At Summer Lane Primary School, we endeavour to teach Maths so children are taught to apply their knowledge and skills to a range of practical, real life contexts, to ensure their learning is both purposeful and meaningful. Underpinning this is the requirement for fluency, which is a whole-school focus. Skills are linked and taught together to maximise teaching and learning time to give context to learning.

Our teaching is based on the recommended National Curriculum, which has been personalised to meet the needs of our learners. 'Maths Year on a Page' has been developed for each individual year group to ensure pace and progression across school. Sitting behind these are our 'Curriculum Guides', which aim to support key subject knowledge, address common misconceptions as well as make links with other maths concepts to support an integrated approach.

The Accelerated Learning Cycle, based on the work of Alastair Smith, is applied in all lessons. It stems from the idea of a supportive and challenging learning environment. Implementation of accelerated learning, supported by EEF metacognition research, has ensured the pace of learning is appropriate and has enabled pupils to secure rapid and sustained progress which has improved outcomes and standards within each lesson.

Within maths sessions, adaptive teaching is effective through the use of progressive and open-ended problems. Pupils are provided with the opportunity to move through carefully selected tasks starting at the level most appropriate to their starting point. Activities are adapted to meet the needs of each individual child, with scaffolds and challenges available for children to use to guide their own learning journey. Through this adaptive approach, we aim to support pupils to take ownerships of their learning and develop independence.

Formative assessment is ongoing throughout each lesson. It judges progress and enables the teacher to make flexible adaptations to their planned teaching.  Effective formative assessment, daily marking and feedback and adult interaction within lessons is firmly embedded into our approach when teaching maths. All pupils are supported to develop, progress and move their learning forward through support, questioning and feedback. Pupils demonstrate the impact this has on improving their learning through editing and response.

The use of clear learning objectives and success criteria ensures pupils to understand their learning and become self-regulated learners who aspire to achieve to their full potential

Maths is assessed by teachers who use trackers for their year groups to allocate a level and next steps for each pupil. Cross moderation occurs in school to ensure moderation is carried out correctly.

Times Tables 

Why do we learn times tables?

In primary schools, times tables knowledge is vital for quick mental maths calculations and problem solving, as well as for many of the topics children learn in KS2 (division, fractions, percentages). In secondary school, good multiplication skills are a great help when starting to learn algebra, as well as chemistry, physics, biology and computing, all of which depend heavily on maths knowledge.

Is chanting enough?

Rote learning isn't enough to help children recall or apply their tables facts and a strategy-based approach is required to allow children to understand and make use of the properties of and connections within maths.

What are the expectations of each child?

EYFS focus on the development of number patterns and repeated addition.

Y1 pupils will explore 2, 5 and 10 times tables throughout the year.

Y2 pupils will be taught 2, 5, 10, with the more able also covering 3 times tables.

Y3 will continue to work on 2, 5 and 10 times tables and also 4 and 8's.

Y4 pupils should know all the times tables – they will need regular practise opportunities and should be able to mix times tables confidently.

Y5 and 6 pupils will continue to rehearse and develop their times table skills using larger numbers.

How do we teach Times Tables across school?

Our policy will share a number of ideas for the teaching of key strategies in KS1 and KS2 and provide ideas to support children in developing rapid recall of times tables through understanding the underlying structure of and relationships with multiplication.

How do we baseline children?

Using Times Table Rock Stars (TTRS), the baseline is needed to see and compare improvement. When using the iPad the baseline simply requires playing a 'Gig' game. This issues 100 multiplication questions on the 10s, followed by 10 questions on each of the 2s, 5s, 3s, 4s, 8s, 6s, 7s and 9s and then 5 questions on the 11s and the 12s. There is a 5 minute time limit and pupils will not necessarily get round to answering all 100 questions during that time which is fine.

After the gig, pupils will be placed at the best starting point on the training course. IMPORTANT: Automatic training mode needs to be turned on for 'gig' game to appear! (Set tables>choose class>automatic training turn on)

How can we personalise Times Tables for every pupil?

Using TTRS, we select specific tables that we want the pupils to work on. We also use ‘maths on a page’ and each pupil’s ‘personalised heatmap’ for guidance on what times tables the children in our classes need to be focusing on. It is easy to ensure that all pupils are challenged through a wide variety of times tables.

We provide time for pupils to practise their focus times tables and make sure they are set them on TTRS. When pupils have selected ‘Garage’ or ‘Arena’ they are purely tested on their focus tables set by teachers. If they choose ‘Studio’ or ‘Festival’ they are focusing on random tables up to 12 x 12.

Little and often is better than a long session once a week. Alongside the use of TTRS, we understand the importance that we teach strategies to build on conceptual understanding and progressive steps can be found on the calculation policy.

After pupils have completed their baseline, they will have their own personalised heatmap. These should be analysed by the class teacher to ensure personalised times tables are set for specific groups.

Over the course of the term pupils should gain confidence in their set times tables when using the ‘garage’ feature.On a weekly basis (especially with Y3 & Y4) pupils should take the ‘soundcheck’ assessment to evaluate their progress towards the expected standard. The ‘soundcheck’ replicates the test Y4 pupils will be taking nationally.

It is expected that children achieve a score of 20+ by the end of Y4 in order to pass the Multiplication Times Table Check

How do we ensure that children know more and remember more in each year group?

It is important to ensure that children get a chance to revisit times tables they have previously been taught along with their focus tables that half term.

Questions can be generated through the TTRS website and teachers can select a range of tables they would like their children to answer. This enables children to revisit and make links to previous learning and further their understanding.