Manorside Academy

Maths

At Manorside Academy, we aim to ensure all pupils are proficient mathematicians. We want to create a culture of deep understanding, confidence and competence in maths – a culture that produces strong, secure learning and real progress. No matter what their starting points, we help pupils to achieve excellence. A clearly structured teaching and learning process based on real life applications for mathematical concepts ensures that children master each mathematical concept securely and deeply. For each year group, the curriculum is broken down into core concepts and taught in units. A unit divides into smaller learning steps which are delivered in daily lessons. Step by step, strong foundations of cumulative knowledge and understanding are built. 

We use White Rose Hub to support with planning and resources and mostly follow their overview for each year group, making adjustments based on regular Assessment for Learning. 

To ensure pupils at Manorside Academy become fluent, proficient mathematicians whilst developing the ability to apply these skills to real life contexts, we use the following rigorous teaching strategies:

White Rose Maths Scheme of Learning

White Rose is a Scheme of Learning that we use to support our planning, resourcing and teaching across our school. WRM brings together a team of highly experienced and passionate maths teaching experts to train, guide, help and support teaching staff. At Manorside Academy, we do not explicitly use this Scheme of Learning, it is considered more of a tool that staff can refer to that will support with their high-quality teaching and effective scaffolding within the lesson. Alongside this, staff also have access to Power Maths and NCETM resources to support their scaffolding and challenge.

Staff CPD

To ensure the quality of teaching is the best it can be, we have invested in the White Rose Maths CPD package which offers a range of professional development courses to support staff understanding of knowledge of a range of strategies to use when teaching maths. This includes course on the CPA Approach, Bar Modelling, Thinking Through Variation and Reasoning & Problem Solving. Through planning these into our school CPD programme, we can ensure that staff feel equipped to be able to support pupils across the Primary Age range as effectively as possible. This also ensures that any new members of staff can receive the same level of training as staff members that have been at the school for longer.

The Maths Lead also offers provides ongoing CPD specific to the needs to the school and the staff to ensure the coaching and training provided is as purposeful as possible.
As well as offering specific maths CPD, our CPD programme ensures that staff continuously develop their understanding of cognition & learning and the importance of retrieval across all subjects to support pupils in strengthening their long-term memory, different schemas and being able to recall learning effectively when needed.

Highly effective Teaching & Assessment

We believe that the characteristics of effective teaching in maths are a mixture of:

  • formative assessment with a whole class, group and individual discussions
  • questioning in the classroom that probes and helps to engineer discussions and scaffold understanding;
  • a talk rich environment where children are taught how to articulate explanations and justify their thinking with a focus on ‘how did you get there’
  • dedicated time within lessons to complete independent, focused practise
  • relevant, meaningful, challenging and worthwhile tasks that are memorable (Bartram, 2017);
  • using cooperative learning strategies to encourage pupils to here different mathematical approaches and to mirror the way maths is done outside the classroom – people with different strengths work together to solve real-world problems.
  • a focus on exposing weaknesses and misconceptions to upgrade understanding
  • summative assessment targeting the specific areas of the maths curriculum that have been taught to assess pupils knowledge, application skills and understanding

To ensure the teaching & learning of maths is effective and promotes strong progress, the members of SLT ensure that the consistent approach of all staff to teaching maths is based upon the most up to date research (see Improving Maths EEF Guidance Summary below).

All staff have access to maths skills progression documents which support staff in their knowledge of how specific skills progress throughout the school, how work can be differentiated effectively, mathematical concepts that have been taught previously to support with retrieval and the learning journey the pupils have been on.

Pupils are assessed continuously through high-quality questioning, carefully designed lessons & tasks and observations from teachers. Summative assessment happens regularly through the use of entry and exit assessments. It also happens through termly White Rose Summative tests, which is then logged on DC Pro. Using a range of ways of assessing pupils gives staff a broad picture of the understanding of all their pupils, as well as enabling teachers to zoom in on the individual needs of specific pupils. Staff then use this information to guide their lessons and interventions to ensure gaps are addressed swiftly. 

Practical Resources

Each classroom is equipped with a set of dedicated practical maths resources. This ensures that staff can teach using the CPA approach and that pupils can develop their independence with using practical resources in maths. Pupils are encouraged to use the resources/take the approach that works best for them and staff nurture pupils to consider a range of methods to solve different maths questions. All children are given the opportunity to explore a range of resources to develop their independence and perseverance, not only in their maths lessons, but to apply these skills across the curriculum.

Practical resources are used as a scaffold across the school, with the aim being for all pupils to not need them. However, they are always readily available for pupils who may require them.

Classroom environments also support the teaching of maths; every classroom has a Maths Working Wall, with Steps to Success on and key vocabulary to support the pupils’ learning in that particular topic.  

Cross-Curricular Links

At Manorside Academy, we consider it vital that all pupils are able to apply their mathematical knowledge and understanding in a range of contexts. Some examples of how we ensure maths is embedded across the curriculum include programming in computing, co-ordinates in geography, recording graphs in science and measurements in DT. Skills are mapped out and cross referenced to ensure that pupils have a solid understanding of the mathematical concepts they are being asked to cover in other subjects.

Mathematical Vocabulary

To ensure there is consistency with the teaching and understanding of mathematical vocabulary, we have Maths Overviews which highlight which year groups specific vocabulary is introduced, taught and revisited in. These are in place to support staff, pupils and will also be introduced to parents to ensure there is consistency between the terms being used at school and at home. Key vocabulary is also displayed, explained and referred to throughout each lesson to develop pupil understanding and application. 

99 Club!

We use a whole school incentive to develop mastery and speed of recall with times tables called the 99 Club! This whole school approach encourages healthy competition across classes as well as ensuring children challenge themselves to be their previous score on a weekly basis. The 99 Club! takes place on a Friday morning, in maths lessons. Each child will work on a Club that is at their level to allow the child to focus on their individual gaps to help develop automaticity. There are displays across the school promoting this as well as regular celebrations in assembly and on social media. 

Home Learning

Maths home learning is set weekly across the school, with teachers ensuring that the homework being set relates closely to what is being learnt in school. This is because EEF Research shows that homework has a positive impact on average (+ 5 months) and that homework that is linked to classroom work tends to be more effective. As well as MyMaths, the school subscribes to TimesTable Rockstars that pupils can access at home to develop their knowledge of times tables.