Maths
When teaching mathematics at St. Joseph’s, we intend to provide a curriculum that caters for the needs of all individuals that sets them up with the necessary skills and knowledge for them to become successful in their future adventures. We incorporate sustained levels of challenge through varied and high-quality activities with a focus on fluency, reasoning and problem solving.
At St Joseph’s we believe that all pupils can achieve in mathematics. We believe that at each stage of learning, children should be able to demonstrate deep, conceptual understanding of a concept and build on this over time. We want children to be able to not only recall and use the maths taught but to also be able to transfer and apply it in different contexts, being able to reason and problem solve. This deep learning is what we are aiming for by teaching maths using the mastery approach.
Pupils are required to explore maths in depth, using mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain their workings. Wide ranges of mathematical resources are used and pupils taught to show their workings in a concrete, pictorial and abstract form wherever suitable. They are taught to explain their choice of methods and develop their mathematical reasoning skills. We encourage a growth mindset, resilience, adaptability, and acceptance that struggle is often a necessary step in learning. Our curriculum allows children to make sense of the world around them relating the pattern between mathematics and everyday life. As our children progress, we intend for them to develop their curiosity about the subject, as well as an appreciation of the beauty and power of Mathematics.
We intend to create a vocabulary rich environment, where talk for maths is a key learning tool for all pupils. Pre-teaching key vocabulary is a driver for pupil understanding and develops the confidence of pupils to explain mathematically. All children will have opportunities to identify patterns or connections in their maths using this to predict, to reason and develop their own patterns or links in maths and other subjects.
"The importance of language in learning mathematics cannot be overstated. We understand mathematical ideas by making connections between language, symbols, pictures and real-life situations." (Haylock and Cockburn, 2003).
Implementation
Power Maths - makes Maths an adventure!
At St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School we are proud to be able to offer all our children the opportunity to embrace Power Maths.
At the heart of this programme is the idea that all children can achieve and be successful mathematicians with the right growth mindset. It promotes five child friendly characters, each with their own positive skillset, to inspire and motivate children. These characters are:
What is Power Maths?
Power Maths is a resource that has been designed for UK schools based on research and extensive experience of teaching and learning around the world and here in the UK. It has been designed to support and challenge all pupils, and is built on the belief that EVERYONE can learn maths successfully.
How does this support our approach to teaching?
The philosophy behind Power Maths is that being successful in maths is not just about rote-learning procedures and methods, but is instead about problem solving, thinking and discussing. Many people feel they were taught maths in a way that was about memorising formulas and calculation methods, then having to apply them without any real understanding of what or how these methods actually work. Power Maths includes practice questions to help children develop fluent recall and develop their conceptual understanding. Power Maths uses growth mindset characters to prompt, encourage and question children. They spark curiosity, engage reasoning, secure understanding and deepen learning for all.
How will the lessons work?
Each lesson has a progression, with a central flow that draws the main learning into focus. There are different elements, informed by research into best practice in maths teaching, that bring the lessons to life:
Discover
Each lesson begins with a problem to solve, often a real-life example, sometimes a puzzle or a game. These are engaging and fun, and designed to get all children thinking.
Share
The class shares their ideas and compares different ways to solve the problem, explaining their reasoning with hands-on resources and drawings to make their ideas clear. Children are able to develop their understanding of the concept with input from the teacher.
Think together
The next part of the lesson is a journey through the concept, digging deeper and deeper so that each child builds on secure foundations while being challenged to apply their understanding in different ways and with increasing independence.
Practice
Now children practice individually or in small groups, rehearsing and developing their skills to build fluency, understanding of the concept and confidence.
Reflect
Finally, children are prompted to reflect on and record their learning from each session and show how they have grasped the concept explored in the lesson.
What if my child needs a confidence boost, or wants to be challenged further?
Power Maths is based on a ‘small-steps’ approach, sometimes called a mastery approach. Concepts are broken down so that your child can master one idea without feeling over-whelmed. There are a range of fluency, reasoning and problem solving questions in each lesson that are designed to support the different needs and confidence levels within a class, while at the same time fostering a spirit of working and learning together. Each lesson includes a challenge question for those children who can delve deeper into a concept.
