Fairway School

At Fairway Primary School, we follow a mastery approach to teaching maths, meaning we believe that all children can be successful mathematicians. Through the use of the National Curriculum, teachers build progression from year to year and incorporate high-quality resources from White Rose to plan daily, small steps of learning. At Fairway, we believe that secure mathematical knowledge is achieved through engaging and interactive lessons rich in pupil talk and collaborative problem-solving. 

At Fairway Primary School we intend to develop: 

• Children's ability to solve problems and think logically in order to work systematically and accurately. 
• Children's ability to work both independently and in co-operation with others. 
• Competence and confidence in children's maths knowledge, concepts and skills. 
• Use of mathematical resources so children are able to show their workings in a concrete fashion, before establishing ways of pictorially and formally representing their understanding. 
• Children who are competent when reasoning mathematically. 
• Children’s ability to recall mathematical facts, like number bonds to 1000, automatically and accurately. 
• Confident mathematicians who are not afraid to take risks. 
• Delivery of maths lessons in line with National Curriculum guidelines. 

At Fairway, we teach children basic mathematical skills from nursery. Within the early years, we use a ‘15-minute maths’ approach. This involves 15 minutes of whole-class maths, taught through a lively, repetitive and interactive session. 

• Through ‘15-minute maths’ children are able to relate basic mathematical concepts to everyday life and are given the opportunity to talk about maths.  
• Children discuss not only what the correct answer to a question might be but how they worked it out. Being able to talk in this way shows that a child really understands the mathematical concept.  
• Children are given the time to grasp concepts and make sense of them through the repetition of both tasks and questions.  

The maths curriculum at Fairway Primary School follows the pedagogy of Teaching for Mastery. Our schemes of learning are taken from the National Curriculum and are supplemented with resources from White Rose Maths. This enables teachers to ensure strong, secure learning and real progress. 

Children in Fairway learn through the explicit teaching of small steps, operating under one learning objective. Within this, mathematical, conceptual knowledge is deepened through effective questioning. This is supported by the explicit teaching of mathematical vocabulary and exposing children to conceptual and non-conceptual variation. Greater depth is secured through children making mathematical connections through refined skills in reasoning. 

During lessons we use the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract) method, which involves using actual objects for children to add, subtract, multiply or divide. They then progress onto using pictorial representations of the object, and ultimately, abstract symbols. The CPA approach helps children learn new ideas and build on their existing knowledge by introducing abstract concepts in a more familiar and tangible way.  

Concrete is the ‘doing’ stage, using concrete objects to solve problems. It brings concepts to life by allowing children to handle physical objects themselves. Every new abstract concept is learned first with a ‘concrete’ or physical experience. 

Pictorial is the ‘seeing’ stage, using representations of the objects involved in maths problems. This stage encourages children to make a mental connection between the physical object and abstract levels of understanding, by drawing or looking at pictures, circles, diagrams or models which represent the objects in the problem. Building or drawing a model makes it easier for children to grasp concepts they traditionally find more difficult, such as fractions, as it helps them visualise the problem and make it more accessible. 

Abstract is the ‘symbolic’ stage, where children are able to use abstract symbols to model and solve maths problems. Children are introduced to the concept at a symbolic level, using only numbers, notation, and mathematical symbols, for example +, –, x, / to indicate addition, multiplication, or division. 

We believe children’s chances of success are maximised if they develop deep and lasting understanding of mathematical procedures and concepts. If all children aim high in mathematics, we will achieve excellence, together. 

Each maths lesson has a clear objective that children are aware of and understand how to achieve. Lessons are differentiated to ensure that all children are challenged. We ensure that when assessing pupils, evidence is drawn from a wide range of sources to inform the process, including interaction with pupils during discussions and related questioning, day-to-day observations, practical activities, the gathering, presentation and communication of information and written responses.  The outcomes of each lesson serve to inform the teacher’s developing picture of the knowledge and understanding of each pupil and their future planning.  Outcomes are used to build an emerging picture of what the pupil knows, understands and can do.  

Half-termly, the children’s learning is assessed in class through testing, and the data is compared to data previously collected for each child. Any issues or gaps can be quickly identified and addressed through intervention groups, class learning foci and other support as needed. 

At the end of each year, we make a summative judgement about the achievement of each pupil.  At this point teachers decide upon a ‘best fit’ judgement as to whether the pupil has achieved and embedded the expected learning goals, exceeded expectations or is still working towards the goals. These decisions are based on the professional knowledge and judgement that teachers possess about the progress of each pupil, developed over the previous three terms, which allows an informed and holistic judgement of attainment to be made.  Achievement against the learning goals for maths at the end of the year is used as the basis of reporting progress to parents. 

EYFS baseline assessments, statutory testing at the end of Year 2 and Year 6 and times tables testing in Year 4 all give extra information about the impact of our maths curriculum. These assessments are taken into account when reviewing our priorities in striving for excellence.