At St Joseph’s we aim to make maths fun, exciting and to instill the belief that everyone can learn maths successfully. To support all children, we have recently subscribed to Power Maths for Y1 to Y6. At the heart of Power Maths is the belief that all children can achieve. It’s built on an exciting growth mindset and problem-solving approach designed to support and challenge all children. The philosophy behind Power Maths is that being successful in maths is not just about rote-learning procedures and methods, but is instead about problem solving, thinking and discussing.
Along with the Power Maths characters, each child goes on a journey within the maths curriculum and is given the opportunity to develop their fluency and develop conceptual understanding to spark curiosity, engage reasoning, secure understanding and to deepen learning for all. Lessons are cleverly designed to allow many opportunities to practice and to talk about the key concepts that are being taught. Regular assessment feeds into immediate interventions, to not only support those children who may need it, but to also challenge children to deepen their own understanding.
To accompany Power Maths, all children are also given login details for Times Tables Rockstars to support their learning of times tables. Learning times tables is fundamental to success in maths and we believe that by using this fun and interactive online program all children can make great progress. For our KS2 children, we host weekly competitions and celebrate the most valuable players in these classes, as well as seeing which class can win the Battle of the Bands. Weekly certificates are shared during our Celebration Assemblies and names are displayed on our dedicated Times Tables Rockstars notice board.
Another fantastic resource to support maths that we have access to in our school is Sumdog. All children are given login details to access the interactive games that help support all aspects of the maths curriculum. An initial diagnostic tool assesses what each child already knows and tailors the questions based on their ability. This means that every child can learn at the correct level for them. To add an extra little bit of excitement, classes compete in regular competitions putting the skills up against other schools in South Tyneside, against other schools in the Bishop Chadwick Catholic Education Trust and against all other schools in the UK, with certificates and prizes available for the best performing classes.
Mathematics is one of the seven areas of learning within the early years foundation stage (EYFS) and is used to develop a child’s confidence and ability with numbers. Here at St Joseph’s, we achieve this through creating a number rich environment so that each child can explore, solve problems and develop independence in the application of key skills to become fluent mathematicians in a fun and engaging way.
Click here for information on what mathematical methods we use to teach our pupils
Click here for some videos and explanations of great maths websites for kids!
Click here for the Schemes of Learning for the Autumn term. These documents identify what learning will take place within maths in each year group.
Click here for some videos explaining how to use some great puzzle and games websites.
