At Reedham, we aim to foster a love of learning for Maths. Discovering and learning through the Mastery approach, our children will have a strong foundation for understanding the world of Mathematics.
We want every child to:
- Enjoy and succeed in Maths.
- Be able to confidently solve problems.
- Explain their reasoning.
We firmly believe that:
- Teaching Maths is essential to everyday life – maths is everywhere!
- Success in mathematics is possible for every child, whatever his/her background or prior attainment.
- Mistakes are an opportunity to develop and learn.
- Mathematical ability is not innate, and is increased through effort. Effort means being resilient and not giving up easily – having a growth mindset.
- Every child can achieve a strong foundation in mathematics, with no child left behind.
This is our fourth year of embedding the Mastery approach of teaching and learning across the school. We currently use the White Rose Premium Resources (Scheme of work), which is a Mastery embedded programme. Planning is also supplemented with NCETM materials.
Our Maths lessons are fun and engaging. Children learn best in Maths when using concrete objects and representations in order to support their learning and understanding of abstract ideas. Therefore, we encourage the use of a wide range of manipulatives and representations in Maths lessons, for example number beads, Dienes block, counters, ten frames, the part-part whole model and bar models.
Our pupils are encouraged to work in pairs and groups to solve problems, as we also know that talking about Maths helps children to develop their understanding. Children are encouraged to use MathsWhizz at home to support their four calculations fluency. We also encourage the use of Times Tables Rockstars both in school and at home.
In addition to their regular Maths lessons, we also seek to promote cross-curricular opportunities for Maths learning wherever possible, for example in Science, D.T., Geography and P.E. Pupils also frequently learn Maths outdoors, enabling them to apply their mathematical skills to the real world.
We strongly believe that ‘the answer is just the beginning of our journey’ and through this, when children are rushing to give an answer quickly, we encourage them to think deeply and reason on their solution.
What you can do as parents to help your child/children
Tell them – you love Maths (to create a passion in them)
Help them – to have the right Mindset(to make children believe that I can do this as my parents could)
Ask them – to explain their answer (to make them realise it’s not about the answer but how I got it)
Encourage them – to frequently practise, using both TT Rockstars and Maths Whizz at home
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Please find below useful parent handouts to support Maths from Early Years through to Year 6:
PDF format
MS Word Format
