Mathematics
At Five Spires Primary Academy, we aim to produce confident mathematicians who can use and apply their knowledge and understanding in a variety of contexts. We endeavour to provide children with a diverse range of opportunities to use their maths skills across the curriculum.
The three aims of the National Curriculum: fluency, reasoning and problem solving are incorporated into daily practice. Children are encouraged to be fluent through the use of basic arithmetic activities and then provided with a wide range of opportunities to apply these skills to develop their reasoning and problem-solving skills.
Children complete pre assessments at the start of each block (unit of work). Each block is taken from the White Rose Maths Schemes of learning, which allows clear progression in the mathematics curriculum from EYFS through to Year 6. The White Rose Maths ‘End of Block Assessments’ are a series of assessments which cover the concepts taught in each block. Teachers complete a question level analysis from the pre assessments to assess children’s understanding and identify gaps in learning so that children can become fluent in the fundamentals of each block. From this, teachers use a range of resources to plan and deliver mathematics: White Rose Maths Hub, NCETM Mastery Resources and Nrich. At the end of each block, children revisit their pre assessment, enabling progress to be clearly measured and the impact of learning to be seen.
Timetables Rock Stars
Children have opportunities to practice their timestables at home using Timestables Rock Stars.
Children have their own log in details. To help your child further, please see our top tips on the Times Tables page.
App Recommendation
Have you downloaded the 1-Minute Maths app?
This is a free app from White Rose - the maths scheme that we follow at school. It is specifically aimed at Key Stage 1 pupils and focuses on the four operations of number (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) – and on ‘Subitising’. The free mobile app is available for Apple/iOS, Android, and Kindle. 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!
Supporting mathematics at home
Children make progress best as mathematicians when they regularly repeat skills and practise them until they become embedded. This can be quite a long process sometimes, and so the use of the context of an exciting game or interesting activity can be highly motivating. In our experience, our children learn best when they are having fun and that's what games are for!
We make a lot of use of online maths games and activities in school. Some of the links below are our most popular. Why not try some of them out and let us know what you think…?
KS2 Maths BBC Bitesize Primary Maths Games Arena Hit the Button
Math is Fun Maths Zone Primary Games ICT Games