Maths

Our vision is to ensure all children will leave Wybers Wood Academy with an enthusiastic, excited and confident approach to maths – empowered with the mathematical skills to achieve throughout their lifetime.

Our aim is for children at Wybers Wood Academy to have the ability to adapt their mathematical knowledge and strategies to a variety of situations, problems and challenges with growing fluency and enjoyment. They will be able to articulate their ideas and thoughts using a range of mathematical language, in a reasoned and logical manner.

We will achieve this by providing a rich and diverse mathematical curriculum that makes links across mathematical concepts and all other curriculum subjects where possible. Children will have the opportunity to learn maths in a range of contexts and environments. Our primary mathematical teaching strategy follows the White Rose Maths programme of study using a mastery approach and this is complemented with the Same Day Intervention strategy.

We have adopted a mastery approach for the teaching of mathematics. This allows all pupils to move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. Underpinning this, is the belief that all pupils can achieve in maths. It will maximise the potential of every pupil’s ability and academic achievement. It will develop their confidence

Our main aims for all pupils are:

  • To become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics.
  • To be able to reason mathematically
  • To successfully solve problems by applying their mathematics knowledge

Our intent is that pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged. They will be offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding. This is done through the Same Day Intervention approach.

Mathematical skills are embedded within maths lessons. They are developed throughout the school consistently over time. We are committed to ensuring that mathematics mastery places emphasis on building essential knowledge and skills in mathematics year on year. We ensure pupils have access to a range of physical, manipulative and pictorial resources to help them apply their learning. Pupils who have an understanding of how maths is essential to many aspects of everyday life.

We strive to have a culture where the pupils have a love of maths. We do this by inspiring pupils’ curiosity about the subject through challenges and the wider curriculum.

We encourage and develop our pupils’ knowledge of times tables. We introduce exciting ways to learn these facts, including using Times Tables Rock Stars. The pupils enjoy participating and challenging themselves and others across the school and other Delta academies. The use of supporting resources helps to build competitiveness and drive the pupils to learn these basic skills. These are then woven into their daily life within school and it is our intent that pupils are fluent in times tables up to 12 by year 4.

In EYFS, pupils are provided with opportunities to develop their fluency. and introduce reasoning and problem-solving skills in number, shape, space and measure. They will use provision to master these areas of learning. They will apply this to a wider curriculum to observe and discuss mathematical findings in their play. We want our pupils to be confident and happy learners and set the foundations for their learning to build on this in later years.

In Key Stage 1, our aim is to ensure that pupils build on the fluency, reasoning and problem solving. we want them to have confidence and mental fluency with number, space and measure. Pupils will have different opportunities within the sessions to use a range of methods that allow them to be effective learners. They will move to Key Stage 2 with the next step of applying their knowledge to more complex problem solving. This means they can then begin to apply to deepen their understanding.

In Key Stage 2, our intent is that pupils will build on their prior learning to help them master approaches and solve sophisticated problems. We ensure that all pupils continue through the key stage, on their mastery journey, with curiosity and excitement. We ensure this is frequently applied in their lessons. Our mission is for all pupils to successfully leave our academy prepared to continue on the mastery journey into Key Stage 3 and beyond.

Same Day Intervention Strategy

The Same Day Intervention Strategy is a trust-wide approach to develop fluency, reasoning and problem-solving skills in maths. It takes place every day across two sessions each lasting approximately 30 minutes. This approach to mathematics teaching aims to ensure that no pupil is left behind, built on a culture that everyone can achieve. The lesson is structured to allow marking and assessment time in the middle of the session, in order to provide appropriate intervention immediately to address any misconceptions as well as provide appropriate challenge.

The core principles of the Same Day Intervention strategy are as follows:

Teaching input and high quality modelling to the whole class. Each concept is modelled step-by-step to ensure all learners can keep up. After modelling using an ‘I do, we do, you do’ approach, pupils answer some questions independently. This whole section lasts approximately 30 minutes and promotes active collaborative and independent learning.

Pupils then have approximately 30 minutes away from their teacher (attending an assembly and break) while the teacher marks their answers using a rapid marking code. During this break, the teacher can group the children based on which pupils need that extra support, and which learners need to develop their depth of understanding.

The remaining 30 minutes of the lesson is an intervention session, where the teacher groups children together based on how they answered the independent questions so that they can efficiently address common misconceptions. The aim is to use the additional support to ensure that all children reach a certain level of understanding by the end of the day, preventing an achievement gap from forming.

Summary of lesson structure

  • Whole class input teaching – I do, we do, you do – high quality modelling. Differentiation through support, use of manipulatives and questioning.
  • Diagnostic placement task – approximately 5 progressively challenging questions at age-related expectations (ARE), including varied fluency leading to reasoning questions.
  • Marking time either with the children (mainly KS2) or away from the children to assess and group pupils.
  • Lesson break
  • Same day intervention session – immediate intervention or challenging practice for pupils.

Bronze – reteaching and intervening to ensure fluency is secure.

Silver – Practising skills and applying them to reasoning and problem-solving questions (at ARE).

Gold – Deeper challenging problem-solving questions.

Platinum – open-ended greater depth questions designed to be tackled collaboratively with other students.

Rationale for the Same Day Intervention Strategy

The strategy was developed in order to support and develop teaching and learning across our trust. The strategy aims to:

  • Provide a systematic approach to mathematics teaching.
  • To improve outcomes for every child with regards to mathematics.
  • To improve attainment in mathematics.
  • To have a positive impact on children’s attitudes and resilience towards mathematics.
  • Ensure that all children across the trust are exposed to challenging activities based on their individual starting points and support children in becoming inquisitive problem solvers.
  • Allow for better collaboration both within individual schools in year groups and across academies to share best practice.
  • Reduce teacher workload through shared planning and resourcing.
  • Fast paced effective marking to support pupil progress.
  • Draw upon the expertise of teachers across the academy trust to support colleagues.

Further support in Maths:

For those children requiring further support in maths, we use the trust’s Ready to Progress strategy. This aims to:

  • Identify and eliminate gaps in learning for all pupils
  • Address misconceptions for all pupils
  • Provide consistent and informed interventions for all pupils
  • Meet the individual needs of all pupils
  • Improve outcomes for all pupils

It is set of fluid, short-term interventions linked to the current learning in the classroom which is bespoke for each individual pupil based on their needs. It is used in addition to the daily maths lesson as detailed above, and is designed to close gaps in learning quickly.