King's Wood Curriculum - Maths
Why Maths is important
Maths is an essential skill that enables us to live an independent life. It teaches us how to make sense of the world around us, from calculating the total amount of money we need to purchase items, knowing what time to meet a connecting train to weighing precise amounts of ingredients when following a recipe. Maths helps us to develop problem solving and reasoning skills that are applicable to all aspects of our lives.
Purpose of study
Mathematics is a creative and highly interconnected 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.
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What Maths looks like at King’s Wood School
The White Rose Maths scheme is used throughout the school as a base for our maths learning. If you wish to see what your child’s class is learning currently, the links to the overviews and more are below. Our approach to maths has drawn inspiration from a number of places – Mathematics Mastery, NCETM and the White Rose Maths hub and teachers use a range of strategies from the maths mastery approach. The units of work build on previous learning so the children have the opportunity to embed concepts and make connections as they progress through the year.
While learning new concepts and consolidating learning, children have the opportunity to use a wide range of concrete resources to support them and to enable them to show and prove mathematical ideas and experience success. Developing problem solving and reasoning skills is a thread that runs through our maths units – fluency in their calculations leads our children to tackling problems with greater confidence and resilience. It also shows our children that there are different approaches to solving problems with tasks gradually increase in complexity and depth.
Children have a chance to develop and apply their maths learning across the curriculum in subjects such as Science, Design and Technology and humanities.
The impact of this is:
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Quick recall of facts and procedures
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Flexibility to move between different contexts and representations
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Ability to make connections and recognise relationships
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Ability, once a concept is mastered, to apply it independently to a new problem or unfamiliar situation
Big Maths
Children have a ‘Big Maths’ session every two weeks which is a two-hour session. During this session, they have the opportunity to investigate and apply their learning to real life problems and experience how they can use and apply their learning.
Working Walls
Every classroom across the school has a mathematics working wall in it. Working walls are adapted for each age group. Our working walls include:
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Key facts are put on the wall at the beginning of the unit and then built on
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The working walls are constructed with pupils and built on together
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Examples of effective strategies
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The success criteria/steps to success for a calculation is written with the pupils, rather than given to them.
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Key vocabulary is readily available and teachers expect children to use the vocabulary during maths talk
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Summaries and key facts from previous learning is also available on the working walls for children to refer to
Non-Negotiables
For all year groups, we have identified "Maths Non-Negotiables" - those areas of the National Curriculum which are most critical for developing the skills and understanding needed throughout Primary education; they provide the foundation for future mathematical learning. Although we teach the whole of the National Curriculum, there is a specific focus on these identified areas, and pupils are assessed specifically on them. Typically, these areas include concepts relating to place value, number bonds, multiplication and division facts, and the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). These are covered during lessons but are also covered during maths meetings.
Please click here to see the Maths Non-Negotiables.
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Maths Meetings
Maths Meetings are short sessions, 10-15 minutes, that the children participate in during the afternoon (2 to 3 times a week). This approach enables the children to embed their knowledge from the morning sessions, cover the ‘non-negotiables’ and learn their times tables. This allows children the opportunity to embed this learning into their long-term memory, allowing children to apply these skills successfully.
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Overviews
If you click on ‘parents and pupils’ and then ‘view all our resources’ you will be able to select a year group. There is advice and guidance and free parent resources also.
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Further information
If you would like to know more about your child's maths education at King's Wood, please speak to your child's teacher or, if you have further questions, please contact our Maths Lead - Mr Hickey - through the school office: schooloffice@kingswood.bucks.sch.uk
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