Just over two years ago, as newly appointed Maths Leader I had a vision of what an immersive and engaging Maths learning journey could be. I had one overriding hope for what a new approach to teaching Maths would achieve: a shift in pupils’ attitudes to their Maths lessons through fun and engaging experiences of the subject.

 

Many aspects of what we do at Fielding Primary school have combined to make our approach to Maths a unique experience for the children. Now into our second year of transition to a mastery approach to teaching Maths, the Maths@Fielding curriculum continues to evolve and improve through new, innovative teaching pedagogy and by adapting to what best suits the needs of our children.

This is why we don’t follow a set scheme but instead choose to utilise the most effective elements of mastery to maximise the impact it has on our children in each phase of their learning. When we teach for mastery we ‘work towards a fuller understanding’ rather than a complete one, because there are always layers of complexity that feed into our learning. The Maths journey is never complete. If there is one thing we have learned so far from the ‘mastery way’, it is that mastery is an ill-defined approach with many levels of interpretation as to what depth looks like. What we do know however, is that all lessons are deep lessons if we push the boundaries for every pupil.

 

Our ‘Visible Learning’ approach to teaching and learning promotes metacognition and a growth (or mathematical) mindset which enables the children to self-regulate their thinking. This level of higher order thinking allows them to take control of their own learning from the start of every learning journey to the end, creating an experience that starts for every child at their own individual starting point and progressing at a pace best suited to them.

Crucially, this allows all children to access a basic level of National Curriculum skill expectation whilst providing rapid graspers opportunities to deepen their understanding on mathematical concepts and ‘big ideas’ through creative approaches to fluency, reasoning and problem solving.

As a result of the direction we have taken, excellent progress and outcomes across the school are already evident.

I am very pleased to see of the progress we have made, which was witnessed and recognised over the past two weeks of maths subject evaluations. Some of the highlights can be found through the link below but for me personally, as Maths Leader, the most heart-warming and rewarding feedback has come from the children themselves.

 

Overwhelmingly, from speaking to children over the last two weeks – and indeed children from all year groups just passing through the corridors – the message is clear and consistent: they truly love their maths lessons because they are fun, engaging and promote an optimistic sense of exploration through interactive investigations in a consequence free environment. Marvellous mistakes are welcome as an opportunity to extend each child beyond their edge of understanding, through ‘light bulb’ moments, in order to extend their ‘Zone of Proximal Development’.

Together with our MindUp programme and the teaching of brain function, the children learn to understand how brain synapses are created through making mistakes and realising connections to prior knowledge. New neuropathways are then created and in order for learning to be retained long term, or made ‘sticky’ and well-travelled pathways need to be solidified through depth of understanding. Contextual and Procedural variation through the CPA (Concrete – Pictorial – Abstract) approach help to create ‘Brain crossing’ which helps learning maths more powerfully. Each child sees Maths in different ways. This is why we encourage freedom in their thinking and for each child to draw, visualise and represent mathematical concepts in various ways.

 

The development of a positive appreciation for the subject by the children - along with transferable life skills and promotion of an inquisitive, growth mindset towards Maths - is what was originally intended and to see that vision coming to life this early in the transition is more than I could have hoped for when the idea of a Fielding Maths learning journey was first conceived back two years ago.

Please follow this link below to the Maths Curriculum page for more information about why we have chosen this direction, a pdf. on how we teach Maths and some of the recent comments celebrating our early successes from our latest subject evaluation.

http://www.fieldingprimary.com/mathematics/

Mr McConnachie

Maths Leader