Mathematics

Maths at Marden Bridge Middle School

Our Maths Curriculum aims

Through our mathematics curriculum at Marden Bridge Middle School, we have developed a mastery approach to our teaching and learning, ensuring that children develop skills sequentially using a small step, approach and building a depth of understanding for each mathematical skill. Our curriculum aims to support children with ‘bridging the gap’ between abstract mathematical concepts and concrete representations so that they can manipulate and visually represent their ideas, accessing mathematical learning by problem-solving and the use of rich language.

We aim to encourage a love of mathematics, through designing engaging lessons that are full of practical hands-on activities designed to stimulate and promote reasoning skills and problem-solving.

Our lessons involve the use of manipulatives to explore concepts and maths talk to investigate ideas and strategies to support learning.

As part of our maths lessons, we offer small group pre-teach sessions and bespoke masterclasses throughout the week in order to support the curriculum for all our pupils.

Intent

Here at Marden Bridge we believe that all children should have :

A deep understanding of mathematics and numeracy
Foster a positive and resilient attitude towards their maths.
Confidence and competence in their own mathematical knowledge, concepts and skills.
A range of learning strategies by working both collaboratively and independently.
Foster an enquiring mind and take responsibility for their own learning.
Are able to express their ideas confidently and talk about their maths with passion and reasoning.
Solve problems creatively and make connections by exploration.
High expectations of themselves and their own mathematical achievements.
Discover for themselves the beauty of maths in the world around them.

In every lesson there is a sharp focus on communicating, using the correct mathematical vocabulary, explaining why a statement or calculation may be incorrect and sharing an approach to problem solving. Learning partners are used to share strategies and encourage maths talk through a range of reasoning tasks. Mistakes (misconceptions) are celebrated and shared so all pupils can benefit from errors made and learn from them. Answers are not always the focus and often it is the exploration of strategies that is important and honing them to find an efficient method. Differentiation is through depth rather than acceleration or different content. Staff use hashtags to promote reasoning and deepening the pupil’s understanding.

Speaking in full sentences:
We expect the children to answer in full sentences ‘I think the answer is ____ because.’
This moves the emphasis away from a performance culture, where we are merely looking for the answer, to a culture that allows for exploration and deep mathematical understanding of the process to get to an answer.

Stem Sentences:
Stem sentences are used throughout lessons to expose key mathematical concepts.

Precise mathematical language:
Teachers model precise mathematical language throughout their maths lessons.
Children are encouraged to use precise mathematical language across all year groups.

Feedback Marking
During the lesson adults will often mark with the children to allow instant feedback. This is often through whole group feedback, group discussions or individual ‘over the shoulder’ marking.
We use:
Teacher marks/ reviews exit tickets.
Green men to identify pupils who will work with the teacher in the following lesson.

We celebrate mistakes and use these as a vehicle to enhance learning. Children use purple pens to make corrections in their work.

Impact:
We assess our maths across the school by analysing internal data, ensuring progression against the children’s prior data but most importantly by speaking to the children and seeing their attitudes towards maths rise. We want our children to leave feeling confident, with firm foundations and being equipped with a set of life long skills to be able to become mathematicians across many different walks of life.

How do we do this?
We promote this ourselves and we actively encourage everyone around the child to do this as well. We ensure we listen to children and will continue to refine and tweak our approaches from this.

“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. A high-quality mathematics education therefore 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.”

National Curriculum, 2014