Mathematics

Subject Lead - Miss Heidi Philby

Mathematics is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment.

Therefore at St Thomas More Catholic Primary School we want to provide our children with the ability to become successfully independent in their understanding of abstract concepts which they will need as adults, from working out their wages and spending, to calculating the travel time on their journeys around the world.

 

The aims of the National Curriculum, and at St Thomas More Catholic Primary School, are to ensure that all pupils:

- become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.

- 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.

 

Mathematics often starts before we realise it – when we share teddies with our friends, when we realise we’ve dropped two cars, even when we eat half a biscuit!

 

While Mathematics can quite often be an abstract concept, we strive to provide real-life, concrete opportunities to explore through using a range of manipulatives and pictorial representations to display understanding.

 

 

Mathematics through play is an important time, which we endeavour to supply time for during the school day. Playing with dice and dominoes allows young children to develop their recognition of simple patterns. Working out how many more bricks you need to build an equal tower is an early form of algebra!

 

In order to develop children’s fluency, we also provide children with accounts to access at home for TTRockstars, Freckle and White Rose 1 minute maths.

 

Times Table Rock Stars

In either paper form or online, Times Tables Rock Stars is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practice.

Each week concentrates on a different times table, with a recommended consolidation week for rehearsing the tables that have recently been practised every third week or so.

This format has very successfully boosted times tables recall speed for hundreds of thousands of pupils over the last 8 years in over 16,000 schools - both primary and secondary - worldwide.

https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student

 

Freckle

Why Freckle Works

We believe that teachers know best. That’s why Freckle is designed to be both student-paced and teacher-led.

Meets the needs of every student

Continuously adapts for student practice in mathematics allowing teachers to spend less time manually differentiating lessons and more time helping students develop and progress.

Keeps students engaged while learning

Incentives and age-appropriate designs provide a balance of fun and learning. Rewards for achievement recognise student growth in ways they think are fun. Students will ask to practice in Freckle!

Accelerates student growth

Increase student growth and proficiency through standards-based skill development in maths, personalised goal setting, and mastery. Easily identify skill gaps to determine where to focus teaching and learning.

 

White Rose 1 Minute Maths

Who’s is for?

This first version of the app is aimed at Key Stage 1 pupils, and focuses on adding and subtracting – and on ‘Subitising’. We've also just added multiplication and division topics! The free mobile app is available for Apple/iOS, Android and Kindle. 

How does it work?

1-minute maths offers children engaging and easily accessible practice in basic number. There’s no specific route or starting point. Having chosen a topic, each user answers a series of randomly generated questions (a different set of questions every time means they learn the concept, not a sequence of answers).

When the one minute’s up, the questions are automatically marked and presented on a breakdown screen, giving instant feedback on how they’ve done. If they’re struggling with a question, a ‘Hint’ button reformats the question as a familiar manipulative display that mirrors the approaches used in the White Rose Maths schemes of learning.

Check out these 7 top reasons for using 1-minute maths!

1. Excellent practice – and no distractions.
2. A clear, intuitive process that children pick up straight away.
3. No login or internet access needed. Just download and play.
4. Enjoyable and motivating… How many can they get correct in one minute?
5. Helpful hints match those used in class.
6. Brilliant for building number fluency and confidence.
7. The mobile app is completely FREE!

https://whiterosemaths.com/resources/1-minute-maths