At Birdwell Primary School, we endeavour to teach Maths so children are taught to apply their knowledge and skills to a range of practical, real life contexts, to ensure their learning is both purposeful and meaningful. Underpinning this is the requirement for fluency, which is a whole-school focus. Skills are linked and taught together to maximise teaching and learning time to give context to learning.
Our teaching is based on the recommended National Curriculum, which has been personalised to meet the needs of our learners. 'Maths Year on a Page' has been developed for each individual year group to ensure pace and progression across school. Sitting behind these are our 'Curriculum Guides', which aim to support key subject knowledge, address common misconceptions as well as make links with other maths concepts to support an integrated approach.
The Accelerated Learning Cycle, based on the work of Alastair Smith, is applied in all lessons. It stems from the idea of a supportive and challenging learning environment. Implementation of accelerated learning, supported by EEF metacognition research, has ensured the pace of learning is appropriate and has enabled pupils to secure rapid and sustained progress which has improved outcomes and standards within each lesson.
Within maths session adaptive teaching is effective through the use of progressive and open-ended problems. Pupils are provided with the opportunity to move through carefully selected tasks starting at the level most appropriate to their starting point. Activities are adapted to meet the needs of each individual child, with scaffolds and challenges available for children to use to guide their own learning journey. Through this adaptive approach, we aim to support pupils to take ownerships of their learning and develop independence.
Formative assessment is ongoing throughout each lesson. It judges progress and enables the teacher to make flexible adaptations to their planned teaching.
Effective formative assessment, daily marking and feedback and adult interaction within lessons is firmly embedded into our approach when teaching maths. All pupils are supported to develop, progress and move their learning forward through support, questioning and feedback. Pupils demonstrate the impact this has on improving their learning through editing and response.
The use of clear learning objectives and success criteria ensures pupils to understand their learning and become self-regulated learners who aspire to achieve to their full potential
Maths is assessed by teachers who use the HCAT trackers for their year groups to allocate a level and next steps for each pupil. Cross moderation occurs in school to ensure moderation is carried out correctly.