Mathematics at West Bridgford Infant School

Parent Workshop June 2023

Please find below a video presentation, filmed September 2023, of the Maths Parent Workshop that was originally held on Wednesday 28th June 2023 in school. There is lots more information about how we teach Maths at WBIS on this webpage too. The presentation is exactly the same as the one held in school.

Please speak to your child's class teacher with any specific queries about how to support your child with Maths. Alternatively, you can speak to Mrs Pavier (Class 2 Teacher) or Mr Heeley (Class 5 Teacher) who are the Maths subject leads at WBIS.

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. Therefore, at West Bridgford Infant School, a high-quality mathematics education provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
• can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. The programmes of study are, by necessity, organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils should make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They should also apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects.

The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.

Long Term Maths Planning

The EYFS Statutory Framework, with support from Development Matters, and National Curriculum is used as the basis for our planning and teaching. We adapt the White Rose Maths planning materials to help us deliver the National Curriculum in a way appropriate to and meeting the needs of all the children at West Bridgford Infants School. Learning is sequenced to build on a child's prior learning and revisit the skills and knowledge previously taught. 

Click here to view the White Rose Maths website and here for a Parent FAQ about White Rose Maths.

How we teach Mathematics

Mathematics is part of our daily life at West Bridgford Infant School. This could be a taught whole class carpet session, a small-group focused work with an adult or continuous provision activities which practise, embed and apply the skills previously learnt. Our Shine Brightly Themes, such as Professor Perseverance and Have a Go Hero, help our children to reason about their maths learning and apply their knowledge to solve problems.

The below documents show the calculation strategies taught for the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division at West Bridgford Infant School. It has been written collaboratively amongst staff to ensure consistency and progression throughout the school so that prior Maths learning can be built upon. Each 'stage' is not specifically attributed to a particular year group; this helps ensure children are only moved onto the next stage when they are confident and ready, therefore meeting their needs.

Each stage shows key vocabulary explicitly taught as well as key concrete (practical), pictorial and abstract (written) representations for said operation. Children will be introduced to these three representations concurrently to embed a deep understanding of the mathematical concept.

The below document details how we teach the children to form their numbers at West Bridgford Infants School.

How we assess Mathematics and it's impact

Each year group at West Bridgford Infant School has termly endpoints which teachers use to assess children's understanding. However, teachers are constantly assessing children's understanding as part of our day-to-day practise. This comes in many forms;

• Whole class teacher-led carpet sessions
• Small group work with a teacher or teaching assistant
• Early Morning Activities or Quizzes which review prior learning away from the point of teaching
• Continuous provision activities, where children can independently practise, embed and apply their learning
• Cross-curricular application of skills, such as Statistics/Graphs skills in Science and measuring in PE

This enables teachers to have a clear understanding of what the children know, understand and remember. Teachers can then move children forward with their next steps in learning.

Supporting your child with Maths at home

To help your child practise their maths fluency, you can download a free app from White Rose Maths called 1-Minute Maths. This app lets children practise quick mental addition and subtraction as well as number recognition (subitising). Children who practise these skills for one minute daily will be more confident and ready to apply these skills when problem solving.

We recommend for children in Reception to practise the subitising games and for children in KS1 to practise the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division games, appropriate to their level and needs. Follow this link below to download the app.

You can also encourage your child by making Maths a part of their everyday routine in real life contexts. For example, they could count out their toys, role play shops, play card or dice games or cook, bake and measure delicious treats.

If you need further help with supporting your child at home, please speak to your class teacher.