Maths Guidance

MATHS GUIDANCE

We aim to ensure that all children:

become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that they have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems
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.

Key Stage 1

The principal focus of mathematics teaching in Key Stage 1 is to ensure that children 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 (e.g. concrete objects and measuring tools).

Lower Key Stage 2 – Years 3-4

The principal focus of mathematics teaching in lower Key Stage 2 is to ensure that children become increasingly fluent with whole numbers and the four operations, including number facts and the concept of place value. This should ensure that children develop efficient written and mental methods and perform calculations accurately with increasingly large whole numbers.

At this stage, children should develop their ability to solve a range of problems, including with simple fractions and decimal place value.

Upper Key Stage 2 – Years 5-6

The principal focus of mathematics teaching in upper Key Stage 2 is to ensure that children extend their understanding of the number system and place value to include larger integers. This should develop the connections that children make between multiplication and division with fractions, decimals, percentages and ratio.

At this stage, children should develop their ability to solve a wider range of problems, including increasingly complex properties of numbers and arithmetic, and problems demanding efficient written and mental methods of calculation. With this foundation in arithmetic, children are introduced to the language of algebra as a means for solving a variety of problems.

By the end of Year 6, children should be fluent in written methods for all four operations, including long multiplication and division, and in working with fractions, decimals and percentages.

Helpful Documents

Please use the following documents to help you understand more about Maths at Orleans and how you can support your child at home.

Please click on the headings for the areas you wish to explore further.

⭐ Maths Policy

Here is our Mathematics Policy. This document outlines our vision for the teaching and learning of mathematics and how this curriculum area is taught throughout the school.

⭐ Year Group Curriculum Maps

Our curriculum maps show the units of work studied throughout each of our year group programmes and how they combine to build knowledge and understanding.

⭐ Key C onstructs

Key Constructs are core concepts for each year group as identified by our Mathematics Mastery curriculum. They are the ‘big ideas’ in mathematics that are essential to understand, to enable progress in the subject and to access other areas. These are foci of our assessment at Orleans.

For more information about these core concepts, including guidance for the characteristics that pupils might show at different stages in their learning and how pupils can demonstrate progress without accelerating into content specified for older pupils, please see your child's class teacher. The detailed guidance that your child's class teacher can provide, will detail strategies to support pupils whose understanding is not yet at the expected depth and also give strategies to deepen pupils’ understanding still further beyond age expectations.

⭐ How We Teach Calculation

At the centre of the mastery approach to the teaching of mathematics is the belief that all pupils have the potential to succeed. They should have access to the same curriculum content and, rather than being extended with new learning, they should deepen their conceptual understanding by tackling challenging and varied problems. Similarly, with calculation strategies, pupils must not simply rote learn procedures but demonstrate their understanding of these procedures through the use of concrete materials and pictorial representations. This document outlines the different calculation strategies that should be taught and used in Years 1 to 6, in line with the requirements of the 2014 Primary National Curriculum.

⭐ Times Tables

👉 Times Table Expectations

What are the expectations for learning times tables? How can I help my child in a fun way? Here are some tips and advice along with suggested activities and websites to help answer these questions.

👉 Times Tables Rockstars

Orleans Primary School subscribes to Times Table Rock Stars (TTRS). This is a system that the children use to practise the instant recall of their multiplication and division facts, which helps them achieve our Times Table Guru award within our times table reward programme.

When it comes to times tables, speed AND accuracy are important – the more facts a child remembers, the easier it is for them to complete harder calculations. Times Table Rock Stars is a fun and challenging programme designed to help children master the times tables. To be a Times Table Rock Star they need to answer any multiplication fact up to 12×12 in less than 3 seconds!

World-famous rock musicians are the best at what they do because they've spent hours practising guitar chords, writing music or playing on the drums. It's just the same with times tables – all Times Table Rock Stars need to practise and practise and practise.

Research shows that daily practice is the best strategy for children to learn these important facts. Short bursts of daily practice are much more effective than spending hours once a week.

Parental support is critical in this area. For children to be fully motivated and for them to get the best out of the practice, they need an adult's help. Without a Parent's praise and reminders, without sitting down together or checking their work, practising times tables will not feel important.

Each class or group within a class will be set a schedule of times tables to work on by their teacher in combination with the automatic programming of TTRS itself.

The quicker a child can answer a times tables question, the higher their Rock Status.

👉 Times Table Award

Alongside TTRS we have a reward scheme in Key Stage 2 called 'Times Table Award' and in Key Stage 1, 'Counting in Steps' challenge. Children can work their way through the stages by answering multiplication and division questions (3 seconds per question). Certificates and badges are awarded when the children pass stages 1-5, and then complete their 'Ultimate Challenge' and become a 'Times Table Guru!'

Tables are taught and assessed in an order that supports children in making connections between the facts e.g. using doubles to support their understanding (6 x 4 is double 6 x 2). Tables are also grouped in stages to highlight the relationships and links between different times tables and how we can use what we already know in order to learn a new table, e.g. the 3 and 6 times tables are paired as products in the six times table are double the products in the three times table.

👉 Year 4 Times Table Check

What is the Year 4 multiplication tables check?

In June 2020, the new Year 4 multiplication tables check became statutory. Your child will need to take a short online test to make sure their times tables knowledge is at the expected level.

We’ve gathered together everything you might want to know about the times tables check here, including what it involves, when it will take place, and how you can help your child prepare. You will also find here some top tips, books, videos, activities, and games to help make your child’s times tables practice fun.

