Mathematics...The Albourne Way

We are part of the Sussex Maths Hub Maths Mastery Programme.  We are taking part in the ‘embedding’ programme in 2023/2024 and will move to ‘sustaining’ in 2024/2025.  This has provided excellent CPD and support for teachers across the school.

 

Other resources that support the planning and teaching of a Mastery approach are:

• Albourne Progression in Calculation document

• NCETM, Teaching for Mastery  https://www.ncetm.org.uk/teaching-for-mastery/

• Nrich, http://nrich.maths.org/teacher-primary

• Other problem solving and reasoning resources to be found in each class: I see reasoning, Talk it, Solve it.

 

IMPLEMENTATION

Teaching

The main features of a maths lesson at Albourne include:

• The lesson starting with a ‘Magic 10’.

This is a 10-minute session designed to recap and revisit prior learning.Activities in a Magic 10 might include: practising key fluency skills with activities such as the counting stick for times tables, answering questions from content covered last week, last month, last year (or Flash Back 5), active maths activities where children are putting into practice skills they have already learnt or tasks designed to promote mathematical thinking.

• Daily 10

• Which one doesn’t belong

• One Maths Minute

·   Children working through the curriculum content at the same pace.  Differentiation is achieved by extending children by emphasising deep knowledge and through individual support and intervention.

• A ‘ping-pong’ style lesson where teachers introduce learning in small steps, giving children opportunities to practice, before introducing the next step.  This goes side by side with an ‘I do’ (teacher), ‘We do’ (teacher and children) and ‘You do’ (children) approach.   This approach increases classroom engagement, enables children to make rapid progress through modelling and scaffolding, and reduces cognitive load as steps are manageable, achievable and guided.

 

• Use of working walls to support children’s learning, these will be referred to and added to during lessons.

·   Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual and procedural knowledge, and assess pupils regularly to identify those requiring intervention so that all pupils keep up.

·   Teachers will use the concrete, pictorial and abstract approach (CPA) to ensure that procedural and conceptual understanding are developed simultaneously.

• Use of precise vocabulary, definitions, stem sentences and generalisations.  Verbalised by the children through ‘I say, you say, you say, we say’.

 

• Opportunities for extension activities for ‘rapid graspers’ / 'independent learners' that do not move on to new content but deepen knowledge within the content they are working on.

 

• Opportunities for problem solving and reasoning for all

 

• Teachers and teaching assistants monitoring all pupils during a lesson, and providing support for those children who need it as identified in each lesson.

 

• Children being involved in their own assessment through ‘purple pen’ marking and self-assessment of their confident in the small steps of the lesson.

 

• Teachers noticing misconceptions, either through planned activities to highlight common misconceptions or through identifying them in a lesson and responding accordingly.

 

The structure of a maths lesson will generally take the following format:

• Magic 10 – recap prior knowledge/practice key skills (including Mastering Number)

• Main Teach – ping pong style lesson with children working at the same pace for the majority – some may need adult support to access. This could include short tasks with a partner/on a whiteboard /independently in books.

• Longer independent task that all access – everyone should start on the same activity

• There will also be extension activities, which may be ‘Chilli’ challenges

• Purple pen mark/feedback as a whole class

 

Marking

When considering marking in Maths we take into account evidence based research (Black et al 2003) which shows that the most effective and beneficial forms of assessment are ones which support learning (i.e. are formative) and are built-in to lesson design.

In primary mathematics they require: 

• well-structured classroom activities (involving conceptual and procedural variation and intelligent practice); 

• regular opportunities for discussion of answers and strategies to support pupils’ reasoning skills and check and deepen their understanding; 

• interaction and dialogue (between teacher and pupils, and between pupils themselves), focusing in particular on key ideas and concepts (including misconceptions and difficult points) and effective, efficient strategies of working mathematically. 

The most important activity for teachers is the teaching itself, supported by the design and preparation of lessons.  Marking and evidence-recording strategies should be efficient, so that they do not steal time that would be better spent on lesson design and preparation. Neither should they result in an excessive workload for teachers.

It is important for teachers to distinguish between a pupil’s simple slip and an error that reflects a lack of understanding.  For slips, it is often enough to simply indicate where each slip occurs, particularly when the teacher’s/school’s approach is to encourage pupils to correct them;

• If errors demonstrate lack of understanding, the teacher may decide to take alternative courses of action. For instance, with a small number of pupils, the teacher may arrange same-day intervention while for a large number of pupils, the errors will be addressed in the next lesson.

Evidence shows (Black and Wiliam 1998) that pupils benefit from marking their own work. Part of this responsibility is to identify for themselves the facts, strategies and concepts they know well and those which they find harder and need to continue to work on.

 

IMPACT

Assessment

Teachers use informal daily assessment based on a specific activity.  It centres on the learning intentions and informs the teacher’s future planning for individuals or groups.  Outcomes are measured against the success criteria from teacher planning.  Support staff are also involved in the assessment process through their observations, annotations, feedback to the teacher and feedback to the children.  Children are encouraged to self-assess their work against learning intentions and success criteria.  Verbal feedback and live marking during the lesson is particularly important to support children’s progress.

 

During ‘reflection week’ in the second half of each term, children take part in a range of assessment activities that help build a picture of their progress and attainment.  Children will take the PUMA assessment for their year group (unless they are working significantly below their year group level in which case a more appropriate assessment will be given).  In addition, children will complete a ‘diving deeper’ page on one element of their learning form that term, where they show their learning in different ways: definition, draw-it, prove, make a mistake, tell a story.  Teachers will also use this week to reteach any areas they have identified as needing extra practice. 

 

At the end of this week, teachers will use all of this information to assess children’s progress towards the year group statements from the National Curriculum (entered into Insight) and make a judgement about whether each child is currently working at greater depth, the expected standard or are working below their year group level.  This overall judgement is inputted into termly Windscreen Assessments. 

 

These windscreens are then analysed by the Assessment Lead and discussed at termly pupil progress meetings.  Internal is checked by the Maths lead to look for strengths and weaknesses across year groups or subgroups of children.  External data is tracked to evaluate progress against school and national targets.  Both of these inform the development of the Maths Action Plan.

 

The staff moderate maths in planned meetings to ensure consistency in practice as well as an understanding of whether the child is on track to meet/meeting the end of year expectations.

 

Monitoring, evaluation and professional development

Monitoring of the standards of the children’s learning and of the quality of teaching in Maths is the responsibility of the Maths Subject Leader.  The monitoring of Maths is fed back to teachers regularly and whole school development points are discussed and actioned in staff meetings.  The work of the subject leader also involves supporting colleagues in the teaching of Maths. The subject leader meets regularly with the Headteacher and gives governors a updates on developments in Maths and ways forward. 

 

Monitoring activities undertaken by the subject lead for Maths are planned across the year and can include the following:

• staff meetings to analyse samples of pupils’ work in Maths to moderate standards to ensure consistency and to inform colleagues of subject developments at local and national levels;

• lesson observations to ensure that learning and teaching is appropriately engaging and challenging and that appropriate progress is being made by all pupils;

• the sampling of pupils’ work to ensure that expectations in terms of subject standards are being maintained through the curriculum;

• meetings and discussions with pupils from across year groups

• analysis of data

 

An important outcome of this ongoing monitoring and evaluation will be the identification of professional development needs amongst colleagues. The subject lead will, in the context of whole school priorities seek to address these through engaging appropriate external and internal support.

 

The subject lead uses the intelligence gained from monitoring and evaluation provision to update and inform the priorities for the annual Action Plan.