Mathematics

At Harting Bruner’s three modes of representation – concrete, pictorial, abstract underpin all mathematics from Early Years through to KS2.

• Lesson planning identifies the new mathematics that is to be taught, the key points, the possible misconceptions and a carefully sequenced journey through the learning.
• Teachers consider the five big ideas when planning activities; variation, mathematical thinking, representation and structure, fluency and coherence.
• Where possible we plan activities within a context to support understanding and application of knowledge.
• Significant time is spent developing deep knowledge of the key ideas that are needed to underpin future learning. The structure and connections within the mathematics are emphasised, so that pupils develop deep learning that can be sustained
• Pupils are taught through whole-class interactive teaching, where the focus is on all pupils working together on the same lesson content at the same time.
• This ensures that all can master concepts before moving to the next part of the curriculum sequence, allowing no pupil to be left behind. ‘keep up, not catch up’
• In most lessons the teacher leads back and forth interaction, including questioning, short tasks, explanation, demonstration, and discussion.
• Sometimes pre-teaching is necessary to enable all children to access the learning.
• Sometimes children work in small groups supported by an adult, in order to practice and embed learning from previous lessons.
• Fluency and conceptual understanding are developed in tandem because each supports the development of the other.
• It is recognised that practice is a vital part of learning, but the practice used is intelligent practice that both reinforces pupils’ procedural fluency and develops their conceptual understanding.
• Key facts such as multiplication tables and addition facts within 10 are learnt to automaticity to avoid cognitive overload in the working memory and enable pupils to focus on new concepts.
• We value the use of open-ended questioning thus providing opportunities for reasoning where children feel confident to explain their thinking using complete sentences.
• Children are provided with opportunities to challenge their mathematical understanding by solving multi-step problems
• Investigations are also a vital part of mathematics as they allow children to apply their conceptual understanding, develop reasoning and make connections between the different areas within the curriculum.