Mathematics
Intent
At Bishop Creighton Academy we recognise the significance of high quality maths teaching and learning that is both challenging and thought-provoking. Mathematics is a creative and highly interconnected 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.
Implementation
At Bishop Creighton Academy we embrace the Mastery approach to teaching mathematics. Our long term planning adopts the White Rose maths scheme of learning approach which embraces the national curriculum aims. The White Rose guidance supports our teachers in planning and delivering lessons that help pupils to become enthusiastic and creative mathematicians.
Teachers draw on a CPA approach to help pupils understand mathematical concepts and make connections between different representations and models. Within maths lessons, great emphasis is places on mathematical language and questioning, so pupils can discuss what they are doing, develop their ideas and explain their reasoning. We recognise the importance of not just focusing on the answer but instead challenging children to make rich connections across distinct mathematical domains and to use their strong factual and procedural knowledge to help them solve problems.
Fluency is the fundamental of mathematics; teachers provide children with weekly arithmetic practise with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. Reasoning is a part of every lesson, and the use of Talking Partners enables the children to verbalise and discuss their understanding, therefore developing their understanding and reasoning skills. It is not a stand-alone skill and is intertwined into daily tasks. Problem-solving is injected into all areas of mathematics at BCA and allows children the opportunity to apply their mathematical skills in ‘real life’ contexts to become increasingly sophisticated problem solvers.
To support the development of fundamental mathematical understanding, pupils have access to a range of online programmes that provide opportunity for fun, engaging, age-appropriate fluency practise. TTRockstars, Numbots and Maths Shed are used regularly by pupils at school and at home.
Impact
At Bishop Creighton we strive to ensure all our learners become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, reason mathematically and solve a range of ‘real life’ maths problems in a relevant context in all of the domains. We endeavour to ensure that children develop an enthusiastic and creative attitude towards mathematics that will stay with them throughout their lives and ensure they have the skills to be future ready.
...pupils are able to solve a range of fraction problems and develop mathematical reasoning. High-quality questioning encourages them to think deeply about the different ways in which they can solve problems. Pupils are given sufficient time to ‘puzzle’ over problems that they find hard. Additional groups inside the classroom are given excellent support to work at their own level. Ofsted, Feb 2018
National Curriculum Mathematics Programmes of Study: