Programmes in Action

Programmes in Action

Mathematics

Programmes in Action

Contents:

The structure of a mathematics lesson

  • The mental maths session
  • The whole class teaching session
  • The group and / or individual work session
  • The Plenary

Grouping across the year groups

Weekly and unit planning

Assessment

Contribution of mathematics to teaching in other curriculum areas

Monitoring and Review of mathematics

Appendix

Mathematics

Programmes in Action

Mathematics is taught 5 times a week and each lesson is 45 – 60 minutes in duration.

The DBIS mathematics programme is structured around the renewed Primary National Numeracy Framework.

The Abacus and Abacus Evolve Scheme, Maths On Target, Level Up and Myimaths all support the NNS Framework and the learning and teaching of mathematics at DBIS

(Please refer to section 3 and 4 of the Maths Education Plan also.)

The structure of a mathematics lesson

The mental maths session

  • There should be a clear start and finish to this section.
  • It should be 8 –12 minutes long.
  • It should take place at the start of each maths lesson (5 days a week).
  • The mental maths section should be thoroughly planned.
  • There should be a variety of questioning. For example using a mixture of open and closed questions skilfully framed, adjusted and targeted to make sure that pupils of all abilities are involved – including SEN and ESL children.
  • Teachers should allow children appropriate time to answer questions.
  • There should be high expectations for all children.
  • All children should have the opportunity to attempt answering all questions.
  • All children should be seated so that they can clearly here and see the teacher.
  • The teacher should identify misconceptions and if they can be quickly corrected do so. Otherwise move on and address them at a later date.
  • Children should be enthusiastic and willing to attempt all questions.

The whole class teaching session

  • This section should come directly after the mental maths section and there should be a clear start and finish to it.
  • Direct teaching to the whole class should be no less than 15 minutes and no longer than 30 minutes.
  • The learning objectives should be shared with the children at the beginning of this section.
  • The teacher should demonstrate a thorough understanding and knowledge of the mathematical content of the lesson.
  • Work (including range of vocabulary) should be taken from the correct unit of the NNS for each particular age range. The only exceptions to this should be children with specific learning difficulties in mathematics or children who have gaps in their mathematical learning.
  • Work should be thoroughly planned and the teacher should have clear objectives and actively extend the children’s mathematical knowledge and understanding and challenge their thinking by building upon skills already acquired.
  • Wherever possible teachers should model ideas and link them to previous work and other areas of learning.
  • Students should be given clear instructions about what is expected from them.
  • The teacher should have high expectations for all children.

The group and / or individual work session

  • Practical and or written work should be on the same theme for the whole class.
  • Group work should be differentiated at no more than 3 levels of difficulty with focused teaching of one or two groups for part of the time.
  • Whole class investigations should allow for differentiation through extension activities and additional support for those groups or individuals who require it. Please steer clear of differentiation by volume.
  • All students should have easy access to and be taught how to use appropriate resources to aid their learning and to ensure that they are participating in the lesson.
  • All students should be on task.
  • Classroom assistants should be used effectively to aid students’ mathematical learning.
  • Teachers should make informal assessments throughout the lesson and then use this information in future planning.
  • Teachers should identify misconceptions and correct them.
  • There should be opportunities for teachers and students to demonstrate a variety of methods to one another and to explain their reasoning.
  • Wherever possible, mathematics should be linked to other curriculum areas and real life.
  • Throughout the lesson there should be positive feedback for individuals and groups.
  • Students should be encouraged to have a go and to share ideas and equipment with their peers before approaching the teacher.
  • Students should enjoy mathematics!

The Plenary

  • This section will come at the end of the mathematics lesson.
  • It will sum up and review the work covered during the maths lesson.
  • Homework may be given at this time.
  • Please refer to the PowerPoint presentation found on the share drive for further reference.
  • \\share\Curriculum\Maths\New Maths\Teaching a maths lesson.pps

Mathematics

Programmes in Action

Grouping across the year groups

Students from Year 3 to Year 6 are grouped by ability across the year group using the following methods and criteria;

  • Teachers must consult with previous year groups to gain understanding of the new students at the beginning of the school year.
  • The previous year’s maths assessments must be consulted before groupings are set
  • Every effort must be made to ensure that students are placed in the right group from the start
  • Teachers must seriously consider individual cases before moving students between groups. Moving to a higher ability group is fine but the consequences of a student moving to a lower group are more far reaching.
  • New students to DBIS - All new students must be thoroughly assessed before being placed in a group. Please ensure that you read previous school’s reports for background information but final decisions are made after internal assessments.

