Maths Intent
At Dalestorth Primary and Nursery School, we aspire to help all our children acquire a love for learning maths and to give them the skills, knowledge, understanding and confidence to be able to explain and apply their mathematical knowledge.
We believe all children can achieve in mathematics and teach for a secure and deep understanding of mathematical concepts through manageable steps. We view mistakes and misconceptions as an essential part of the learning process. Children will preserver by building on previous knowledge and skills, and apply these to a wide variety of contexts both within maths and across the curriculum. Our children will be appropriately challenged and supported through varied fluency, reasoning and problem-solving tasks. Irrespective of personal starting points, children will explore maths in depth and use a range of mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain. They will spend time becoming true masters of content, applying and being creative with new knowledge in multiple ways.
We aim for all children to:
Teachers will use Rosenshine’s Principles of Learning to structure their maths lesson.
Some steps won’t be relevant to a particular lesson.
Lesson Part |
Rosenshine’s Principles |
Content |
Purpose |
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Daily Recap |
Principle 1 – Daily review
Principle 10 – Weekly & monthly review |
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Anchor |
Anchor Task |
Principle 2 – Present new material in small steps |
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Let’s learn |
Principle 2 – Present new material in small steps
Principle 3 – Ask questions
Principle 4 – Provide models |
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Guided practice |
Principle 5 – Guide student practice
Principle 3 – Ask questions
Principle 6 – Check student understanding
Principle 8 – Scaffold difficult tasks |
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Independent work |
Principle 9 – Independent practice
Principle 6 – Check student understanding
Principle 7 – Obtain high success rates |
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Review |
Principle 6 – Check student understanding
Principle 7 – Obtain high success rates |
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Planning
At Dalestorth our Long Term Maths Planning follows the principle of the White Rose Maths Scheme with areas of maths blocked together so that children are taught topics ‘in depth’. For Short Term Planning, staff use a combination of Power Maths and White Rose planning.
KS1 have a daily maths lesson.
The lesson will always start with some counting work, before moving onto a mental starter. There will then be a main teaching input before the children complete challenge activities. The lesson will end with a plenary which may assess the children’s learning from that lesson, introduce a new concept or recap previous learning. The daily lessons will combine a mixture of reasoning and arithmetic activities. Number bonds and tables tests will be given as and when appropriate.
From February, Year 2 will have additional maths lessons in the afternoons.
KS2 have a daily maths lesson.
The lesson will always start with a mental starter. There will then be a main teaching input before the children complete challenge activities. The lesson will end with a plenary which may assess the children’s learning from that lesson, introduce a new concept or recap previous learning. In KS2 at least one of the maths lessons each week is dedicated to times tables, arithmetic and reasoning practise (see below):
Years 3 and 4
Have one lesson per week, which consists of a tables test, arithmetic test and a reasoning problem solved in their maths books linked to problem of week. This practice will take place during the Autumn Term. From the Spring Term, years 3 and 4 will alternate arithmetic and reasoning tests with times tables tests and reasoning problem of the week continuing.
Year 5 and 6
Have one lesson per week which is a times tables test and arithmetic test, plus reasoning problems solved in books. From January, year 5 will alternate arithmetic and reasoning tests with times tables tests and the extra reasoning problems continuing.
CLIC Maths
Last year, as a school we trailed and loved using CLIC maths; CLIC is an additional 20 minute maths session based on improving children's fluency and calculation skills.
CLIC stands for:
Counting,
Learn-Its,
It's Nothing New and
Calculation.
This year each class will have 3 CLIC sessions a week as us and the children loved it so much!
KS2 - 5 in 5 arithmetic
In KS2, we are also using 5 in 5 arithmetic tests to revise and practise the important calculation skills needed for our arithmetic tests.
Reasoning Explanation – This year, as a school, we are working on reasoning explanations. At times your child may be asked to write an explanation of why they know an answer is correct e.g. I know the missing angle is 65° as the angles of a triangle always add up to 180° and the other 2 angles total 115°. This is something you could do at home when helping with maths homework and/or talking about maths: ask your child questions like how do you know that is the bigger number? Can you prove your answer is correct? How? etc.