Mathematics
Mathematics at Dovecot Primary School
We believe that Mathematics should always be a creative and interactive subject in which all students get to discover new concepts and connections and make sense of the world around them. Mathematics is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
The national curriculum for Mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:
Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time.
Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
We believe that all children are capable of achieving high standards in Mathematics: there is no such thing as ‘not a Maths person’. As a result, children should progress through the curriculum content at the same pace, allowing time to consolidate and challenge as is appropriate for each child. Teaching should be adapted to meet the needs of all learners, including through the consistent use of concrete resources and calculation mats to scaffold learning.
Ultimately, our goal is always to help children to grow as mathematicians, to take pride in their ownerships of number facts, mathematical concepts and strategies and to find pleasure in their ability to apply what they have learned in a rich variety of contexts.
White Rose
At Dovecot Primary we use the DfE approved White Rose scheme to structure our curriculum and sequence our learning. We have chosen this scheme because it: emphasises a CPA (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract) approach that helps our pupils to develop a deep understanding of mathematical concepts and approaches; ensures pupils' experience of Mathematics across the school is consistent, allowing them to make good progress; provides daily opportunities for students to extend their understanding through reasoning and problem solving; and supports our pupils working collaboratively and developing high quality Maths talk to explain their thinking to each other. However, we also carefully tailor the scheme to the needs of our children. In particular, our 'Dovecot approach' includes starting each unit with a dedicated 'hands-on' Maths lesson, in which we put the books away and explore what we will be learning with concrete resources.
Click on the links below to find out more about how our curriculum is structured in each year.
Calculation Policy
At Dovecot Primary, we believe that Maths is always a hands-on subject. Whatever stage our children are at - whether they are learning to count, building their number bonds to ten, mastering division or exploring algebra - we make sure that we give them rich encounters with concrete resources. This helps them to really grasp the key mathematical ideas that we encounter, and can act as a crucial tool in building their independence.
Spending time with concrete resources allows us to then move students on to pictorial representations, and ultimately to abstract thinking and calculation.
We use virtual manipulative environments such as Mathsbot and Polypad to bridge the gap between concrete and pictorial representation and allow pupils and staff to investigate new concepts together.
Click below to learn more about our Calculation Policy, which explains our CPA approach in more detail.
Basic Skills
A key focus of our regular Basic Skills session is the development of varied and sophisticated mental strategies. This helps our students think flexibly about Maths and to build their own identity as mathematicians.
One of the most important parts of this is ensuring that our pupils 'own' the key maths facts that they need. We use a set of carefully chosen routines to develop number fluency in a way that stays useful for pupils throughout the entirety of their primary education.
Click the video below to see some of our students demonstrating how to play 'I have... You need'. Initially, this routine helps pupils develop automaticity in their number bonds to ten. As pupils progress, however, it can be used to solidify their grasp of number bonds to larger milestone numbers like 100 and 1,000. Watch two of our Year 6 students below apply the same game to make 1 using decimal fractions.
I have... You need
Supporting Your Child at Home
Top Tips
Be positive about Maths when you talk with your child (even if you don't always feel that way yourself). It is all too easy for children to pick up the idea that they might not be a 'Maths person'.
Point out the Maths you use in everyday life (numbers, counting, measuring): at the shops, on the bus, when you're cooking. This helps your child understand that Maths is both familiar and invaluable.
Celebrate your child's efforts and achievements in Maths: every step is a victory!
Sites to support learning
This website is our main vehicle for times tables fluency. Your child will receive a log-in from school that they can use to practise at home. The algorithm learns exactly where each child is up to, and provides teachers with a 'heat map' that shows which times tables they have mastered and where they need more practice.
White Rose 1-Minute Maths
A free app linked directly to our Maths scheme that lets you practise essential numeracy skills at all ages.
This is a fantastic resource that you can sign up to for free. It gives you access to hundreds of fantastic activities for families to do together, focussing on building everyone's confidence with number.
Based in the Mathematics department at Cambridge University, this is an excellent source of high-quality problems and investigations to get you and your child talking about Maths.
Oxford Owl contains a wealth of resources to get your family talking and thinking about Maths, including helpful guidance on skills like times tables and overcoming Maths anxiety.
This is a fantastic podcast for developing flexible mental strategies. Their weekly #MathsStratChat, in which they set an arithmetic problem and invite people around the globe to solve it in their own way, is a wonderful way to get your family excited about mental maths.
Interactive Sites and Maths Games
While we want to be careful about the impact that screen time can have on young learners, there are many fantastic free resources for educational Maths games. Here's a couple of our favourites: