At Manor Leas Infant School we aim to make Maths meaningful, exciting and engaging through hands-on learning and the use of clear models and images to aid their understanding. We place great emphasis upon developing the key knowledge and skills in mathematics so that your child can apply a solid understanding of number, data handling, shape, space and measures, in order to solve problems in a wide range of real-life situations, so as to prepare them for everyday life. We intend to create a vocabulary rich environment, where talk for maths is a key learning tool for all pupils.

There is a daily mathematics lesson for all children from Reception onwards. Lessons include whole class, group and individual work. Mental maths and problem solving are an important part of every lesson. Learning through a clear progression of mental and written methods, children develop understanding and the skills to carry out calculations independently. The expectation is that the majority of children will move through the topics at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress will be based on the security of children’s understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Children who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material will consolidate their understanding, including additional practice, before moving on.

When investigating mathematically, we encourage our children to reason, generalise and make sense of solutions. We aim to foster fluency in performing written and mental calculations and mathematical techniques. Lots of work is carried out on using and understanding the mathematical language and symbols accurately in their work and children are encouraged to use this when discussing their work with others.

We aim to ensure that all children have developed a thorough understanding of the skills taught in order for them to become confident and competent in their Mathematics ability.

Manipulatives

A manipulative is a physical object that children or teachers can touch and move which is used to support the teaching and learning of mathematics. In our lessons Numicon, Cuisenaire rods and Dienes blocks are used regularly to support children to engage with mathematical ideas.

Help at home

We believe that quick retrieval of number facts is a fundamental part in developing your child’s understanding of number and that it plays a key role in solving mental maths calculations. It is likely that children who have problems retrieving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts, including number bonds and multiples, will have difficulty understanding and using mathematical concepts they encounter later on in their lessons. We have developed our Maths homework in order to work together with parents to help their child learn these key addition facts. This has helped to build the children’s understanding, confidence and enthusiasm for number.

Here is a useful website with lots of other ideas on how you can help with Maths at home:

http://www.familymathstoolkit.org.uk/

Motivation

We model positive attitudes towards mathematics throughout the whole school. We encourage and model motivation, confidence, and enjoyment in maths for all children. We have ‘special maths days’ such as NSPCC’S Number Day, Celebration of day 100 in the school year, Maths through stories, Fabulous fractions and Maths at the movies.

“The sky is where magic and mathematics become one.”

-Tony Abbott