Oliver's Battery Primary and Nursery School

Mathematics

Welcome to the Maths section of our school website.

Considerable importance is attached to the children achieving and understanding mathematical processes, concepts and skills. A favourable attitude is encouraged by presenting it in an interesting and achievable way, allowing the children to actively participate in the learning process, thus creating a sense of achievement and confidence. There is a strong emphasis on the development of mental arithmetic and giving opportunities for pupils to use and apply mathematics in real life situations.

Maths at Oliver’s Battery School is taught through daily lessons which follow the principles of the National Curriculum. Class teachers also plan for opportunities to develop and apply key mathematical skills in projects throughout the year.

At all levels maths is about solving problems using key processes such as:

Looking for patterns and relationships between numbers.
Making sense and checking information.
Communicating and presenting maths using words and diagrams.
Reasoning and developing mathematical arguments.

Please click here to view our guide to the teaching of calculation strategies as used at Oliver's Battery Primary School.

Jargon Buster

The Mathematics Curriculum

The following information has been taken directly from the new National Curriculum and is to be implemented by September 2014.

Purpose of study

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Aims

The National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems
reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Key Stage 1 programme of study

The principal focus of mathematics teaching in key stage 1 is to ensure that pupils develop confidence and mental fluency with whole numbers, counting and place value. This should involve working with numerals, words and the four operations, including with practical resources [for example, concrete objects and measuring tools].

At this stage, pupils should develop their ability to recognise, describe, draw, compare and sort different shapes and use the related vocabulary. Teaching should also involve using a range of measures to describe and compare different quantities such as length, mass, capacity/volume, time and money.

By the end of year 2, pupils should know the number bonds to 20 and be precise in using and understanding place value. An emphasis on practice at this early stage will aid fluency.

Pupils should read and spell mathematical vocabulary, at a level consistent with their increasing word reading and spelling knowledge at key stage 1.

Key Stage 2 programme of study

Year 3 and 4

The principal focus of mathematics teaching in lower key stage 2 is to ensure that pupils become increasingly fluent with whole numbers and the four operations, including number facts and the concept of place value. This should ensure that pupils develop efficient written and mental methods and perform calculations accurately with increasingly large whole numbers.

At this stage, pupils should develop their ability to solve a range of problems, including simple fractions and decimal place value. Teaching should also ensure that pupils draw with increasing accuracy and develop mathematical reasoning so they can analyse shapes and their properties, and confidently describe the relationships between them. It should ensure that they can use measuring instruments with accuracy and make connections between measure and number.

By the end of year 4, pupils should have memorised their multiplication tables up to and including the 12 multiplication table and show precision and fluency in their work.

Pupils should read and spell mathematical vocabulary correctly and confidently, using their growing word reading knowledge and their knowledge of spelling.

Year 5 and 6

The principal focus of mathematics teaching in upper key stage 2 is to ensure that pupils extend their understanding of the number system and place value to include larger integers. This should develop the connections that pupils make between multiplication and division with fractions, decimals, percentages and ratio.

At this stage, pupils should develop their ability to solve a wider range of problems, including increasingly complex properties of numbers and arithmetic, and problems demanding efficient written and mental methods of calculation. With this foundation in arithmetic, pupils are introduced to the language of algebra as a means for solving a variety of problems. Teaching in geometry and measures should consolidate and extend knowledge developed in number. Teaching should also ensure that pupils classify shapes with increasingly complex geometric properties and that they learn the vocabulary they need to describe them.

By the end of year 6, pupils should be fluent in written methods for all four operations, including long multiplication and division, and in working with fractions, decimals and percentages.

A CPA approach

To develop conceptual understanding in maths, we begin teaching using concrete apparatus so children can understand what they are doing, before moving onto pictorial representation (e.g. drawing the problem) and only moving onto abstract representations when they have conceptual understanding to do so. This approach is referred to as CPA (Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract).

Task Design

Task design will present problems in different ways to develop fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills. Question types and task designs will show variation so children can apply learning and make links between different aspects of maths.

Here are some Mental Maths Guides you can use with your children at home:

We hope you also find some of the website links below useful.

Crickweb - This is a good website for Early Years, KS1 and KS2 children. It has interactive games to support varied numercay skills.
Primary Games - Interactive games to help your child develop numeracy skills.
Cool Maths for Kids - A fun maths website for children.