Maths at Randwick

“Mathematics is the most beautiful and most powerful creation of the human spirit. ”

— Stefan Banach

Mathematics is an important creative discipline that helps us to understand and change the world. We want all pupils at Randwick to experience the beauty, power and enjoyment of mathematics and develop a sense of curiosity about the subject.

At Randwick, we foster positive ‘can do’ attitudes, believe all children can achieve in mathematics, and teach for secure and deep understanding of mathematical concepts. 

Children are taught by their teacher in their year groups and move through topics at broadly the same pace. Each topic is studied in depth and teachers do not move to the next stage until all the children show that they have a secure understanding of the mathematical concepts.  

White Rose Maths

Randwick uses the Primary Progression from White Rose Maths and the White Rose Schemes of Learning for our medium term planning. Teachers adapt and add to the White Rose resources from a range of sources, to ensure lessons are tailored to meet the needs of the class and aligned with the school's teaching for mastery approach.

Do it, Secure it, Deepen it

To achieve this, work within lessons is designed with three progressive steps to guide the children through the new learning. Children who grasp concepts quickly are challenged with rich and sophisticated problems within the topic, moving quickly from the ‘do it’ to the ‘secure it’ and on to the ‘deepen it’. Children who are not ready to move past the ‘do it’ are given support to consolidate their understanding before moving on and misconceptions are tackled quickly.

Maths Fluency Sessions

As well as a daily maths lesson, children will practice their learning in a shorter, daily fluency session. Teachers plan these carefully to give the children the opportunity to practice and consolidate learning from recent lessons, recall learning from previous maths blocks and build their speed and fluency at recalling key facts. 

NCETM's Mastering Number

For KS1 children, teachers use the NCETM Mastering Number project to build the children's fluency and number sense. In these sessions, children use physical apparatus (such as rekenreks) to help them explore the numbers. 

In KS2, we are just beginning our Mastering Number journey. Our KS2 teachers are currently completing the training and leading mastery sessions to develop the children's understanding of multiplication. 

Randwick Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs)

Learning key maths facts confidently enough to have instant recall, helps our children to free up enough thinking-space to tackle more challenging problems. At Randwick, children meet a set of facts each term that they practice regularly to build their confidence and speed. These KIRFs are mapped out across the school so they build on each other prgoressively. 

Maths Attitudes

We strongly believe that all children can 'do' maths and we promote these positive norms in our maths lessons:

• everyone can learn maths to high levels!
• believe in yourself, it changes what you can do!
• maths is about creativity and making sense!
• mistakes and challenge are the best times for your brain!
• maths is about learning not performing!
• questions and discussions deepen your mathematical understanding!
• visualise and make connections to strengthen your brain!
• depth is more important that speed!

-Jo Boaler - YouCubed positive norms

Maths Homework at Randwick

To support children with practicing their maths at home, we have invested in Doodle Maths and Doodle Tables accounts for each child. These programs were chosen as they support the school's mastery approach by providing the children with a rich range of question types, including problems solving and word problems.  Doodle Maths and Tables also use an algorithm to learn from the children's responses, tailoring the questions each child recieves to match the areas they most need to practice.

How to help at home

• Talk positively about maths in front of your child. Try not to say things like "I can't do maths" or "I hated maths at school" – your child may start to think like that themselves. Support them to believe that everyone can succeed in maths and that it can be fun!
• Encourage your child to practice regularly on Doodle Maths. Regular practice for a short period of time has been shown to have the best impact on their learning. 
• Play games with your child that support counting, calculating and keeping score.
• Point out the maths in everyday life. Include your child in activities involving numbers and measuring, such as shopping, cooking and travelling.
• Praise your child for effort rather than for being "clever". This shows them that by working hard, they can always improve.

If you would like to know more about supporting your child with maths, or you would like top feel more confident about your own maths skills,  https://www.nationalnumeracy.org.uk/ has lots of ideas and resources. 

Websites

• BBC Bitesize has many games, activities and lessons: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/primary
• The games on Top Marks are brilliant for practicing key facts: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16 
• The Number Blocks videos are brilliant to support younger children with understanding number: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b08bzfnh/numberblocks 

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