How we teach maths at Titchfield Primary School

At Titchfield Primary School, our learning values- STRIVE- are embedded into our maths curriculum and children are given opportunities within each unit of work to demonstrate each one to help them develop into the best mathematician that they can be.

We use the Hampshire Maths team’s Long and medium term plans to structure our broad and balanced maths curriculum.  We also use the Hampshire unit plans as a basis for each unit of work within the medium term plans alongside resources from NCETM and White Rose.

Each unit of work will be a learning journey containing a balance of reasoning and problem solving (routine and non-routine) as well as opportunities for children to practise skills and build fluency in the number facts and skills for their year group.

At Titchfield, we teach maths using the CPA approach for all learners.  Children use concrete apparatus alongside pictorial representations, informal jottings (such as numberlines, part whole, bar models) and more formal recording to support their skills as they develop.  We use the Hampshire Number fact documents to ensure that all children are taught and practise the appropriate number facts for their year group.

We believe that children deepen their understanding by being able to explain their thinking, representing problems, puzzles and calculations in different ways, choosing from a range of strategies and doing more with fewer questions within a session.  One problem may last children several lessons of learning.  We use variation of tasks to further develop our curriculum in order to give all children a rich and deep maths experience.  When teaching problem solving, we teach children to use a range of heuristics in order to understand, represent and then solve the problem in an appropriate way.  Maths learning episodes follow the structure of I do, We do, You do.  ‘I do’ is where the teacher models the learning and the strategies to use.  The ‘we do’ is an example or examples when the teacher and the children work through a question or problem together, before ‘You do’- the children’s independent work, using the same method and strategies as modelled by the teacher and practised together. 

Working walls within the classroom environment reflect the units of work that are currently being taught and may also include vocabulary, number facts and visual aids for children to use to support their understanding and learning or an ‘I do’ completed by the teacher.  Flexible groupings are used to ensure that the needs of all children are met within a learning journey, Children self-assess their learning at the end of each session by completing their learning objective sticker.  They also correct/edit and improve their learning using purple pen as in the school marking policy.

In KS2, we use Fluent in 5, an arithmetic programme, 3 times a week to practise and reinforce mental and written strategies and develop fluency.

Times tables Rockstars (TTRocks) is used across KS2 (and introduced to Year 2 when appropriate) to encourage all of our learners to practice and develop fluency with the times tables facts (including deriving division).  Children have the opportunity to access TTRocks during learning time as well as at home. Numbots is used from Key Stage 1 to practise number bonds and facts.

Staff use the NCETM Subject knowledge resources to support their CPD alongside staff professional development meetings.