Intent

At Southwood, we deliver our mathematics curriculum to ensure it follows the key aims of the National Curriculum. We aim to ensure that all pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics and in number so that pupils develop solid conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.

Pupils at Southwood are taught to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, finding connections and establishing relationships whilst confidently using mathematical language. Our mathematics curriculum carefully sequences knowledge, concepts and procedures to build mathematical knowledge and skills systematically over time.

We are committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of maths in the wider world and that they are also able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in their lives in a range of different contexts. We want all children to enjoy mathematics and to developing children’s curiosity about the subject, as well as an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics.

Implementation

Southwood follows the principles behind ‘mastery in mathematics’- believing that all pupils need a deep understanding of the mathematics they are learning so that future mathematical learning is built on solid foundations. 

Primarily we follow Power Maths which is developed with the 5 key principles of ‘maths for mastery’ at its core: fluency, mathematical thinking, representation and structure, coherence, variation. The school is on an exciting journey with the North East London Maths Hub, embedding these principles.

At the heart of Power Maths is a clearly structured teaching and learning process that helps us make certain that every child masters each maths concept securely and deeply. For each year group, the curriculum is broken down into core concepts, taught in units. A unit divides into smaller learning steps – lessons. Step by step, strong foundations of cumulative knowledge and understanding are built.

Whilst the majority of pupils are taught the same content at the same pace, pupils are still appropriately supported with their learning to fill gaps or challenged in their learning to gain depth of understanding and proficiency. Teacher/pupil interaction explores, in detail, how answers were obtained, why the method/strategy worked, and what might be the most efficient method. Teachers reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards in mathematics. Practice and consolidation play a central role. Carefully designed variation within this builds fluency and understanding of underlying mathematical concepts. Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual and procedural knowledge and assess children regularly to identify those requiring intervention.

At Southwood, we recognise that the practice of mental and written arithmetic skills are crucial in order to keep calculation skills fresh. Weekly arithmetic lessons are used to teach children how to retain facts and become fluent in written methods of calculations outside of the Power Maths lessons, with the intention of freeing up the working memory so that pupils can focus on the problem solving and reasoning elements of the unit being taught.

In addition to arithmetic lessons, students partake in weekly ‘fluent in five’ practise, three times a week. Children are given exactly 5 minutes to complete the set of questions with the number of questions provided in each challenge increasing as the year progresses, so that children develop their speed and fluency. 

Teachers at Southwood aim to ensure that throughout the school pupils are given opportunities for:

• practical activities and mathematical games
• problem solving
• investigations
• individual, paired, group and whole class discussions and activities
• open and closed tasks
• a range of methods of calculating 
• working with computers as a mathematical tool

Impact

The impact of our curriculum on pupils’ development of mathematical knowledge and skills are measured using formative and summative assessments. Regular and ongoing assessment by teachers and the use of nationally benchmarked assessments informs teaching, as well as interventions, to support and enable progress and improve outcomes. Summative assessments are undertaken termly in mathematics and in-school moderation of teachers’ assessments is conducted by year group teams, phase leaders and senior leaders, as well as externally with schools within the Local Authority. In Early Years, a mixture of child-initiated and quality teacher-led learning enables pupils to progress to achieving the Early Learning Goals in mathematics.

At the end of KS2 we aim for pupils to be fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics with a conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. Pupils will 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. Pupils will be able to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language. Upon completion of Year 6, our curriculum enables pupils to be fully prepared and equipped to successfully continue their mathematical learning journey at secondary school and in their later lives, evidenced through pupil’s recorded learning and End of Key Stage achievement in line with National Benchmarks. 

Home Learning at Southwood

Each year group will provided a half termly overview detailing each week’s task. These will also be shared on Class Dojo.

White Rose booklets are used with links to supporting videos.

Times Table Rock Stars

When it comes to times tables, speed AND accuracy are important – the more facts a child remembers, the easier it is for them to complete harder calculations. Times Table Rock Stars is a fun and challenging programme designed to help children master the times tables.

Research shows that daily practise is the best strategy for children to learn these important facts.  Short bursts of daily practise are much more effective than spending hours once a week. We ask pupils to login for 5-10 minutes a day.

Achievements are celebrated on our TTRS wall of fame display as well as in celebration assemblies. These are monitored and updated with the help of our TTRS ambassadors.

Times table fact of the fortnight

To keep momentum up and reinforce the importance of knowing your tables we have a times table fact of the fortnight for KS1 and KS2.  These are displayed all around the school. We want children to see the facts and the corresponding visual representations EVERYHWHERE they go. So, toilet doors, corridors and classroom doors all get plastered with the images. 

Maths in the playground 

Measure is sometimes a concept that pupils struggle with, mainly because they don’t get the chance to practise the skills with hands on experience enough.  Bringing it into the playground and making it fun is a great opportunity to improve pupil knowledge and understanding. 

Each week there are two tables on the playground, one on length and one on mass, that are themed and resourced using the veg of the week from the 'Eat them to Defeat them' programme. It is lead by our TTRS ambassadors and any willing students. They help their peers to practice how to measure, compare amounts, add and subtract: lengths (m/cm/mm) and mass (kg/g).

Our children are loving the new maths on the playground at lunch times! Please help make maths fun and improve knowledge and understanding by practising measures with your children at homes. This can be done through cooking, decorating or investigating capacity at bath times; using various sized containers and helping them to read scales with different intervals.