Intent
At Tyntesfield, our vision for maths is to empower and enable all children to be life-long mathematicians through a deep and sustainable understanding of mathematical concepts.
Through a Teaching for Mastery approach, children develop secure knowledge and fluency in fundamental number facts and times tables that can be used flexibly to recognise similar structures, make connections and develop an understanding of mathematical language that allows pupils to reason and articulate their thinking.
Horizon thinking is at the forefront of teachers’ planning, ensuring that children progress through the small steps of a concept, making links explicit to enable pupils to build on what they already know.
Maths at Tyntesfield
At Tyntesfield Primary School, we have deeply embedded a Teaching for Mastery approach to maths. Working with a Primary Mastery Specialist and NCETM accredited School Development Lead within the school, and in collaboration with the Turing NW Maths Hub, we have been able to observe lessons delivered by specialist teachers, as well as developing our subject and pedagogical knowledge by receiving high-quality, research-led CPD. Combined, this leads us to a deep and sustainable understanding of maths, which has then been passed on to pupils. It has been an exciting journey, which included the opportunity to host a Shanghai exchange, where pupils were taught by Shanghai teachers in showcase lessons. This opportunity was shared with other local schools and created opportunities to work across schools, sharing good practice and delivering training using a Teacher Research Group (TRG) model.
Tyntesfield have an intervention programme to support class teachers with the ‘catch up’ element of learning and teachers continue to focus on the ‘keep up’ element. We have also made use of the prioritisation DfE documents to ensure pupils are ready to progress and have developed a Lesson Design Toolkit as a reference point to support teachers in planning high quality maths lessons that meet the needs of all of pupils.
Making the most of every opportunity
Lessons are planned and delivered using the principles of Teaching for Mastery and tailored to each class’s needs.
What does maths look like at Tyntesfield?
Quick and efficient recall of facts and procedures and the flexibility to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics - NCETM
In Nursery, the Development Matters non-statutory guidance is used to identify end points from Early Learning Goals. Early understanding of maths is developed using concrete resources, counting, number songs, developing number sense and recognising number patterns.
EYFS and KS1 have embedded the Mastering Number programme to develop number sense. This ensures that there is a short daily burst on fluency in addition to the concepts being taught. KS1 session focus primarily on addition and subtraction facts to 20 and is supported by ‘2 Minute Maths’ and the associated flash cards.
In KS2, there is also daily focus on fluency. Classes may also use 2 Minute Maths, which is adapted to develop fluency skills in all operations but has a specific focus and strategy each week. Most KS2 classes also have a times table lesson each week, that focuses on connections, strategies and related number facts, progressing to scaling and evaluating the efficiency of methods. For 2024-2025, Year 4 and 5 will be taking part in the Mastering Number at KS2 project, run by the Turing Maths Hub which aims to develop fluency in multiplication and division facts, and a confidence and flexibility with number that exemplifies good number sense. Pupils are encouraged to use TTRS at home and at school where appropriate. Battles between classes are used to encourage participation and Rock Status certificates reward effort and progress as pupils work through the programme.
See Fluency Framework for full progression.
Fluency
Teachers introduce a concept using a concrete, pictorial, abstract approach and use representations as a means to show the structure of the maths being learned. Displays highlight the idea of ‘Build it, draw it, write it, calculate it’. Often, the pictorial representation (e.g. place value grid) and abstract calculation (e.g. column addition) are used side by side until pupils can work confidently in the abstract.
All year groups are accustomed to bar models, part whole models, ten frames, place value charts, counters, Numicon, hundred squares and Dienes blocks and how they can be used. Teachers select the representation that best supports the learning of the concept.
Stem sentences are often used to highlight generalisations, for example ‘ten tens are equal to one hundred’. They may also be used as a scaffold to support understanding. E.g. in fractions, ‘The whole is divided into x (denominator) equal parts and we take x (numerator) parts.’
