“Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.” – Shakuntala Devi

At Buxton Junior School, we aim to provide a happy, secure and stimulating environment, which encourages every child to progress to the best of their ability, and promotes a positive attitude towards mathematics in their everyday lives. In the teaching of mathematics we aim to make our Maths learning fun and active. Opportunities to teach Maths are used through a variety of curriculum areas including PE, Forest School, Topic and though the use of IT equipment. We promote and encourage the importance of children learning multiplication tables and help children to learn them in a fun way through song, dance, games and other methods.

At Buxton Junior School, we extend our teaching of Maths to involve regular parental involvement through 'Mouth-watering Maths' mornings and 'Maths Together' sessions where parents are invited into school to share their child’s learning and approach to maths, play mathematical games, use maths equipment, solve problems and generally have fun! All of this whilst enjoying tea and cake. In addition, we have produced videos with the children, explaining how to play a range of maths games at home. Have a look in our 'Videos for Parent and Carers' section for more information.

Our Maths Mastery Approach

In order to support our approach to teaching for Mastery of Mathematics, we use the White Rose Maths Hub materials to support our planning and teaching.

These materials:

• Have number at their heart. A large proportion of time is spent reinforcing number to build competency.
• Ensure planning supports the ideal of depth of learning before breadth of learning.
• Provide plenty of opportunities to build reasoning and problem solving elements into the curriculum.

At Buxton Junior School, we believe it is important that children develop a deep understanding of the mathematical concepts they are learning. Therefore we use a concrete, pictorial, abstract (CPA) approach.  This is a highly effective approach to teaching that develops a deep and sustainable understanding of Maths.

Concrete

Concrete is the 'doing' stage, using concrete objects to model problems. Instead of the traditional method of maths teaching, where a teacher demonstrates how to solve a problem, the CPA approach brings concepts to life by allowing children to experience and handle physical objects themselves. Every new abstract concept is learned first with a 'concrete' or physical experience.

Pictorial

Pictorial is the 'seeing' stage, using representations of the objects to model problems. This stage encourages children to make a mental connection between the physical object and abstract levels of understanding by drawing or looking at pictures, circles, diagrams or models, which represent the objects in the problem.

Building or drawing a model makes it easier for children to grasp concepts they traditionally find more difficult, such as fractions, as it helps them visualise the problem and make it more accessible.

Abstract

Abstract is the 'symbolic' stage, where children are able to use abstract symbols.

Only once a child has demonstrated that they have a solid understanding of the 'concrete' and 'pictorial' representations of the problem, can the teacher introduce the more 'abstract' concept, such as mathematical symbols. Children are introduced to the concept at a symbolic level, using only numbers, notation, and mathematical symbols, for example +, –, x, / to indicate addition, multiplication, or division.

Although CPA is shown above as three distinct stages, our teachers will go back and forth between each representation to reinforce concepts.

The Aims of the Primary Maths Curriculum:

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

• become fluent in mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex 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.

• Learn the easiest times tables first, children experience rapid progress and will be encouraged. The following order is a suggestion, 1x,10x, 2x, 5x, 3x, 4x, 6x, 7x, 8x and lastly 9x.
• Focus on one times table each session.
• Each session should be 5-10 minutes on a daily basis.
• Children can write their times tables then read through the table; this process will help them to fix it in their mind. Write the tables as follows, this will help them to fix the sets of numbers in their mind.

1x2=2
2x2= 4
3x2= ?

• Display the tables around their bedroom or the house. Seeing the tables on a regular basis will help children to learn them.
• When questioning start with lower numbers in the table e.g. 2x4= so children experience success. When finishing go over a fact already known, thus ending on a positive note.
• Think about different ways to ask the same question:

What is 4x4? How many 4’s are there in 16? What number comes after 12 in the 4x table? What is the fourth number in the 4x table?

• Once a child is confident with their times tables, they could tell you a story about the multiplication, e.g. there are four cars in a car park, each car has 4 wheels. There are 16 wheels in total.
• Once a child is confident with their tables they will need to develop speed and recall. They will also need to know all division facts e.g. how many 6’s in 54?