Curriculum leader: Kelly Evans. For more information regarding our maths curriculum, please contact the school office – admin@acresfieldacademy.org.uk

On this page you will find an overview of our approach to teaching and learning in geography at Acresfield. Please note that the documents attached on the page are examples only as they are reviewed and updated on a termly basis.

Our Intent – Developing Critical Thinkers and Young Problem Solvers

At Acresfield Academy, we encourage all pupils to become self-motivated, confident learners through enquiry and active participation in challenging and engaging experiences.

From the time children join us in Ducklings or Tiger Cubs until they reach the top of the school in the Jaguars Class, the children are given a range of practical based activities and challenges within our progressive curriculum, that equip them with the necessary skills in mathematics.

Developing these skills and applying them into real life and practical situations is central to our approach. We ensure as a school that we are providing children with the essential tools to explore, reason and develop a sense of enjoyment and curiosity for mathematics.  The school has a range of practical resources to support children’s learning and we also offer a range of online teaching and homework tools through ‘My Maths’ which helps families and children continue to learn at home. We support times table fluency with ‘Times Table Rock Stars’ and we offer ‘Numbots’ to support recall and fluency in mental addition and subtraction.

We create opportunities that will enrich children and enable them to approach their learning to acquire the knowledge to solve problems. Pupils are given the opportunity to develop their fluency, mathematical reasoning and their critical thinking through problem solving, being encouraged to see things in more than one way. We encourage children to experiment with their mathematical work and to develop reflection skills and engage in dialogue with their teachers to support their critical thinking. Errors and mistakes are welcomed and are seen as opportunities to make progress and to develop thinking.

Please open the following links to see our long term curriculum overviews for maths:

Mathematics Implementation 

Teachers carefully plan their lessons following a yearly intent outlined for their year group and a progressive planning overview for each topic area in maths, which shows a clear awareness of the national pitch and expectations outlined by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Maths (NCETM). Within each planning overview,  lessons are sequenced in a way, which allows children to fully master a concept in maths before moving on with their learning. Alongside this, key questions from the NCETM Mastery documentation are embedded within the planning overviews to ensure that pitch and expectation for the end of a topic is accurate. This provides children with an opportunity to demonstrate mastery or mastery at greater depth within their learning. Daily fluency sessions, NRICH, BEAMS challenges, Matchsticks and the digging deeper books produced by First4Maths, are also used for deepening understanding and solving more complex problems, which engage and enthuse the children.

Adaptive teaching

We have identified a range of strategies to support children who require adaptations in order to support them in accessing the curriculum in Mathematics. This includes having a range of resources, differentiated outcomes and pre-teaching in order to reduce barriers. These adaptations support different pupils in being able to fully access the curriculum including those children on the special educational needs register. Here is a broad overview of some of these strategies: Strategies for Inclusion in Mathematics.

Assessment

When children reach the end of a topic in Maths, they will always complete an end of topic assessment. This end of topic assessment is created by teachers who carefully select and use questions from TestBase. Year 2 and year 6 will also use past SAT papers. In year 1, the children have an end of year number check to support any gaps prior going into year 2.

Times tables are regularly assessed through TT Rock Stars from year 2 to year 6. Additional websites are used to support the fluency and rapid recall of our children’s times tables. Our Year 4 children take the national multiplication tables check in June.

Misconceptions are addressed on the same day, allowing children to continue to progress within their learning the following day.

The Impact

Essential skills and knowledge are prioritised meaning children are able to move successfully into their next year group. We aim for children to be capable and competent mathematicians equipped with the necessary skills, which they can then build on further in high school.

The outcomes achieved by our pupils show that we are impacting positively and our approach is working. Our children have achieved well above national expectations at the end of Year 6 every year for the last five years. This relates to the percentage of pupils achieving national expectations and the percentage working above national expectations and achieving greater depth. [please note: there were no national assessments due to covid in 2020 and 2021]

Pupil work is celebrated in school in different ways. It is evidenced in pupil books, seesaw, individual pieces of finished work and classroom displays.

Year 2 Mathematics Book

 

Year 5 Maths Book

Homework opportunities are used to to support and develop confidence in their mathematical fluency and reasoning skills. Please see our homework policy for more information.

We encourage our children to practise their fluency at home with these suggested websites:

For additional websites teachers will share them via email with parents and put them onto class pages.

Cultural Capital and Enrichment

Cultural Capital and enrichment is seen in the way we incorporate our drivers of possibilities, environment, community and well-being, into all of our areas of learning and by striving to provide the children the opportunities to experience and develop understanding of different cultural genres which may not be readily accessible to them outside of School.

As maths is in all aspects of our daily life we look closely at STEM, and significant figures. These then also link to other areas of our curriculum. We give the children the opportunity to see the possibilities maths provides and understanding how it fits in to the wider world.

Position and directional langauge and skills. (EYFS)

In our cooking club the children were practising thier measuring skills. They measured in g and ml and finally minutes when their muffins were in the oven.

Cultural Capital is the essential knowledge that children need to prepare them for their future success – in the world of work, in relationships forged throughout life and as a valued contributor to society. When beginning their primary school journey in the EYFS, many children arrive to school with different and sometimes more limited experiences than others.

Therefore, our aim is to give children the knowledge and skills to prepare them for what comes next in their lives. This includes the relevant vocabulary needed throughout their education and the opportunity to link maths to real-world problem solving.

Acresfield’s Maths Cultural Capital offer includes: 

– A progressive vocabulary overview

– Academy Mathematics Competition

– Mathematical clubs e.g. times table club

– Mathematical themed days – including exploring significant mathematicians, completing
scavenger hunt, maths tuck shop to support home learning, make me a
number activities, theme work for display

-Visitors

-Show chasing assemblies for families

-Fundraisers and enterprises e.g. MacMillan Coffee Morning and opportunities to develop financial literacy
and the knowledge and skills to prepare them for what come next in their lives.

-In year 4,  the children learn about one of the first civilisations, The IndusValley. The children understand the technology advances e.g. in measuring, mathematics. Our children find out about the mathematical achievements of the Indus Valley civilisation, including an accurate system of weights and measures. They willconsider why having a uniform system of measure is important and apply this to different units of measurement used around the world today.

Parent support booklets 

We have produced booklets to support parents with expectations in the maths curriculum.  The booklets provide an overview of the curriculum, approaches used by the school and ways parents can help at home.

Please click on the following links for more information.

Year 1 Maths Parent Support Booklet

Year 2 Maths Parent Support Booklets

Year 3 Maths Parent Support Booklet

Year 4 Maths Parent Support Booklet

Year 5 Maths Parent Support Booklet

Year 6 Maths Parent Support Booklet

Policy – Developing critical thinkers and young problem solvers 

Our maths policy in school emphasises a practical approach to teaching mathematics, promoting a deeper understanding of concepts through real-world applications. It encourages interactive learning, problem-solving, and critical thinking, fostering students’ mathematical proficiency. Our policy is progressive and aims to make mathematics engaging and relevant, preparing students for practical challenges in various fields.

Calculation Policy