By following the White Rose small steps as a basis for learning, their SOL framework for each concept shows progression through the year groups, including which representations are used and where to start each concept to ensure there is an overlap without repeating the same lessons.
Representation and Structure
Mathematical thinking is central to deep and sustainable learning of mathematics. Taught ideas that are understood deeply are not just ‘received’ passively but worked on by the student. They need to be thought about, reasoned with and discussed. - NCETM
Lessons will often start with a challenge that lets pupils have a go themselves before the lesson supports their learning to solve the problem efficiently. Sometimes, there will be an ‘Expert Groups’ task, which might be a deepening task from the previous lessons, which gives all children chance to access the deeper learning but also allows the ‘expert’ pupils to lead the learning and verbalise their reasoning to others.
Throughout the lessons, there is a mixture of ping pong style teaching, which also allows pupils to work with a buddy ‘Rally Coaching’ and for them to have a go at some tasks independently before the main independent learning task.
Lessons are planned to highlight and draw out misconceptions; this may be with a character or with a statement to prove/disprove/explore, e.g. Always, Sometimes, Never. What’s the same; what’s different? True or False.
Mathematical thinking sessions allow pupils to work independently to apply their understanding. This prepares them for assessment style questions and allows children to show their reasoning and their knowledge flexibly to solve problems.
Mathematical Thinking
Lessons are broken down into small, connected steps that gradually unfold the concept, providing access for all children and leading to a generalisation of the concept and the ability to apply the concept to a range of contexts. – NCETM
TTeachers use the White Rose Maths long term plan to structure their teaching over the year. This has been supplemented by the DfE guidance and NCETM Materials to support teachers in prioritising learning to ensure that pupils are ready to progress at the end of the year.
Teachers spend time mapping out the learning sequence outlined in the White Rose long term plan using the small steps scheme of learning to identify the end points of pupils’ learning and plan lessons accordingly (demonstrating horizon thinking).
Individual lessons are designed as a series of small steps based on the White Rose scheme of learning, tailored to the needs of the class. Opportunities to adapt teaching deepen and support learning are planned into the lessons, which are supplemented with appropriate representations and reasoning opportunities from the lesson design toolkit (see below).
Coherence
Variation is twofold. It is firstly about how the teacher represents the concept being taught, often in more than one way, to draw attention to critical aspects, and to develop deep and holistic understanding. It is also about the sequencing of the episodes, activities and exercises used within a lesson and follow up practice, paying attention to what is kept the same and what changes, to connect the mathematics and draw attention to mathematical relationships and structure. – NCETM
During the planning phase, teachers ensure that the way questions are presented draws pupils’ attention to the key learning: all non-essential features are varied while the essential features stay the same. This supports pupils in identifying the key features of the concept and addresses misconceptions.
Is it 1/4?
Variation
Numbers are chosen deliberately in questions to draw pupils’ attention to the relationships between numbers, which in turn allows them to make generalisations about what they have learned. Teachers will often ask, ‘What is the same; what is different?’ and through the subsequent discussion, pupils spot patterns and make connections.
Brain Activator – a task to get children thinking mathematically or recapping prior knowledge
Expert Groups – revisiting a Go Deeper task with pupils being the experts and sharing their understanding
2 Minute Maths – a daily task that supports pupils by teaching them strategies to develop fluency and flexibility in their number facts.
Flashback 4 – A recap fluency task to revise prior learning.
Reasoning with a character – often used to expose misconceptions, check understanding or provide opportunities for discussion.
Rally Coach – Paired learning Kagan strategy whereby one partner models completing a problem and the other partner coaches them through it if they are wobbling.
Always Sometimes Never – reasoning strategy to develop systematic thinking and encourage pupils to seek evidence to support their ideas.
True or False – reasoning task to develop language for reasoning and deepen understanding.
Convince Me/Prove It - reasoning task to develop language for reasoning and deepen understanding.
References
Lesson Design Toolkit
