Mathematics

 

Shaping our maths curriculum:

We follow the National Curriculum. We have a maths lesson everyday with a clear focus on direct, instructional teaching and interactive oral work with both the whole class and smaller groups. Our maths curriculum emphasises problem solving and comprehension, allowing students to relate what they learn and to connect to knowledge. Children who are not keeping up have misconceptions are supported before the next lesson.

 

We teach so that we provide an appropriate balance of:

concrete experiences where children use a range of resources, like counters.
Pictorial representations
Finally moving to working in the abstract where children are able to think through concepts without either concrete or pictorial representations.

 

We ensure that there is careful scaffolding of core competencies:

Visualisation, as a foundation for comprehension
Mental strategies to develop decision making abilities
Pattern recognition to support the ability to make connections and generalise

 

We use concepts to give meaning to our mathematics:

 

In all subjects at Barlow Hall we use six Thinking Concepts:

Continuity and Change over Time
Inter-relationships
Perspectives
Similarities and Differences
Analysing and Interpreting
Cause and Effect

 

Our maths subject concepts are:

Fluency
Reasoning
Problem Solving

 

Our maths knowledge:

Number and place value
Calculating (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing)
Fractions (decimals and % at Years 5 & 6)
Measures
Geometry
Statistics
Ration, proportion and algebra

 

Our curriculum is designed so children are taught the knowledge then use their knowledge. We build knowledge from one year to another, moving from a basic understanding to an advanced model where understanding is applied to fluency and then a deep and automatic understanding. In our lessons we build on prior knowledge and link back and forwards to embed our knowledge. We return to key concepts so that are children know more and remember more.