Maths

At Bysing Wood we recognises the importance of maths in our daily lives and how vital it is for the life opportunities of our children. We want all our pupils to have the knowledge and skills to be successful at secondary school and beyond. 

Our aim is for all children to: 

• Learn the skills of numeracy, geometry and measure that can be used in everyday life and developed later for the specific demands of a particular career.
• Develop problem-solving and reasoning skills that are so vital in day-to-day life.
• Develop thinking skills – an invaluable skill in every subject area.
• Deepen their understanding of maths through the use of concrete objects and vocabulary.
• Create enthusiastic, inquisitive and articulate mathematicians who are resilient and reflective.

Our maths curriculum is supported with the DfE accredited NCETM Mastering Number Project in Reception & KS1

Children in Year 2 & all KS2 children have access to a Times-Table Rockstars account which promotes children’s fluency with multiplication and division facts in a fun and interactive way. Each class also has a daily, 10 minutes times table session focusing on a different times table each week . Ask your child, what their times table fact of the week is!

Links are made between Maths and other curriculum subjects when children are encouraged to use their mathematical thinking in cross curricular ways.

Please click on the links below to read about Mastering Number, Times Tables Rock stars and see Maths in action across our school.

We are a Maths Make Sense school!

Maths Makes Sense gives Bysing Wood:

1. A consistent whole-school approach. A structured and coherent mathematics curriculum for the whole school, helping us to deliver a high-quality mathematics education to every child.

2. High expectations for all. Underpinned by the ambition for all children to excel and develop a sense of excitement about mathematics.

3. Fluency with number. Strong emphasis is placed on developing quick and accurate number skills.

4. Deep understanding. Using a powerful learning system of concrete objects, actions and vocabulary, a solid understanding maths is developed from the earliest stages, leading to strong reasoning and problem-solving skills.

Maths Makes Sense identifies the key concepts children need to learn to achieve success in Maths. These are known as the

 '10 Big Ideas': addition, subtraction, equals, multiplication, division, denomination, the symbols speak to you and the logic of the language tells you the answer are introduced by age 7.  Ratio and infinity are introduced after age 7.

Children are taught these concepts and use them consistently so that understanding grows over time and they are able to apply Maths successfully to real life examples. 

Maths Makes Sense Structure and Coverage

Maths Makes Sense covers all areas of mathematics. Each year group is organised into six blocks of work, with each block lasting roughly one half-term.

Maths Makes Sense Foundation focusses on a different strand or a combination of strands each week, including counting, number, writing, calculation, shape, position, sorting and data.

Maths Makes Sense 1-6 is organised into strands (Arithmetic 1, Geometry, Data and Measure, Arithmetic 2, Reasoning), with each strand taught on a different day of the week.

Click on the links below to find out what your child is learning this term in Maths:

Within MMS there is a strong focus on the relation between what has been learnt earlier and what will be learnt later.

Everything that is taught earlier paves the way for everything that comes later; and everything that comes later is made accessible to all children by what has been taught earlier.

The progress ladders are used to track progression throughout the five blocks. 

The Maths Makes Sense Learning System

Maths Makes Sense uses a learning system of concrete objects, exaggerated actions and special vocabulary to help every child succeed in our school and become a confident mathematician. The combination of objects, actions and vocabulary makes maths accessible to children from the youngest age. The learning system builds deep understanding and embeds a picture of the maths in children’s minds so they progress to thinking without the aid of physical objects; they refer to their mental images instead.

The Maths Makes Sense Teaching Cycle

We teach Maths Makes Sense with a teaching cycle of instruction and assessment to help every child succeed and to help make sure no child gets left behind. The cycle consists of Direct Instruction, Guided Practice and Partner Teaching, with partner work embedded throughout.

• During Direct Instruction, our teachers use big teaching to teach a new concept or idea to the class.
• During Guided Practice, the children practise what they have been taught under careful guidance from their teacher.
• Partner Teaching is a proven technique that works on the premise that the best way to understand if you really understand something is to try and explain it to somebody else. Children teach each other what they have learned and, in this way, they consolidate and deepen their own understanding.

Assessment is at the heart of this cycle; our teachers carefully monitor and assist children where necessary.