Maths at Westonzoyland
In maths, we aim to deliver high-quality teaching and learning that provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the power of maths, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
At Westonzoyland Primary School and Pre-school we aim to encourage all children to become:
Mental and Oral Sessions
Children should be receiving mental and oral maths sessions for at least 10mins per day. This may be as part of the maths lesson (as a starter) or as a stand-alone session. The aim of these sessions is to teach mental calculation strategies for fluency when working with numbers.
The below objectives show which skills should be covered in these mental and oral sessions. Mixed classes may dip between their two year groups as long as each objective has been covered across the term.
Activities to cover these objectives may be explicit teaching and modelling, quickfire questions, games and puzzles or application to problems. There should be a good range of activities across the week and across the term. These sessions do not need to be recorded into books, however jottings on whiteboards should be encouraged to aid calculations.
Times Tables
A knowledge of times tables underpins many mental and written calculations and as such, we feel it is extremely important that time be spent on learning these facts by heart.
In Key Stage 1, children begin their times table journey by counting in jumps. They then learn to find ‘lots of’ concrete and pictorial objects. As children progress from Year 2, they start to learn times table facts: ‘2 times 4 is 8’ as they have the clear understanding behind it. These facts can be learnt in a variety of ways. Examples can be found: https://www.transum.org/Tables/Times_Tables.asp
The tables should be learnt in the following order: 2, 10, 5, 3, 4, 6, 8, 7, 9, 11, 12.
Lesson Structure
We follow the National Curriculum objectives as well as our Westonzoyland Calculation Policy. We use Hamilton Trust to support teachers with planning for mixed-year groups as well as developing a spiral curriculum, where skills are revisited frequently throughout the year to aid recall and retention.
When an objective is approached, children should begin with fluency practice - using a taught strategy to answer simple, repetitive questions. They should then move on to 'Application' - using the strategy to answer the questions in different ways and applying this skill to worded and abstract problems. Finally, they should be able to explain their reasoning to show a strong understanding of the objective.
Fluency | Application | Reasoning |
10 + 5 = 15 10 + 7 = 17 15 = ? + 10 | I have 5 apples. I buy 10 more. How many apples do I now have? | When I add 10 to a number, only the tens column changes. True or false? Why? |
Some objectives will progress through the stages quicker than others and this will depend on the children and if they have used the strategy previously. All children, regardless of ability, should be given access to all stages throughout their lessons however children shouldn’t move on too quickly if not secure. Teachers will use their assessment of the children to determine how they move through the National Curriculum objectives.