By the end of KS2, we aim for children to be fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics with a conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. They should have the skills to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of situations with increasing sophistication, including in unfamiliar contexts and to model real-life scenarios. Children will be able to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and to develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language.
Regular and ongoing assessment by teachers informs our teaching, as well as both ‘keep up’ and ‘catch up’ interventions, to support and enable progress and outcomes. Assessment is integrated throughout the Power Maths lessons and unit structure. Opportunities for assessment include formative assessment within every lesson and summative assessment at the end of each unit, half-term and year. This helps us to make regular monitoring and tracking of children’s understanding, informing our teaching in order to measure progress.
Pupil Voice
We feel it is important that we listen to the feedback of our children at St Joseph’s and they are very positive about their maths lessons.
"I love working with the Numicon. It helps me to understand maths better."
"I love the tricky problems our teacher gives us. They are hard but great fun."
“Active Maths gets blood to our brains and makes us work even harder.”
Useful links
Below are some links to websites that you may like to try out with your children:
BBC Bitesize- This link will take you to the Bitesize homepage. From here click on the correct key stage button and it will lead you to some great maths resources linked to what your child has been learning.
Maths Zone- A great website full of games, mainly for KS2.
Super Maths World- Great games for KS2. Children can log in as a guest or create an account.
Cool Maths- Another website full of interactive games.
At St Joseph’s we recognise the importance of promoting physical activity whist delivering the maths curriculum. ‘Active maths’ is incorporated into daily maths sessions to reduce the risk of passive learning and promote higher levels of engagement amongst all pupil groups.
We are delighted to be using the Active Maths mascot 'Motty' to inspire us to get more active in our homework tasks!
Times Table Rock Stars is a fun and challenging programme designed to help students master the times tables! To be a Times Table Rock Star you need to answer any multiplication fact up to 12×12 in less than 3 seconds! Each child will be given a Rock Speed and Status based on how quickly they can answer questions and how many they can answer correctly.
The goal is for all participating rockers to be a Times Tables Rock Star after 20 weeks!
The Rock Speeds and Statuses
By answering a question in the given times below, these are the statuses you can achieve!
Rock Hero - 1 second per question or less
Rock Legend - 2 seconds per question or less
Rock Star - 3 seconds per question or less
Headliner - 4 seconds per question or less
Support Act - 5 seconds per question or less
Breakthrough Artist - 6 seconds per question or less
Unsigned Act - 7 seconds per question or less
Gigger - 8 seconds per question or less
Busker - 9 seconds per question or less
Garage Rocker - 10 seconds per question or less
Wannabe - more than 10 seconds per question
Game Types
There are 5 games that you can play online:
Garage
- Single player
- Teacher sets the times tables
- Games are 1, 2 or 3 minutes long, you can choose!
- 10 coins per correct answer
Studio
- Lots of questions - 12x12
- Improve your Rock Speed and Status on this game!
- Games are 1 minute long
- 1 coin per correct answer
Arena
- Multiplayer
- Teacher sets the times tables
- Compete against your friends in the class
- Games are 1 minute long
- Earn 1 coin per correct answer
Festival
- Play against children from around the world!
- Lots of questions - 12x12
- Games are 1 minute long
- Earn 1 coin per correct answer
Soundcheck
- Emulator - 20 questions with a 6 second time limit for each
- Multiplication only
- Earn 5 coins per correct answer
Remember, the more you play and the more questions you get correct, the more coins you can earn for your Avatar!
Can you master your Times Tables and become a Rock Star?
- Power Maths letter to Families
- Maths Progression of Knowledge and Skills from 2 Year olds to Year 1
- EYFS Overview
- Year 1 Overview
- Year 2 Overview
- Year 3 Overview
- Year 4 Overview
- Year 5 Overview
- Year 6 Overview
- SEND Adaptations for mathematics at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School
- Power Maths Reception Calculation Policy Document
- Power Maths KS1 Calculation Policy
- Power LKS2 Calculation Policy
- Power Maths UKS2 Calculation Policy
- Mathematical language
- The role of talk and discussion
- Power Maths Key Vocabulary Year 1
- Power Maths Key Vocabulary Year 2
- Power Maths Key Vocabulary Year 3
- Power Maths Key Vocabulary Year 4
- Power Maths Key Vocabulary Year 5
- Power Maths Key Vocabulary Year 6