Mathematics
Mathematics at City Academy Whitehawk
We adhere to the teaching sequence outlined by the White Rose Maths Hub schemes of learning, ensuring a coherent and consistent approach across all year groups. These schemes provide teachers with notes, guidance, key vocabulary, discussion points, and teaching strategies to enhance the subject's delivery. Aligned with the Foundation Stage Early Learning Goals and the National Curriculum for Maths, they form the basis of our curriculum.
Our curriculum is structured into manageable steps, ensuring each lesson maintains a clear focus and aids children in grasping concepts through a thoughtfully planned sequence of lessons. This prevents cognitive overload caused by covering too many concepts at once, ensuring each lesson contributes to the long-term goal. Within these lessons, children have opportunities to acquire, practice, apply, and deepen their knowledge and skills.
Students who grasp concepts swiftly are presented with rich, complex problems to deepen their understanding. Concepts are revisited periodically, enabling children to reinforce and embed them in their long-term memory. Teachers can also allocate additional time to specific skills or concepts when necessary.
We firmly believe that the majority of children can meet national expectations in learning mathematics through:
- Working in mixed-ability groups
- Whole class teaching
- Task differentiation in design
- Access to relevant resources
- Considering readiness for the next stage
When introducing new concepts, we employ the concrete-pictorial-abstract approach. Concrete objects and manipulatives aid in understanding, supported by pictorial representations to enhance reasoning and problem-solving. These, in turn, reinforce the understanding of abstract methods.
To best cater to the diverse needs of children in Maths, our lessons are conducted as whole-class sessions. Tasks for less confident learners are scaffolded effectively to access the same content, while more confident learners are given opportunities to expand and master their skills.
Fluency Badges
Students in Year 3 to Year 6 (when ready) have the opportunity to earn a 'Fluency Badge' by successfully and swiftly answering a specific set of age-appropriate questions! This initiative aims to motivate children to strive for a goal and to foster their leadership skills within the school community.