(Please refer to section 4, Maths Groupings, of the Maths Education Plan)

Mathematics

Programmes in Action

Weekly and unit planning

Maths short term planning is based on the units of work from the renewed Primary National Numeracy Strategy (NNS)

Templates for the 2 or 3 week planning sheets are provided for all teachers

The Learning objectives are already inserted on the sheets as are the student’s learning outcomes

Teachers must fill in the remaining columns:

  • Mental warm up
  • Whole class introduction
  • Independent / Group Focus and Activities
  • Plenary / Key Questions
  • Vocabulary – that can be taken straight from the NNS units of work

The independent / group work must be related to the learning objectives

Term Overview

All year groups are provided with a term over indicating when units of work must be taught

(Please refer to section 5, Planning, of the maths Education Plan)

Reference;

All unit plans are on the share drive – in Year Group folders

All weekly templates are also on the share drive

All term overviews can be found on the share drive

\\share\Curriculum\Maths\Teaching and Learning Maths\Planning\Year #

Mathematics

Programmes in Action

Assessment

The teaching and learning cycle

Teaching a unit of work will need careful initial and ongoing planning, informed by an assessment of children's learning. A cycle that supports this process in the Primary Framework for mathematics is set out below.

Assess – plan – teach – practise – apply – review

The cycle indicates the importance of undertaking some initial assessment at the start of the unit to monitor children's preparedness for the work. This initial assessment may indicate a need to revisit some earlier learning to refresh the knowledge, skills or understanding needed to ensure children cope with and make progress in the unit. Day-to-day assessment of children's achievements and progress over the unit will provide information about children's general attainment and progress and identify any children who might need additional support. Regular reviews provide opportunity to take stock of children's learning.

Reviews of learning are a key teaching and assessment tool. They can involve brief in-lesson pauses to determine whether children can recall some knowledge or a key idea, can share with one another the next steps in a calculation or can explain to their partner a strategy that demonstrates they are able to solve the problem. The reviews can be more substantial and take up a significant part of the lesson or form a plenary before some new learning is introduced. Such reviews are carefully planned with clear learning objectives in mind. The aim is to assess the depth of children's learning and use this information to plan the next steps. These reviews will involve probing questions, extended dialogue or a series of short activities that draw on past learning and incorporate use and application of the mathematics that has been taught.

Assessment for Learning (Ongoing, formative)

Assessment for Learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there

Assessment of Learning (Snapshot, summative)

Assessment of learning is any assessment that summarises where learners are at a given point in time – it provides a snapshot of what has been learned (in terms of both attainment and achievement)

Five key factors that improve learning through assessment:

  • Providing effective feedback to children
  • Actively involving children in their own learning
  • Adjusting teaching to take account of the results of assessment
  • Recognising the profound influence assessment has on the motivation and self-esteem of children, both of which are crucial to learning
  • Considering the need for children to be able to assess themselves and to understand how to improve.

Assessment of Learning timetable:

Term 1 – 2 assessments (mid term and end of term)

Term 2 – 1 assessment (end of term)

Term 3 – Year 1 – Final assessments

Year 2 – QCA end of Key Stage 1 Mathematics test (SATs)

Years 3-5 – QCA Optional mathematics tests

Year 6 – QCA end of Key Stage 2 Mathematics test (SATs)

All of the above tests are taken in June

Students will also undertake an Incas assessment in term 3.

(Please refer to section 6, Assessment, of the Mathematics Education Plan)

Mathematics

Programmes in Action

Contribution of mathematics to teaching in other curriculum areas

English

Mathematics contributes significantly to the teaching of English in our school by actively promoting the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. For example, we encourage students to read and interpret problems in order to identify the mathematics involved. The students explain and present their work to others during plenary sessions. Younger students enjoy stories and rhyme that rely on counting and sequencing. Older students encounter mathematical vocabulary, graphs and charts when using non-fiction texts.

Information and communication technology (ICT)

Students use and apply mathematics in a variety of ways when solving problems using ICT. Younger students use ICT to communicate results with appropriate mathematical symbols. Older students use it to produce graphs and tables when explaining their results or when creating repeating patterns, such as tessellations. When working on control, students use standard and non-standard measures for distance and angle. They use simulations to identify patterns and relationships.

