Maths - No Problem!

A summary of the changes to the Maths Curriculum, September 2014:

All children should become fluent in the fundamentals of maths through varied and frequent practice.

So that children develop their conceptual understanding, and the ability to recall facts and apply

knowledge rapidly and accurately, they will have frequent practice with increasingly complex problems.

All children will be able to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships

and generalisations and developing an argument using mathematical vocabulary.

All children will be able to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and no-

routine problems. They will be able to break them down into smaller steps and persevere when seeking

solutions.

The new curriculum is a mastery curriculum where the emphasis is on depth and challenge rather than

acceleration through the content.

Children who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged through new problems which present the same

concept in increasingly sophisticated problems.

The level of demand is greater for each year group.

Maths - No Problem!

This year at Brookburn, we are introducing Maths - No Problem! to Key Stage 1.

The key features that we believe will impact on the learning of the children include:

A mastery approach that allows enough time on a topic for a child to comprehend it thoroughly before

moving on.

An emphasis on problem solving and collaborative learning.

A focus on leading the children to make connections between what they have learnt and how to apply it.

Emphasis on the use of concrete apparatus (numicon, unifix, tens frames, variety of objects to count) for

all learners until they are secure in their conceptual understanding and move on to pictorial and abstract.

Opportunities for quality talk: Knowing something in mathematics is only the start, children will be ex-

pected to develop depth of understanding through using higher order skills of explaining, reasoning, justi-

fying and conjecturing.

Work books provide practice of the maths concept through systematic variation. This is a shift from the

previous norm of practicing a procedure presented in the same way. Each example demands that the

child shows understanding of the concept and it not simply repeating a procedure.

Please look through the text books where you will see the In Focus and Guided Practice. These will pro-

vide the children with the chance to explore the concept in groups with resources to help them. The guid-

ed practice will involve the teacher questioning the children as they continue to explore and problem

solve.

The workbooks allow pupils to work independently, demonstrate their understanding and assess their

own learning.

el

Developing Reasoning

Here are a few of the types of questions teachers use with children at Brookburn to develop the

higher order skills needed to encourage children to explain and reason about their mathematics.

When using Maths No Problem! these types of questions will be used during the In Focus and Guid-

ed Practice which provide investigative explorations.

Children will become familiar with these types of questions, and over time they will develop the skill to

respond with increasing depth. This will involve them making connections within their maths learning

and demonstrating relational understanding between maths concepts. These questions are used

throughout the school as part of a whole school drive to develop deep thinking mathematicians.

For further information on Maths-No Problem! the following websites may be useful:

http://www.mathsnoproblem.co.uk/

https://brookburn.wordpress.com/curriculum/national-curriculum-info/

Developing Strategies

All children at Brookburn are encouraged to use a variety of strategies when investigating and problem

solving. In KS1 these are introduced and taught through the teacher modelling and demonstrating the

strategy so that children may independently select them as their confidence grows. The strategies

include the following:

Reason logically

Make a list or table

Trial and improvement

Try a simpler version

Make a prediction

Look for a pattern

Act it out

Draw a picture

In Maths - No Problem! In Focus and Guided Practice provide many opportunities for these strate-

gies to be developed in a context. In addition to this, children will be presented with other prob-

lems to solve from a variety of sources trialled and researched last year as part of the whole school

focus on problem solving and reasoning.