Curriculum
MATHS AT WELLESBOURNE PRIMARY
At Wellesbourne, we want every child to develop a secure understanding and love of Mathematics which will equip them with the skills of calculation, reasoning and problem solving that they will need throughout their lives. We want to develop a child’s ability to be resilient and financially responsible so that they can flourish in our community and beyond.
We ensure that the children have opportunities to practise the key skills whilst building the understanding and knowledge to transfer these skills to more complex contexts. We incorporate challenge for all through varied and high quality activities with a focus on fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Children are encouraged to explain their choice of methods and use mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain workings.
We have also achieved a silver award for the Liverpool Counts Quality Mark. Our Maths ambassadors and Buddies helped us to achieve this award by promoting maths across the school and demonstrating our love of maths at Wellesbourne.
Please click on the links below to see our yearly overviews for mathematics.
Reception Maths Yearly Overview (Link opens in a new tab)
Year 1 Maths Yearly Overview (Link opens in a new tab)
Year 2 Maths Yearly Overview (Link opens in a new tab)
Year 3 Maths Yearly Overview (Link opens in a new tab)
Year 4 Maths Yearly Overview (Link opens in a new tab)
Year 5 Maths Yearly Overview (Link opens in a new tab)
Year 6 Maths Yearly Overview (Link opens in a new tab)
Here is our Curriculum Design- this explains the intent of our maths curriculum, how it is implemented and the impact it has on our pupils.
Here is our calculation policy- this shows how we develop maths from Reception to Year 6.
Wellies
Wellies are our school currency. Children are awarded with Wellies of different amounts for a variety of things such as good behaviour, hard work, showing our REACH values, attendance and more. The value of different wellies link with the times tables focussed on in each year group (for example, in Year 2, they have wellies to the value of 1,2,5 and 10). The children collect wellies in their bank book or add them to the class ‘Welly pot’. They can then spend them in our school Welly Shop or choose to save them as a class until they can afford one of our class prizes. Wellies are linked to financial education and give children to opportunity to explore spending and saving. Wellies are also linked to our school houses- the house that collects the most wellies that week are announced in our Praise Assembly every Friday.
Maths in Action
Here are some photographs of maths in action from around the school.
Time Tables
You would be amazed at how much of our maths at school and in real life is based on tables. It is important that your child knows all of their times tables (up to 12×12) by the end of Year Four.
During the summer term in Year 4, the children will take a Multiplication Tables Check. The purpose of the MTC is to determine whether pupils can recall their times tables fluently, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will help schools to identify pupils who have not yet mastered their times tables, so that additional support can be provided. It is an online test where there is a series of 25 questions to be answered in a limited time. There are many online programmes where children can practise their times tables- these are linked in our ‘Links/ Websites’ section. Ideas of how you can help your child practise their times tables are also explain below. We particularly promote the use of Times Table Rock Stars to help the children practise their multiplication tables. Each child from Year 1 – 6 have a login for this programme and your child’s teacher can monitor which tables they struggle with and support them with this.
How to help your child at home
Counting
· Practise chanting the number names. Encourage your child to join in with you. When they are confident, try starting from different numbers – 4, 5, 6….
· Sing number rhymes together – there are lots of commercial songs and YouTube videos available.
· Give your child the opportunity to count a range of interesting objects (coins, pasta, shapes, buttons etc). Encourage them to touch and move each object as they count. Then move on to counting things you cannot touch or see- try lights on the ceiling, jumps, claps or items in a bag.
· Play games that involve counting (e.g. snakes and ladders, dice games, games that involve collecting objects).
· Look for numerals in the environment. You can spot numerals at home, in the street or when out shopping. Cut out numerals from newspapers, magazines or birthday cards. Then help your child put the numbers in orders.
· Make mistakes when chanting, counting or ordering numbers. Can your child spot what you have done wrong?
· Choose a number of the week e.g. 6. Practise counting to 6 and on from 6. Count out groups of 6 objects (6 dolls, 6 books, 6 pens). See how many places you can spot the numeral 6.
Times tables
· When your child has begun to learn a table, practise the table for five minutes each day with them.
· It is important to say the whole table, not just the answers, again and again and again and again!
· Break down each table into manageable chunks. For example, ask them 1 x 6, 2 x 6 and 5 x 6 until they know the answers. Then add the next one.
· Work on pairs of tables, for example if your child is learning the two times table they can use their doubling facts to calculate the four times tables.
· Test your child by firing questions at them, out of order reminding them that they can use facts that they are confident with to work out trickier ones. For example, if they know 4×6=24, just double to find 8×6.
· Keep checking that they still know the facts they have learnt and revisit previously learnt facts.
· Use a range of vocabulary – “times”, “multiply”, “lots of”, “sets of”…..
· Make it fun! Think of catchy rhymes to help your child remember a tricky table. Can you make some up? Look for patterns or clever tricks. For example, you can rearrange 7 x 8 = 56 to 56 = 7 x 8 The numbers are now in order – 5, 6, 7 and 8! Say tricky tables in silly voices or even try singing them. Even young children learn song lyrics very quickly and easily!
Real life problems
· Going shopping with your child to buy two or three items- ask them to work out the total amount spent and how much change you will get.
· Buy some items with a percentage discount. Help your child to calculate how much the product will cost.
· Plan an outing. Ask your child to think about what time you will need to set off and how much money you will need to take.
· Use a bus or train time table. Ask your child to work out how long a train journey between two places should take? Go on the journey. Do you arrive earlier or later than expected? How much earlier/later?
· Bake or cook together- help them to weigh items and read measurements on a scale.
· Help your child to scale a recipe up or down to feed the right amount of people.
Links/websites
Here are some links to websites that we use in school and at home to support our learning…..
TTRS- a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practice. https://ttrockstars.com/
Your child will have their own login details from their class teacher
NumBots- a programme to help improve recall and understanding of number bonds and addition and subtraction facts.
Maths Shed- maths games for school and home. https://www.mathshed.com/en-gb/
Your child will have their own login details from their class teacher
ICT Games- free to play educational games aimed at children aged 5 to 8 years old. https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/index.html
Topmarks- free educational games for children in EYFS, KS1 and KS2. https://www.topmarks.co.uk/Search.aspx?Subject=16
BBC Bitesize- games and guidance.
KS1- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zjxhfg8
KS2- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/z826n39