(please refer to section 4, Mathematics and I.C.T, of the Maths Education Plan)

Personal, social and health education (PSHE) and citizenship

Mathematics contributes to the teaching of personal, social and health education, and citizenship. The work that students do outside their normal lessons encourages independent study and helps them to become increasingly responsible for their own learning. The planned activities that students do within the classroom encourage them to work together and respect each other’s views. We present older students with real-life situations in their work on the spending of money.

Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

The teaching of mathematics supports the social development of our students through the way we expect them to work with each other in lessons. We group students so that they work together, and we give them the chance to discuss their ideas and results. The study of famous mathematicians around the world contributes to the cultural development of our students.

Teaching mathematics to students with special needs

We teach mathematics to all students, whatever their ability. It is part of the school curriculum policy to provide a broad and balanced education to all students. We provide learning opportunities that are matched to the needs of students with learning difficulties. Work in mathematics takes into account the targets set for individual students in their Individual Education Plans (IEPs).

(Please refer to section 4, Targeted Support and Intervention, of the Maths Education Plan)

Mathematics

Programmes in Action

Monitoring and Review of mathematics

Monitoring of the standards of student’s work and of the quality of teaching in mathematics is the responsibility of the Deputy Principals, Maths Curriculum Team Leader and the Maths Curriculum Team. Their work also involves supporting colleagues in the learning and teaching of mathematics, being informed about current developments in the subject, and providing strategic leadership and direction for the subject in the school. The Primary Principal gives the School Principal an annual summary in which he evaluates strengths and weaknesses in the subject and indicates areas for further improvement.

Appendix

In this section you will find examples of:

  • A planning sheet – an example of planning
  • A maths overview for a term – an example

(please refer to section 3, Content, of the Maths Education Plan)

Reviewed and updated:

April 2013 – Daniel Philo.

April 2014 – Daniel Philo.

End of unit self-assessment
Beginning:
Read scales that use integers with intervals of 5, 10 and 20 accurately. Pupils use standard units to measure length, ‘weight’, capacity and time in a range of contexts. They read times on the analogue clock and the date from a calendar. They choose and use a range of units and instruments, interpreting, with reasonable accuracy, numbers on a range of measuring instruments.
Pupils extract and interpret information presented in simple tables and lists. They collect, display and interpret data in pictograms and bar charts in order to communicate information. / Developing:
Read scales that use integers with intervals of 100, 1000, ½ and 1/4. Pupils understand the relationship between metric units. They begin to make sensible estimates using standard units in relation to everyday situations. They understand and use the twelve and twenty-four hour clocks.
Pupils collect, group and order discrete data with given class intervals. They represent and interpret data using a range of graphs, tables and diagrams. They construct and interpret pictograms where the symbol may represent a group of units. They interrogate a simple data base for one criterion. They understand and use simple vocabulary associated with probability, such as certain, uncertain, impossible,likely, unlikely and fair. / Mastering:
Read scales that use integers with intervals of any interval with integers and complex fractions and decimals. Pupils understand and use scale in the context of maps
and drawings. They are familiar with the Imperial units still in common use. They convert one metric unit to another. They understand and use negative numbers in context. They use timetables involving the twenty-four hour clock.
Pupils design and use a data collection sheet and interpret the results. They calculate and use the mean and range of discrete data. They construct and interpret simple line graphs. They interpret graphs and diagrams, including pie charts, and draw conclusions. They insert and interrogate data in a computer database. They place events in order of ‘likelihood’ and use appropriate words to identify chance, such as fifty-fifty and evens.
Objectives over 2 weeks
Children’s learning outcomes / Day / Mental warm up / Whole Class Introduction / Independent / Group Focus & Activities / Plenary
Key Questions / Key Vocabulary
•Solve problems by collecting, selecting, processing, presenting and interpreting data, using ICT where appropriate; draw conclusions and identify further questions to ask
I can use data to solve problems
•Select and use standard metric units of measure and convert between units using decimals to two places (e.g. change 2.75 litres to 2750ml, or vice versa)
I can convert measures between units including decimals
•Read and interpret scales on a range of measuring instruments, recognising that the measurement made is approximate and recording results to a required degree of accuracy; compare readings on different scales, for example when using different instruments
I can read and answer questions about scales and write down my answer as accurately as the question requires
I can compare readings from different scales
•Describe and predict outcomes from data using the language of chance or likelihood
I can use data to work out problems about chance
•Construct and interpret frequency tables, bar charts with grouped discrete data, and line graphs; interpret pie charts
I can represent data in different ways and understand its meaning
•Describe and interpret results and solutions to problems using the mode, range, median and mean
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