INTENT

At Ravenfield Primary Academy we recognise that mathematics underpins much of our daily lives and therefore it is of paramount importance to ensure all children leave Ravenfield being competent and confident mathematicians, with a true love for the subject. We aim for children to leave us being fluent with times tables, confident in reasoning, and have a sense of curiosity.

IMPLEMENTATION

Currently, we are embedding a mastery approach to maths; giving children the opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding. This means children spend longer on each topic within maths and are encouraged to articulate their learning through problem solving and reasoning.

In our lessons

1. A typical maths lesson is split into 3 parts: Practise it - which requires children to use manipulatives to show their understanding; Apply - which is about children applying their learning from the input to answer various questions; Explain - which requires children to articulate their understanding (using the sentence stems to help).
2. The three part lessons helps to scaffold the learning by moving from fluency, to problem solving, then to reasoning.
3. Knowledge harvests are used at the start and end of a unit, to measure progress made.
4. A times table of the week is set, learned and tested weekly.
5. Teachers clearly model the learning to the children using different visual representations.
6. Children are encouraged to lead in their own learning by ‘becoming the teacher’.
7. Children are given opportunities to practise processes and skills.
8. Teachers & teaching assistants provide instant feedback and move learners on where necessary.
9. Mission Impossibles are set as an extension task, to either consolidate or challenge learning.
10. Work is pitched appropriately (using the outcomes of the knowledge harvest) to enable individuals to be stretched and challenged.
11. Children receive written feedback to act upon in the form of fix it time.

IMPACT

Children are assessed every lesson through the work they produce which helps the teacher plan the next steps to be taught. They are given verbal or written feedback (in line with the schools marking policy) and then, where necessary, a fix it time challenge is set to further the children’s understanding.

At the beginning of every unit of work children complete a knowledge harvest. This helps teachers to pitch their lessons appropriately. At the end of the unit a knowledge harvest is completed again so progress can be measured and where necessary interventions can be planned.

To support children in becoming fluent in the fundamentals, every week children carry out an arithmetic test. This is then marked with the children so they can see what areas they are confident with and what they need to work on. The class teacher keeps a record of scores. These tests enable children to become more confident with applying key mathematical facts, recalling times tables and making links within their learning.

At the end of each term formal assessments are carried out and progress is monitored by class teachers, senior leaders and subject leads. Children are expected to make good or better progress in maths and this individual progress is tracked and reported to parents and carers at parents evening and on the end of year report.

By assessing children on a regular basis helps to ensure children leave Ravenfield with a rich mathematical understanding and a confidence within this subject area.

USEFUL LINKS

More information regarding Maths at Ravenfield Primary Academy can be found by clicking here.