Intent

“Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding.” – William Paul Thurston

“Go down deep enough into anything and you will find mathematics.” – Dean Schlicter

The teaching of maths at our school will enable children to develop as confident mathematicians skilled in fluency, reasoning and problem solving.  

We aim to provide opportunities for pupils to appreciate the interconnectedness of maths as well as its application across the whole curriculum and the world around them. Most importantly, we want them to understand that maths is fun.  

At South Camberley, we aim not only to ensure that pupils have a deep, conceptual understanding of what they are learning but to make sure that maths lessons are fun and practical. As part of teaching for mastery, we encourage the use of the: concrete (real resources), pictorial (images/pictures) and abstract (without resources or pictures) approach – this helps children to understand concepts deeply.  

We believe in equal opportunities and to that end, we strive to meet the needs of all our learners and give them equal access to our maths curriculum. It is our core business to ensure that all children have the opportunity to achieve alongside their peers and make excellent progress.  

How do we teach maths at South Camberley?

At South Camberley, we use a variety of different resources to support our maths planning. In Years 1 to 5, our lessons are planned predominantly from the DfE recommended resources which include Maths No Problem, White Rose and NCETM materials. This ensures that we have clear progression across mathematical concepts, year by year and lesson by lesson. We give our children the opportunity to deepen their understanding through pre-planned challenges.  

In addition to teaching the main concepts and objectives as mapped out by Maths No Problem, White Rose, NCETM and the National Curriculum, we include daily times tables teaching and practice and daily spaced retrieval of arithmetic to improve children’s fluency and ensure that basic facts and skills are embedded into the long-term memory.    

Early years is the bedrock of conceptual understanding of number. In Nursery and Reception, there is a teaching for mastery approach which aims to spark children’s love of maths from the earliest age through exploring numbers 1 to 10 and shapes very deeply and in a wide variety of contexts from everyday objects to money to measure. Children will be taught to understand the concept of a number through daily whole class teacher input but also in the indoor and outdoor environment. Adult interactions with children in the environment will embed their understanding, address misconceptions and move their learning on. Early Years plan and deliver maths following the Maths No Problem scheme to ensure full coverage and progressive learning.   

 

What a sequence of learning/maths lessons look like at South Camberley

• Between once and three times per half term depending on the age of the children, times tables are explicitly taught (see our times table progression map)   

• For about 10 minutes in every lesson, children will have the opportunity to practise target multiplication and division facts/times tables through engaging games and activities. As part of our times tables teaching we encourage the children to use Numbots and Times Tables Rock Stars. This can be used at home and in school and allows the children to recall and use their times tables facts.  

• For about ten minutes in every lesson, children will revisit arithmetic and basic skills they have previously learnt in order to improve their fluency.  

• When children are learning a concept, the teacher will model and guide them and they will practise that skill. They will always practise with concrete resources if appropriate.  

• When they have had sufficient practise, the teacher will model and guide them to reason and problem solve and then the children will have ample opportunity to reason and problem solve independently or in pairs/groups. Reasoning is at the heart of our maths curriculum and we understand the parallel importance and interconnectedness of reasoning and fluency.  

• Children who have a sound understanding and are ready to move on earlier than others will always have deeper learning to stretch and challenge them. In Years 5 and 6, all pupils access the lessons on Chromebooks which allows them to move through the learning at their own pace if the teacher feels they are ready.  

• If children need further support, they may continue to use concrete resources or pictorial representations to help them before moving on the abstract. They may require additional time or modelling and guidance from the teacher to ensure they understand the concept and can independently practise skills and reason and problem solve. Sometimes children will be identified for additional support outside of maths lessons so they can keep up with their peers or to teach any gaps in learning – this additional support generally takes place after school.  

• In every classroom, you will see a maths ‘working wall’ which will display key vocabulary and key learning the children have been taught. This knowledge is collected and serves as a learning aid for children during lessons.  

Early Years

At the beginning of our pupils’ education, maths is taught both indoors and outdoors. We always ensure that the children’s learning is contextual and provides real life experiences such as: measuring liquids, counting in games, role playing going shopping with money, spotting shapes in the environment etc. 

Maths Across the Curriculum

It is vital that children see how maths permeates so many aspects of life and other subjects at school too. We know that children’s ability as mathematicians at a young age has a great influence on how well they achieve in science. In order for our pupils to become future scientists, we must ensure they have a secure understanding of mathematical concepts and algorithms; are able to spot patterns, make predictions and estimations and see how to apply maths to real life contexts. To that end, we are developing opportunities for teaching maths in other subjects – especially in science which lends itself so naturally for using measure and statistics. .

Impact – what we want our pupils to be able to do by the time they leave South Camberley

• First and foremost, we aim for our pupils to leave South Camberley with a love of and passion for maths. For them to appreciate the wonder of numbers and how the world is full of them; how reasoning with numbers is vital to solve problems in all walks of life.  

• We want them to be confident, independent, lifelong mathematicians who see mistakes and misconceptions as learning opportunities; who are resilient and persevere in order to solve problems.  

• We want to inspire them and for them to aspire to great things in their future lives. We want them to dream of pursuing careers in engineering, as architects, in construction, as chefs, as scientists and all manner of roles that involve maths.  

• We want them to leave with key basic skills such as automatic recall of times tables knowledge and fluency in arithmetic.    

• We want them to be fully prepared for the next stage in their education which means attaining at age expected.  

"I love maths because we get challenges, and we get to work practically."

“We get to use resources and work with our friends.” 

“I use my maths skills in science"

“I always think in my head first to help me in maths and I learn about numbers every day.”

South Camberley Pupils