Maths

Maths at Holy Trinity

At Holy Trinity, it is our belief that the purpose of education is to provide young people with the knowledge and skills to prepare children for their working lives, build character, teach knowledge for its own intrinsic value and ignite a love of learning. We believe that our pupils have the opportunity to explore concepts and build on prior learning, taking small steps to achieve greater understanding along their mathematical learning journey. This allows all to discover that Maths is an integral part of everyday routine; bringing the abstract world to life. The Maths a child discovers at Holy-Trinity will form the building blocks for future learning, used throughout their lives.

Our aim is for children to leave Holy Trinity with a fluent procedural and conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts, confidence to problem solve and the knowledge to reason and justify. We endeavour to provide a Mastery Curriculum to support all children in reaching their full potential in preparation for secondary school and adult life.

Mastery Approach

Throughout Holy Trinity, we follow the Mastery approach using the White Rose Maths programme. Within White Rose Maths, children deepen their understanding of mathematical concepts, becoming more confident and competent and ready to face new challenges. It is important that pupils are secure in their knowledge and understanding across all mathematical areas and show resilience in their learning. Mathematics is taught through three main types of questioning: Varied Fluency, Reasoning and Problem Solving. Children explore and unpick mathematical concepts, working through differentiated work but within mixed ability grouping. This means that all pupils, regardless of their mathematical ability, can support one another in understanding concepts.

As part of our mastery development, we work closely with mastery specialist with the Maths Hubs.

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How do our pupils learn methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division?

We use the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract) approach.

Concrete

Children use equipment to represent and manipulate calculations physically. They do this in a range of different ways. Showing children multiple representations allows teachers to identify any misconceptions or gaps in their learning. This hands on approach starts in the early years and continues right the way up into Year 6 where children may be seen using equipment to help them solve complicated fractions questions! It is vital that children understand what is happening with numbers in a calculation, we do not want children follow a set of rules without a deep understanding.

Pictorial

Once children have mastered manipulating equipment to represent calculations, they move on to drawing pictorial representation of equipment. This provides children with the understanding of what is happening without the need of equipment.

Abstract

This is the 'end goal', the formal, written method for calculations. For example, column addition or subtraction. We only want children to use this approach when they are secure with the first two stages. This is to ensure that they fully understand what is happening with numbers.

CPA Approach Example - Addition

How can you support your child at home?

Number facts

Children need to be able to recall and use a range of number facts to support their understanding of mathematics from an early age. It is essential that children build the foundations of secure number facts in order to support them throughout their journey in education.

This starts in Early Years, where children learn how to subitise - to identify the number of 'things' in a set without having to count them. When children are proficient with this skill, they are more likely to have a secure understanding of 'number' - knowing how a number is made up e.g. 7 is made of; 0+7, 1+6, 2+5 etc. When children can subitise efficiently, they are more proficient at adding and subtracting.

Children also need to recognise number bonds in order to access maths throughout the school. E.g. knowing that 3 and 3 make 6. This is built upon later in children's school life when they look at 30+30, 0.3 + 0.3, 3/10+3/10 etc.

Although this is not a definitive list of skills children are expected to acquire, it is an insight in to the importance of the number facts children learn in Early Years.

To support parents and children in developing these number facts, we subscribe to the app 'Numbots'. This app is designed to develop children's number facts including subitising! Your child should have their username and password in their planner. Please speak to your child's class teacher if this is missing.

Times Table Facts

When it comes to times tables, speed AND accuracy are important – the more facts your child remembers, the easier it is for them to work with harder calculations.

Times Table Rock Stars is a fun and challenging programme designed to help students master the times tables! Every pupil has a TTRockstars account to use at home and in school. Times Tables Rock Stars is a carefully sequenced programme of daily times tables practice set to children’s individual needs by their class teacher. Weekly and termly tournaments take place across school and within year groups so it is important that every child plays regularly to win battles and earn coins! Children can practice in the 'Garage', earn their rock status in the 'Studio' or compete against their peers in the 'Arena'. Pupils can even challenge their peers to a battle in 'Rockslam'.

Rock Status

It’s helpful to understand that the quicker your child can answer a times tables question, the higher their Rock Status. Use this list as a guide to help your child work out their Rock Status: