Mathematics teaches us how to make sense of the world around us through developing a child’s ability to calculate, to reason and to solve problems. It enables children to understand and appreciate relationships and pattern in both number and space in their everyday lives. Through their growing knowledge and understanding, children learn to appreciate the contribution made by many cultures to the development and application of mathematics.
The aims of mathmatics are:
Teaching and Learning Style
Each block is made up of three units: one for each term. A unit represents 2 or 3 weeks of teaching.
Block A: Counting, partitioning and calculating
(6 weeks)
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Block B: Securing number facts, understanding shape
(9 weeks)
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Block C: Handling data and measures
(6 weeks)
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Block D: Calculating, measuring and understanding shape
(6 weeks)
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Block E: Securing number facts, relationships and calculating
(9 weeks)
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Unit A1
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Unit B1
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Unit C1
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Unit D1
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Unit E1
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Unit A2
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Unit B2
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Unit C2
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Unit D2
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Unit E2
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Unit A3
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Unit B3
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Unit C3
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Unit D3
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Unit E3
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Mathematics planning is in three phases (long-term, medium-term and short term). The National Numeracy Strategy Framework for Teaching gives a detailed outline of what we teach in the long term, while our yearly teaching programme identifies the key objectives in mathematics that we teach each year.
Medium-term mathematics plans are adopted from the Framework (see grid above) and give details of the main teaching objectives for each term. These plans are kept and reviewed by the class teacher.
The class teacher completes weekly plans for the teaching of mathematics. Weekly plans list the specific learning objectives for each lesson and give details of how the lessons are to be taught. The class teacher keeps these indivdual plans.
The Foundation Stage
We teach mathematics to our Foundation Stage children, relating the mathematical aspects of the children's work to the objectives set out in the Early Learning Goals. We give all the children ample and varied opportunity to develop their understanding of number, measurement, pattern, shape and space through varied activities that allow them to enjoy, explore, practise and talk confidently about mathematics. The Foundation Stage children develop their mathematical understanding both inthe indoor and outdoor learning environment.
Contribution of Mathematics To Teaching In Other Curriculum Areas
English
Mathematics contributes significantly to the teaching of English in our school by actively promoting the skilss of reading, writing, speaking and listening. For example, we encourage children to read and interpret problems in order to identify the mathematics involved. The children explain and present thier work to others during plenary sessions.
Younger children enjoy stories and rhyme that rely on counting and sequencing. Older children encounter mathematical vocabulary, graphs and charts when using non-fiction texts.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Children use and apply mathematics in a variety of ways when solving problems using ICT.
Younger childrenuse ICT to communicate results with appropriate mathematical symbols.
Older children use it to produce graphs and tables when explaining their results or when creating repeating patterns, such as tessellations. When working on control, children use standard and non-standard measures for distance and angle. They use simulations to identify patterns and relationships.
Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and Citizenship
Mathematics contributes to the teaching of personal, social and health education, and citizenship. The work that children do outside their normal lessons encourages independant study and helps them to become increasingly responsible for their own learning. The planned activites that children do within the classroom encourage them to work together and respect each others views. We present children with real-life situations in their work on the spending of money.
Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development
The teaching of mathematics supports the social development of our children through the way we expect them to work with each other in lessons. We group children so that they work together, and we give them the chance to discuss their ideas and results.
Teaching Mathematics To Children With Special Needs
We teach mathematics to all children, whaever their ability. It is part of the school curriculum learning policy to provide a broad and balanced education to all children. We provide learning opportunities that are matched to the needs of children with learning difficulties. Work in mathematics takes into account the targets set for indivdual children in their Indivdual Education Plans (IEPs).
Assessment and Recording
We assess chilsren's work in mathematics from three aspects (long-term, short term and medium-term). We make short-term assessments, which we use to inform our daily plans. These short-term assessments are closely matched to the teaching objectives.
We make medium-term assessments to measure progress against the key objectives, and to help us plan the next unit of work. We use the indivdual records as the recording format for this.
We make long-term assessments towards of the school year, and we use these to assess progress against school and national targets. We can then set targets for the next school year and make a summary of each child's progress before discussing it with parents. This information is passed on tot he next eacher at the end of the year, so that she can plan for the new school year. We make long-term assessments with the help of end-of-year tests and teacher assessments. We use the national tests for children in Year 2. We also make annual assessments of children's progress measured against the level descriptions of the National Curriculum.
Monitoring and Review
Monitoring of the standards of the children's work and of the quality of teaching in mathematics is the responsibility of the mathematics subject leader. The work of the mathematics subject leader also involves supporting colleagues in the teaching of mathematics, being informed about current developments in the subject, and providing a strategic lead and direction for the subject in the school. The mathematics subject leader gives the head teacher an annual summary in which she evaluates strengths and weaknesses in the subject and indicates areas for further improvement.