Intent

At Mill Hill Primary we use the National Curriculum as the foundation of our mathematics teaching and learning.

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 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
• 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.

Implementation

At Mill Hill we follow the Hampshire County Council Maths Unit Plans for Ks1 and Ks2. These unit plans break down the National Curriculum objectives into domains (e.g. number and place value, addition and subtraction) with ideas for tasks for teachers to use when planning. There is a focus on using the CPA approach (concrete, pictorial, abstract), with key questions, vocabulary and models and images.

Teachers then take these objectives to form their own learning journeys. We use Hampshire’s suggested Learning Journey for our units of work:

This involves teachers selecting a rich task. This should be a problem that is either multi-step or open ended, requiring students to use a range of skills that they have been taught in the unit. Teachers introduce the rich task at the beginning of the unit, unpicking the language and discussing the skills that will be needed. If appropriate, some units will have a ‘hook’ lesson, that introduces the new unit of work. For example, with a fractions unit, teachers may spend a lesson cutting food into equal parts to explore the key concepts of wholes and equal parts. A sequence of lessons will then follow that teach the key objectives of the unit, with opportunities to practise in a variety of ways, time to reflect on misconceptions and to deepen their understanding of key concepts, before finally finishing with the rich task for them to solve.

Each individual lessons also follows our Mill Hill lesson structure:

Each lesson begins with a focus on retrieval – we look at something we learnt yesterday, last week and last unit. We then have a short 5-10 fluency section, followed by introducing the objective for that day with careful modelling, including key questions, addressing misconceptions and using CPA to support. Children are then given an opportunity to practise this skill, with time towards the end of the lesson to apply the skills they have learnt by solving a problem and/or by reasoning about their findings. Times to reflect can happen throughout the lesson, with time at the end to tie the learning together. It is important to note that the lesson structure is not necessarily a linear process, with teachers being flexible with their learners and addressing the needs of the class at the point of learning.

Throughout the lesson, teachers provide feedback through careful questioning. Key misconceptions are identified and addressed through further modelling, questioning or by using an additional resource to support. Those children who have achieved well in the lesson will be challenged further to deepen and consolidate their learning. At the end of the lesson teachers will mark a set of books and use the support of our Mill Hill marking books to identify any difficulties and plan strategies and possible catch up support.

Impact

The implementation of our maths learning journey has placed problem solving at the heart of our mathematics lessons. All children at Mill Hill are given opportunities to apply the skills they have learnt to a final rich tasks. By the time the children reach their final rich problem, they have had multiple opportunities to practise the maths in a variety of ways, with a range of models and images. They are able to draw upon the skills and knowledge they have acquired and confidently solve complex, non-routine problems and investigations.

All children are assessed at several points in the year using target Tracker. This allows teachers to identify gaps that children have and plan interventions or support in class accordingly. Our end of year maths data for the year 2021-2022 in KS1 and KS2 was in line or above national averages.

KS1:

KS2:

The mathematics curriculum is based on the national curriculum.  Number and calculation are given a high priority across the school, as are mental and oral methods