Maths at Thursfield
Intent
Our Math curriculum aims to provide all pupils with the knowledge and skills that they require to succeed in life. At Thursfield, our aim is to promote enjoyment and curiosity of learning through practical mathematics, exploration, investigation and discussion. This is able to develop sustainable learning for pupils for the future. We pride ourselves on providing the best possible opportunities for our pupils by developing pupils’ ability to move between concrete, pictorial and abstract representations fluently and confidently. The long term goal (which also runs through the heart of our curriculum) is to promote and provide opportunities for pupils to develop the core learning skills of confidence, determination, curiosity, aspiration, teamwork, independence, communication and focus. Taking on board ’Rosenshine’s Principles for Instruction’ the Math journey is carefully and expertly planned following the relevant steps to ensure there are optimum opportunities for new learning to be embedded by using small steps to build upon throughout such as reviewing prior learning, guided practice and scaffolding to teach key skills.
Implementation
Our curriculum is sequenced and organised to ensure all pupils have access to all content and learning experiences to make progress. Staff have access to all year groups planning and curriculum content; to allow for progression and clear links to be made. We have adopted a mastery approach to our mathematics lessons, which provide pupils with small steps of progression Pupils are then given a range of Varied Fluency and problem solving questions to further develop their knowledge, understanding, reasoning and fluency. Breaking the concepts down into small chunks may mean that this mastery journey could take a whole week to work through, but it provides our pupils with a much more rounded and deeper understanding of mathematical concepts and skills. As Mathematics Leaders we must ensure that all pupils are engaged and enjoy maths. I hope that this new model will provide more opportunities for pupils to express ideas, concepts and explore reasoning in more detail, making them more robust and resilient learners. Pre-teach is taught on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday during assemblies to provide the underlying skills needed for the main lesson. The purpose is to ensure that those pupils who find certain areas of maths difficult are well equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills needed for the lesson.
Impact
Collaboration is key within our Math curriculum to ensure continual impact and achievement. Staff meetings provide opportunity for teachers to feed back about pupils’ achievement and assessment is used to provide clear next steps. Peer Reviews – Working with our MAT allows me to not only observe the practice in all Trust schools. Working collaboratively in this way is a brilliant way to learn from others, compare and discuss different teaching pedagogy and approaches. Sharing of work and book scrutiny’s happen regularly at Thursfield. I am able to keep track of classes and individual pupils and provide teachers with necessary feedback. Also, pupils from different classes regularly bring their work to show me to celebrate their achievements. Pupil Progress – Termly assessment meetings ensure that I keep up to date with the progress that pupils are making. Teachers and teaching assistants discuss their classes in detail, highlighting any vulnerable groups. We then plan a way forward and discuss what is going well and delve deeper into any possible barriers to learning and what can be done to unpick these barriers. Pupil Voice indicates that mathematics is having a very positive impact on children at Thursfield. There is certainly an appetite for maths and pupils show this on a day to day basis, tackling problems and concepts. Pupils want to be challenged and often choose to complete the more difficult task, rather than an easier one.
