the Mastering Number programme facilitated by the Maths Hub. This course looks at ensuring the basic maths skills are embedded in EYFS and KS1 by teaching a 15 minute ‘number sense’ lesson each day.

Impact

Children revisit previous knowledge and basic maths become embedded. All children become more comfortable with mathematical concepts and are able to apply their learning in various contexts. Children are able to clearly and confidently discuss their mathematical learning with adults and peers and can explain their reasoning. By using KUNCU (keep up not catch up), pupils are able to address misconceptions and move forward with their learning with the rest of the class. Children should approach mathematical study with confidence and enthusiasm, and view tasks and challenges that call for application of varied knowledge across units of work and the selection of multiple skills with self-assuredly and a willingness to collaborate.