Maths 

Subject Lead - Miss S.Williams

At Priory Lane Community School, we are all mathematicians!

Mathematics is an important part of the national curriculum, which offers children a powerful way of communicating. They learn to explore and explain their ideas using symbols, diagrams and spoken/written language. Children will learn the importance of maths by understanding how vital it is for us in our daily lives, e.g. calculating the total of money,  knowing how to tell the time or how to weigh out ingredients when following a recipe.

Through the study of maths, the national curriculum clearly states that children should:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
• Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
• 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.

At Priory Lane Community School, maths is taught daily. For the first 20 minutes of each maths session, children have a ‘CLIC’ session. CLIC is divided into three parts; multiplication, previous learning and calculations. CLIC is an opportunity for children to revisit and practise their maths skills. Once a week, CLIC is replaced with a taught times tables session where children learn, practise and apply their times table knowledge.

The key concepts that are taught through maths lessons are; number and place value, calculations, geometry, fractions, statistics and problem-solving. At Priory Lane Community School, we use the Big Maths scheme to teach children calculations. This enables the calculations to be broken down into manageable progressive steps to ensure all children can succeed within the lesson.

Children will be taught to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics and deepen their understanding through problem-solving and reasoning, which are embedded in all of our maths lessons.

Each term, teachers carefully map out which areas of maths will be taught to ensure children receive a balanced coverage of all concepts.

The maths curriculum at Priory Lane Community School looks like:

• Cross-curricular links made to other curriculum subjects, such as measurement in design & technology, and statistics in science
• Differentiated lessons that are designed and planned to include all children through a range of approaches
• Engaging lessons that instil a sense of enjoyment and curiosity
• Opportunities to use a wide range of resources to support learning such as hundred squares, number lines, cubes, place value cards and other small apparatus.
• CLIC sessions that help children to feel confident using previously taught knowledge
• Concrete, pictorial and abstract learning in sessions. Concrete is the ‘doing’ stage, using concrete objects to solve problems. It brings concepts to life by allowing children to handle physical objects themselves.  Pictorial is the ‘seeing’ stage, using representations of the objects involved in maths problems. This stage encourages children to make a mental connection between the physical object and abstract levels of understanding, by drawing or looking at pictures, circles, diagrams or models which represent the objects in the problem. Abstract is the ‘symbolic’ stage, where children are able to use abstract symbols to model and solve maths problems
• Where opportunities arise, engage the children with aspirational visitors that use maths within in their careers
• Participation in whole school extra-curricular events, such as ‘Number Day'
• Exploring different careers and gaining an insight to how they require the use of mathematics within their work.

“Pure Mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.” – Albert Einstein

Maths documents and website links...

List of Maths Websites for Parents and Carers

Oxford Owl includes a range of activities, top tips and eBooks to help your child with their maths at home. https://home.oxfordowl.co.uk/maths/

Nrich. A range of maths games, problems and articles on all areas of maths. Parents of Key Stage 1 children should select ‘Stage 1’ and parents of Key Stage 2 children should select ‘Stage 2’.

https://nrich.maths.org/frontpage

List of Maths Websites for Children

http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com/qr/qr.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zjxhfg8

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/z826n39

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/index.html

https://www.ilovemathsgames.com/

https://www.mathsisfun.com/index.htm

https://mathszone.co.uk/

https://primarygames.co.uk/

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/                                   

https://ttrockstars.com/