ATW Maths

 

Dorothy Vaughan

Mathematician and “Human Computer” who helped NASA with their space missions from 1943 to 1971

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems.  It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment.

Atwood aims to provide a high-quality mathematics education in order to provide a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Atwood follows the National Curriculum for mathematics and we aim 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.

Our mathematics curriculum is broken down into the following strands:

Number

• Number and place value
• Addition and subtraction
• Multiplication and division
• Fractions

Measurement

Geometry

• Properties of shapes
• Position and direction

Statistics

Atwood’s over-arching aims for mathematics are that our children will:

• Enjoy the subject and study it with a sense of confidence and achievement
• Achieve a high standard in numeracy and gain a secure foundation of knowledge, skills and concepts
• Secure mathematical skills and knowledge accompanied by a quick recall of basic number facts
• Use and apply these skills with confidence and understanding in real life problems and within mathematics itself
• Have an awareness of the use of mathematics in the world beyond the classroom
• Develop understanding through a process of enquiry and experience
• Develop persistence through sustained learning over a period of time
• Develop an ability to think logically and to use mathematical language with confidence and understanding
• Have an appreciation of mathematical patterns and relationships
• Have a positive attitude towards mathematics as an interesting and creative subject
• Gain experience of working independently, investigating their own ideas and developing their own mental and written methods

Our Approach

We are developing our use of a mastery approach to the learning of maths where all children have the opportunity to develop their fluency, problem solving and reasoning skills within each lesson. We believe all children can achieve in maths and we encourage children to think of themselves as mathematicians.  At the beginning of each year, the children do “A week of  Inspirational Maths” from the YouCubed website. This explores different ways of thinking about maths and how we each learn or see maths differently. We also apply principles of open differentiation so that children can be independent in their learning choices.

We are guided by the latest research into the best ways to teach maths. We work with a local Maths Hub and the maths lead is a professional development lead for the NCETM and training to lead a Maths Hub. We use a range of resources to support planning, but the learning is sequenced in to blocks which each build on previous learning. We use White Rose schemes of work, Maths No Problem and Deepening Understanding resources to support planning.

Atwood’s use of ‘Mathletics’

A proportion of the voluntary school fund enables Atwood to offer for every child, from Year 1 to Year 6, a personal password to give them access to the award winning Mathletics website.  Mathletics enables the children to play mathematical games and take part in mathematical challenges; it is also a great resource that inspires the children to rehearse their mathematics at home!  Please click here to take you to the Mathletics website.

‘They didn’t teach it like that when I was at primary school!’

Here at Atwood, we value the importance of parents at home in supporting their children with mathematics home-learning and challenges but we also recognise that methods in mathematics teaching are always evolving.  To support our parents, we hold regular mathematics sessions for parents and carers so that they know our approach to such things as the progression in calculations.

We also recognise that all children need a wide range of strategies which are different, accurate and reliable.  We have developed a Progression in Calculation document which can be accessed here which shows how we provide our children with a ‘tool-kit’ of methods to enable them to calculate confidently, efficiently and accurately.

Some of these methods will look different to the methods you may have been taught as a child.  Please feel free to come and speak with one of the team to ask questions about the methods or do come along to an information session.