2020/21 Parent letter

⭐ Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs)

To develop your child’s fluency and mental maths skills, we run a KIRF programme throughout school. KIRFs are a way of helping your child to learn by heart, key facts and information. We want to ensure that our children are confident and rapid in their recall of these key basic facts.

KIRFs are designed to support the development of mental maths skills that underpin much of the maths work in our school. They are particularly useful when calculating, adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing. They contain number facts such as number bonds and times tables that need constant practise and rehearsal, so children can recall them instantly and accurately.

Instant recall of facts helps enormously with mental agility in maths lessons. When children move onto written calculations, knowing these key facts is very beneficial. For your child to become more efficient in recalling them easily, they need to be practised frequently and for short periods of time.

Each half term, children will focus on a Key Instant Recall Fact (KIRF) to practise and learn at home for the half term. They will also be available on our school website under each year group section and on Google Classroom. The KIRFs include practical ideas to assist your child in grasping the key facts and contain helpful suggestions of ways in which you could make this learning interesting and relevant. They are not designed to be a time-consuming task and can be practised anywhere – in the car, walking to school, etc. Regular practice - little and often – helps children to retain these facts and keep their skills sharp.

Throughout the half term, the KIRFs will also be practised in school and your child’s teacher will assess whether they have been retained. You might find that your child will need to work on some KIRFs from the previous year as they may not be secure in those yet. This information will be communicated to you via termly KIRF letters from your child's class teacher.

Click here for an overview of the whole school KIRF map.

👉 In Key Stage 1, we also use Numbots (as part of our Times Tables Rockstars subscription), for learning to add and subtract. NumBots is all about every child achieving the “triple win” of understanding, recall and fluency in mental addition and subtraction, so that they move from counting to calculating.

⭐ Challenge and Deepening Understanding

So how do we avoid teaching procedures and get pupils to develop a ‘deep understanding’ in mathematics?

At Orleans, we use the three key principles to deepen pupils’ understanding. Pupils’ conceptual understanding is developed through the use of multiple concrete and pictorial representations. Indeed a key part of a ‘deep understanding’ in maths is being able to represent ideas in lots of different ways. Pupils use different concrete objects and pictures to represent abstract concepts. This helps pupils to make connections between representations, identifying what aspects are the same and which are different. Depth of understanding is also developed through pupils’ communication about maths using the correct mathematical language. Being asked to explain, justify and prove their ideas deepens a pupil’s understanding of a concept. Another way to develop a depth of understanding is to encourage pupils to think mathematically. We can do this by providing lots of opportunities for pupils to investigate carefully planned open questions that get them to sort and compare, seek patterns and look for rules. Pupils also need to develop as active mathematicians, we need to provide opportunities for them to ask questions and create their own problems to explore. This is a great way to develop deep understanding but it also fosters curiosity and creativity in mathematics.

In our lessons, we use our 'ten ideas' that challenge pupils to develop a depth of understanding within a concept, rather than moving them on to a new objective. Each of the ten ideas is represented by a picture or symbol. The idea being that, after introduction, the tasks can be easily identified by pupils without the need for instruction.

This document explains each of these ideas.

⭐ Vocabulary List

This document highlights the key vocabulary introduced throughout the curriculum - from Reception to Year 6.

⭐ Numicon – Supporting Your Child at Home

Numicon is a resources we use in school to support the image of number. It is very popular and hugely helpful. If you would like to support your child further you can purchase an ‘At Home Kit’ on the Numicon website.

⭐ Helping Your KS1 Child at Home

There are also lots of ways that you can support your child at home. It doesn’t have to be by doing pages of sums or text books – there are lots of fun activities and games you can do or include in your everyday routines! Here are a few ideas to help you…

⭐ Games and Activity Website Links

This document lists a range of fantastic and high quality websites for children to use when practising their maths skills.

⭐ Khan Academy

Salman Khan's online tutorials are already watched by millions, including Bill Gates's children. His aim is to create the first free, world-class virtual school. As well as this website, he has YouTube tutorials which are fantastic! Get watching NOW! We already have many families using his material and rave about its effectiveness in helping with mathematical understanding.

🤓 Curriculum Evenings and Parent Workshops 🤓

Times Table Information Session

Presentation Slides

Parent Information Letter - Times Tables at Orleans

Our Times Table Programme - Parent Guide

TTRS Parent Guide

Times Tables - Tips & Tricks

Times Tables Games

Times Tables Printable Resources for Games Pack

Years 3-4 Curriculum Evening (Nov 2018)

This PowerPoint was shared during the evening

Years 3-4 Curriculum Evening

Key Stage 2 Curriculum Evening

These PowerPoints were shared during the latest curriculum evening. They outline methods taught for all four operations.

Key Stage 1 Parent Workshop

In January, Miss Hedges delivered a Maths workshop. This was focused on the strategies and resources we use in school and ideas for games to support key skills at home. Please see resources below if you were unable to attend.

Key Stage 2 Parent Workshop

KS1 Maths Mastery Information Session

KS2 Maths Mastery Information Session

Singapore Bar Modelling Workshop

Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) approach

Orleans
Primary School

Maths Guidance

MATHS GUIDANCE

Key Stage 1

Lower Key Stage 2 – Years 3-4

Upper Key Stage 2 – Years 5-6

Helpful Documents

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