At Mersham we use ‘White Rose’ Planning and Assessment to structure our Mathematics Curriculum. White Rose aims to develop a culture of deep understanding, confidence and competence in Maths. White Rose allows use to secure and develop children’s Fluency, Reasoning and Problem Solving skills in the various strands of Maths and ensures children are making connections and challenging themselves in every lesson.
Fluency
Mathematical fluency creates firm foundations for the rest of the maths curriculum. Children who are fluent in maths can quickly recall facts, make connections between known facts and mathematical operations and recognise maths concepts when represented in different forms (e.g. a number bond shown using a tens frame, dienes blocks, counters, bead string etc.)
To develop children’s fluency, when teaching a concept, we aim to move from Concrete (physical apparatus), to Pictorial (using formal and informal jottings), to Abstract (children having a mental picture or strategy).
Reasoning
It is vital for children to be able to reason in maths. Reasoning helps children to make sense of the maths curriculum. This skill shows that they are truly fluent. On a basic level this may be a child realising that the answer to their subtraction calculation is incorrect because they have a number bigger than the number they started with. As this develops, it allows children to argue and justify their mathematical thinking. Children use ‘sentence stems’ and mathematical vocabulary to help develop this.
A sentence stem shapes the child’s answer to ensure that it is concise e.g. ‘I know that it must be ____ because…….’
Problem Solving
Problem Solving can be completed at all levels of mathematical fluency and supports with both developing children’s understanding of concepts and their mathematical resilience.
Through making Problem Solving a focus of our maths curriculum, we also aim to develop strategic and critical thinking skills.
TT Rockstars is a fantastic resource that all children have an opportunity to take advantage of. Multiplication skills are invaluable across the maths curriculum and it is vitally important that children are fluent in all facts (up to 12×12) by the end of Year 4.
Calculation Policy
Here is our school calculation policy for the four operations, with photographs of working examples.