Maths is an essential skill that enables us to live an independent life. It teaches us how to make sense of the world around us, whether it be: calculating the total amount of money we need to purchase items, knowing what time to meet our friends or weighing precise amounts of ingredients when cooking our favourite food. Maths helps us to develop problem solving and reasoning skills which we can all use throughout our lives.
Our Approach to Teaching Mathematics
At Barons Court our main aim within Mathematics is for all children to develop a secure understanding of maths, equipping them with the skills of calculation and problem solving that they need in life beyond school through every day contexts. Within our school we implement the National Curriculum for all of our Mathematics lessons from Year 1 - Year 6. Our method of teaching focuses on using problem solving in order for children to learn conceptually - thereby, children are not learning by rote and memorising, but actually understanding how to solve a problem and why they must complete calculations in order.
At Barons Court we believe that children should be introduced to calculation and problem solving through the use of concrete, visual and abstract methods. As children begin to understand the underlying ideas of Mathematics they will become more fluent and develop a deeper understanding, allowing them to apply methods of their choice to a range of situations. Children are challenged to explain why, to prove how they know, to convince that they are correct and to find all possible outcomes.
Written methods are complementary to mental methods and should not be seen as separate from them. The aim is that children use mental calculation methods when appropriate, but for calculations that they cannot do in their heads they use an efficient written method accurately and with confidence. It is vital that pupils explore Mathematics using concrete materials and visual representations before moving onto written calculations to ensure a secure understanding of the fundamentals of Mathematics. All children throughout the school have the opportunity to use a wide range of resources to support their learning such as hundred squares, number lines, Numicon, cubes, place value cards and other small apparatus. Children’s mathematical skills are embedded into the whole of our curriculum, through subjects such as Science, Design Technology, Outdoor Learning and PE. Vocabulary is explicitly taught to help facilitate children to know more and remember more key concepts through the whole of our curriculum and opportunities to revisit previous learning are embedded through our personalised maths curriculum which is implemented within each year group.
How We Teach Mathematics At Barons Court
We use a range of different teaching methods to enhance the teaching of Mathematics within our school. These include: