At Cirencester Primary School we teach Maths following the National Curriculum. The programmes of study within the  curriculum are arranged into the following areas:

• Number
  • Number and place value
  • Addition and subtraction
  • Multiplication and division
  • Fractions
  • Ratio and proportion (Year 6)
  • Algebra (Year 6)
• Measurement
• Geometry
  • Properties of shape
  • Position and direction
• Statistics (from Year 2 upwards)

Maths Overview Statement

Mathematics continues to focus really strongly in our school curriculum.

Our maths curriculum fulfils the statuary requirements of the National curriculum. It is comprehensive, as it includes vocabulary development, oracy work, prioritises and promotes pupils’ fluency and conceptual mathematical development, application of skills to new situations, and more open ended reasoning and problem solving opportunities.  This gives all pupils, including those with special educational needs, the knowledge they need to become confident and accomplished mathematicians. The structure of our maths teaching is designed to allow all pupils to access our full curriculum offer.

We look at research and evidence-based approaches when designing our maths curriculum. We have particularly focused on information and recommendations made using a mastery approach to maths as stated by our GLOW Maths hub lead personnel. As maths leaders we believe this mastery approach to maths is right for our pupils at CPS because;

1. All pupils are exposed to the same quality first teaching of the same maths units together in class.
2. Mathematical vocabulary is developed alongside mathematical concepts.
3. All pupils practice key skills regularly, to embed mathematical fluency (alongside conceptual understanding).
4. All pupils learn to deepen their mathematical understanding of key concepts by using and applying their learned knowledge to different tasks.
5. All pupils are exposed to problem solving activities, using their age related maths skills, which helps to improve computational skills and deepen their understanding further by applying their recent and prior knowledge to new mathematical questions.

The resource we have selected to help us deliver this mastery approach is Can Do Maths. We chose Can Do Maths because it sets out curriculum content to cover in each unit of work in a simple, visual and progressive way where the steps of progress in understanding are manageable on a lesson by lesson basis. This design meets the needs of all pupils so that they can move through units of work successfully with secure understanding stored in long term memory so that they know and remember more over time. As maths leaders, we are agile to the needs of all pupils in the class, and teachers are encouraged to use the Can Do resource flexibly.

Our ambition is that by the time pupils leave our school, they are accomplished, confident mathematicians.

To meet this ambition recent developments have included:

1. Re-structuring of our EYFS curriculum to ensure progression and continuity in mathematics as set out in the new EYFS Framework
2. Priority focus on number in EYFS and KS1 using a programme supported by our involvement in the GLOW Maths hub on developing mastery in number for EYFS and KS1.
3. In class marking/assessment of the daily maths fluency tasks to address pupils who require additional same day support to achieve learning intentions.
4. Same day interventions to support all pupils to either secure further the fluency tasks of the day or b) address gaps in knowledge due to missed learning as a result of the pandemic.

To ensure consistency in planning and day to day provision the school has implemented the following:

1. The full range of national curriculum content is coherently planned, sequenced, and explicitly taught in lessons in every year group.
2. The main resource we use for this purpose is taken from Can Do Maths
3. The lesson design is rooted in the aim of developing pupils’ procedural fluency (Fluency) conceptual understanding (Twist It) and mathematical thinking (Deepen It) (The design also ensures the aims of the National Curriculum are a feature of every mathematics lesson and supports differentiation by depth rather than moving too quickly onto new content.)
4. To help all pupils remember key knowledge related to the maths lessons, key vocabulary is provided to help define key concepts,
5. Next steps at the start of a unit of work would be:

• To make sure that teachers make explicit reference to pupils to show how prior knowledge connects to current learning using a Review and Connect approach.
• Ensure there is progression and continuity in using selected representations of mathematics (both manipulatives and visual tools) to develop and deepen mathematical understanding
• Explore further (e.g D.N. A) a framework to support pupils increased confidence with mathematical conversations.
• D = what do you know already (deduce)
• N= what do you notice (what is the mistake or misconception)
• A= what should the answer be
• In addition, regular stand-alone ‘Maths Meetings’ are designed to ensure all pupils have the opportunity to consolidate their mathematical understanding:

• Revisiting and embedding arithmetic skills
• Recalling and securing key number facts
• Deliberate practising of  current or previous learning
• Same / Next day ‘prevent the gap’ immediate intervention
• Focus on specific times table learning and practice in specific year groups
• Use ‘Retrieve It’ tasks from Can do Maths to ensure all pupils regularly retrieve previously taught maths content to help secure key knowledge into the long term memory

Assessment in Maths

Teachers assess knowledge, progress and understanding in maths by:

• Listening (to pupils’ explanations), talking (about their mathematical thinking) and posing questions (to interrogate fluency, conceptual understanding and mathematical thinking).
• Reviewing all pupils’ work.

