Wellhouse Junior and Infant School

At the Heights Federation we love to learn about Maths. We follow a mastery approach to teaching maths- we are currently working with the Yorkshire Maths Hub to become a specialist maths school in our own right. The mastery approach follows the CPA approach- 

Concrete- Giving the pupils a chance to use real materials, tactile resources such as: cubes, compare bears, Dienes, bricks, Lego anything and everything can be used here. Further up the school pupils use concrete materials to represent other numbers or larger numbers than one. 

Pictorial- In this pupils are encouraged to draw their understanding. Pupils can draw bar models, circles, squares; however they decide to represent the problem they are working on- as it is about the pupils being able to share their reasoning and workings out in their way.

Abstract- The abstract concept is the way we all know, numbers. These are an obscure concept to some that does not know that the number 5 means 5 objects. This is why this is often the last area to be covered in our teaching because pupils need to understand the oneness of one, which is learnt through discussion and play with objects.

We also split our teaching into 3 strands to match the primary curriculum:

Fluency- This is the basic understanding of a mathematical concept and being able to do this at speed- adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, times tables, number bonds- the underpining concepts of maths.

Reasoning- This is being able to explain your understanding of maths, for example: John says that every number that is a multiple of 5 ends in a 5. Is he correct, yes or no? Explain your answer. In this question we would expect the pupils to say John is not correct because a multiple of 5 can also end in a 0. This is the application of the fluency understanding.

Problem Solving- This is being able to break down a written problem and use the fluency methods and reasoning understanding to find a solution- this can start very young, through number stories all the way up to multi step code breaking problems. 

Our main aim of the curriculum is to make sure that our pupils love maths; have the skills to succeed beyond our provision and are able to face any mathematical problem and give it a go using the toolkit we have taught them.

Our Maths curriculum at the Federation is very closely linked to a popular scheme produced by the White Rose Maths Hub. The overview of the curriculum allows our teachers to ensure curriculum coverage whilst also revisting key concepts regularly. Please find below the curriculum maps for the respective year groups along with the objectives they are aiming to cover each week.

Below you will find a wide range of Maths resources to support your child's learning. We advocate that you help your child practice what we term 'number sense' - strategies to help improve children's mathematical fluency.

The policies outline how we, as a school, appproach the teaching of the 4 main mathemetical operations. This can be extremely useful when you are wondering how to support your child's learning at home and linking this to what they will be being shown in school at the time.

Addition Calculation Policy
Division Calculation Policy
Multiplication Calculation Policy
Subtraction Calculation Policy
Bar Modelling Supporting Document 

Federation Progression Maps.zip