At Our Lady of Mount Carmel RC Primary School the teaching of mathematics enables our pupils to develop the skills of numeracy and the ability to apply those skills in different situations across the curriculum and in daily living outside school. Our Maths Lead is Miss McIntyre.

We believe that Mathematics is an exploratory and problem solving activity that develops reasoning and thinking, which must be supported by a sound knowledge and continually developing skills.

While it may be taught as a separate subject, it will be an integral part of the pupils learning experience and will make an important contribution to their personal development.

Since January 2014 the new statutory requirements for the teaching and learning of Maths have been adopted  by all classes.

The National Curriculum order for mathematics describes in detail what pupils must learn in each year group. Combined with our Calculation Policy, this ensures continuity and progression and high expectations for attainment in mathematics.

Pupils participate in daily maths lessons in which they are provided with a variety of opportunities to develop and extend their Mathematical skills, including: group work; paired work; whole class teaching and individual work. Pupils engage in: the development of mental strategies; written methods; practical work; investigational work; problem solving; mathematical discussion; consolidation of basic skills and number facts and maths games.

We recognise the importance of establishing a secure foundation in mental calculation and recall of number facts before standard written methods are introduced.

We use accurate mathematical vocabulary in our teaching and children are expected to use it in their verbal and written explanations.

Aspirations

In order to inspire and prepare our pupils for the world of work, we want them to understand how learning Maths can be useful to them in everyday life and in their future careers.

As Mathematicians our pupils could be:

• A Teacher

• A Sound Engineer

• A Coastguard

• An Astronaut

• A Theme park Designer

More ideas of careers using maths can be found at First Careers

Online Maths Activities

Children make progress best as mathematicians when they regularly repeat skills and practise them until they become embedded.  This can be quite a long process sometimes, and so the use of the context of an exciting game or interesting activity can be highly motivating.  In our experience, our children learn best when they are having fun and that’s what games are for!

We make a lot of use of online Maths games and activities in school.  Some of the links below are our most popular and  great to play at home!

TT Rockstars

https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student

Children from Y3 to Y6  have a log on for TT Rockstars and should practice for 15 minutes at home to help  speed up recall of timestables facts. Children are able to have ‘rock battles’ with their friends and badges to be won!- If you cannot access this at home please speak to your class teacher.

Numbots

https://play.numbots.com/#/account

Children in Y1 and Y2 have a log on for Numbots and should practice for 15 minutes each day to speed up recall of number facts. – If you cannot access this at home please speak to your class teacher.