Three times a year, all pupils undertake a summative assessment in Maths, using NFER Maths assessments. Teachers use the Question Level Analysis feature to identify any gaps in learning.

This assessment information enables teachers to adapt their teaching to the needs of the class, and, for some individuals who have gaps in key maths skills; teachers can intervene with targeted support.

How our Maths curriculum has been adapted (including the ongoing impact of Covid 19) to ensure all pupils are able to achieve well by:

-Additional support for key individuals- namely

• Daily targeted practice on key skills.
• Fluidity on which pupils receive Same Day Intervention based on current daily performance.
• Number Stacks intervention used to plug gaps in learning for identified pupils.
• Inclusion in whole class times table work.
• Inclusion in whole class guided practice.
• Inclusion in everyone in class studying the same concept in maths at the same time.
• All pupils receive QfT from the class teacher.
• SEND pupils receive targeted support from both the TA and the class teacher throughout the week.

Catch Up in Maths

• All pupils had access to daily mathematical learning material during partial school closures.
• We continued with our planned school curriculum throughout both lockdowns.
• Teachers recorded PowerPoint presentations for pupils, where they explained and modelled teaching as if the pupils were in class.  
• Times table tasks were set weekly using TT Rock Stars.
• TAs remained online after the live lessons to support pupils who needed extra help.

The impact of Covid restrictions on standards in maths has been noted, and Maths teachers have;

1. Identified any units of work not taught due to partial school closures, and set aside time this year to teach the prior knowledge required of pupils before teaching current age group content so no key content is lost or missed
2. Assessed pupils on return to school to see where gaps in understanding lie, and to use Maths Meetings to re-teach this unfamiliar and not secure content
3. Current Y1 pupils have not completed a full year of reception teaching, and standards in maths has been affected. We have continued to implement our continuous provision model of teaching for Y1 from January 2022, where pupils are taught every morning in small adult led targeted groups for reading, writing and maths, rather than as a whole class, which is dependent on independent learning skills which are not yet developed enough due to missed schooling last year.

Maths at Home

We purchased TT Rock Stars using Catch Up funding to enable pupils to engage with times table practice work at home. We have continued to use this approach as we found it an effective motivational resource to help engage pupils with times table practice work.

Directly linking our Maths with our Oracy Curriculum

1. As Maths leaders, we believe in the importance of oracy and language work as pre-requisites for good learning in maths. Across the whole school, starting in EYFS, all maths learning involves discussions and explicit vocabulary work.
2. Our maths and oracy curriculum are aligned to ensure pupils can link key language skills together in order to explain their mathematical thinking. Pupils use the terms ‘agree, build and challenge’ to articulate their ideas clearly, and to avoid repeating what someone else has said.
3. Teachers use sentence stems to help pupils articulate their thinking.

Support from Maths Leaders

• Teachers have good knowledge of the maths curriculum they teach.

As Maths Leaders we provide support in the following ways:

• Termly monitoring and support for maths teaching.
• Planning is monitored to ensure content is sequential, logical, and set out in small steps of progression, and the ‘hook’ to engage interest is relevant to our pupils’ lives.
• Interests of the pupils is taken into account when selecting age appropriate Maths hooks.
• Additional and supplementary linked work, including times table and arithmetic practice, supports all pupils.
• Example lessons are modelled by Maths Leaders.
• TAs provided with CPD to enable them to support class maths sessions, Maths meetings and all maths interventions.
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Impact of our Maths Curriculum

• Pupils develop strong number knowledge.
• Pupils are familiar with a consistent approach to the teaching of maths, where commonality in language and lesson structure is secure across the school.
• Pupils can explain their mathematical thinking, including when mistakes are deliberately made by the Can Do characters.
• Pupils are using and understanding a wider repertoire of vocabulary in their maths talk.
• Pupils can talk about mathematical concepts they understand.
• Pupils are keen to engage in maths.
• All pupils, including SEND and PP, can apply what they know, and can do with increasing fluency and independence in maths as they progress through the school.
• Pupils tell us they love maths.
• More pupils volunteer to explain their work in maths lessons.
• Pupils are becoming more coherent, fluent and accurate when they explain their mathematical understanding.
• Teachers present subject matter clearly, promoting appropriate discussion.
• Teachers check understanding and misconceptions in maths lessons, and provide group and class feedback and will then adapt their future teaching as necessary. For example spending more or less time explaining key vocabulary.