Our Vision for Mathematics

At Freegrounds Infant School we believe that all children have the right to learn, use and master key mathematical concepts that form the foundation of a high quality education. By providing rich mathematical learning environments and opportunities children will be able to explore mathematics, make links in their learning and value the purpose for it. Through the use of a broad range of resources, representations and technologies our mathematics curriculum will challenge and develop fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills.

Teaching and Learning

EYFS:

The children will be taught skills, knowledge and strategies as detailed in the Early Years Foundation Stage Guidance. Our skilled EYFS team provide frequent and varied opportunities to build and apply on the children's mathematical understanding. Children will develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built. In addition, they will receive rich opportunities to develop their spatial reasoning skills across all areas of mathematics including shape, space and measures. The children will be supported to develop positive attitudes and interests in mathematics, look for patterns and relationships, spot connections, ‘have a go’, talk to adults and peers about what they notice and not be afraid to make mistakes. Although discrete sessions are planned where the teacher may introduce, explore or extend a concept with the whole class or small group, the Curriculum in EYFS follows a child initiated approach through the use of Discovery Time, where children are given the freedom to make choices about the direction of their learning and the resources they use to facilitate it. During Discovery Time, using their knowledge of the pupils, prior assessment and by gauging the learning taking place in front of them, adults will interact with the pupils to take their learning forward. Adults then record children’s progress in mathematics on the assessment grids within the classroom and share their observations during planning meetings and where applicable recorded on Tapestry. 

KS1:

The children will be taught skills, knowledge and strategies as detailed in The National Curriculum. The principal focus of mathematics teaching in key stage 1 is to ensure that pupils develop confidence and mental fluency with whole numbers, counting and place value. This involves working with numerals, words and the four operations, including with practical resources. At this stage, pupils will develop their ability to recognise, describe, draw, compare and sort different shapes and use the related vocabulary. Teaching will also involve using a range of measures to describe and compare different quantities such as length, mass, capacity/volume, time and money. Pupils will practise reading and spelling mathematical vocabulary, at a level consistent with their increasing word reading and spelling knowledge at key stage 1. Mathematics will be taught both as a discrete subject and as part of integrated project work. There will be five discrete planned lessons a week. Problem solving opportunities will be planned into each unit of work. At Freegrounds Infant School we use flexible grouping in mathematics. This is because children may be less confident or skilled in one area of mathematics (for example subtraction), but more confident and skilled in another, (for example money). As such with fixed grouping children are limited by what they are able to achieve through the group itself. At the start of each unit of work the class teacher will carry out an initial assessment to identify what pupils are already able to achieve in the subject and what they need to learn next. This assessment will be used to plan the learning experiences for the next day. Throughout the lesson, teachers will give verbal feedback and assess the children’s understanding. This will enable them to offer extra support or challenge where needed.

Mathematics Policy

Curriculum Map

At Freegrounds Infant School we have adopted a phased approach to the teaching and learning of skills and knowledge in Mathematics. This is in line with the Hampshire Assessment Model. The below Year One and Year Two overviews set out what is learnt during each Milestone. 

Progression in Calculation

Maths Challenge Booklets

At Freegrounds Infant School, we have introduced our Maths Challenge Booklets as part of our home learning. Here is a video explaining the reason behind them, how to complete them and what to do when they are finished.