Bridgelea Maths Curriculum 

 

At Bridgelea we want our children to love Maths. Grounded in the nurture principle that learning is understood developmentally, we want them to be actively engaged and physically ‘doing’ the Maths. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be architects, pharmacists, and accountants and feel confident in maths. 

The Maths curriculum has been carefully sequenced and designed so that our children develop their analytical skills, critical thinking, and understanding. Maths is taught at “stage not age.” We use the Numicon approach with a concrete, pictorial, and abstract element throughout all lessons. Staff have access to the Teacher Handbooks and Online Resources, along with the Oak National Academy scheme to supplement learning. We develop arithmetic fluency with the use of Number Sense Maths. Concrete materials are an integral part of teaching and delivering Maths across our school; this supports children to reduce unnecessary cognitive load, visualise their Maths, and then generalise to support problem-solving.  

At Bridgelea, we teach the children foundational skills—teaching them number sense, place value, arithmetic fluency, mathematical language and reasoning, and problem-solving.  

Why do we use a blended approach to Oak National Academy and Numicon? 

At Bridgelea, we have an individual view of our children. We understand the ways in which they learn, and we want the children to be engaged with their Maths learning. We make deliberate pedagogical choices to prioritise progress makers and take the shortest path to learning. We like the structure and progression that Oak National Academy resources provide, but we take more of a practical approach from the Numicon resources to encourage enjoyment, active engagement, and children experiencing success in Maths.  

How have skills progressed? 

As we teach “stage not age,” mathematical learning is broken down into manageable chunks to support progression. The way in which Maths is taught in our classroom is heavily adapted to suit the varying needs of the children. The school’s Long-Term Plan (LTP) is differentiated to the previous and next year’s group to support mixed-age planning.  

We follow Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, following the ‘I do,’ ‘We do,’ ‘You do’ approach. This allows for explicit teacher modelling, worked examples, and guided practice, ensuring we check understanding before independent work. It supports the building of independence within children and establishes a cycle which gradually shifts responsibility from the teacher to the children.  

The key activities (‘I do’) support progression alongside key teaching strategies and activities for each mathematical strand. Teachers will use the LTP to ensure that skills are taught in a chronological order to promote a solid understanding of concepts.  

We have identified the core knowledge that children must know, and this is taught on a yearly basis. Additional knowledge (coloured in orange on the school’s LTP) will be taught in addition to the core knowledge on a bi-annual cycle.  

Bridgelea process for Teaching Maths 

The Maths LTP stipulates the mathematical topics that are covered throughout the year. At Bridgelea, we focus on teaching the core knowledge and building on that. Where possible, teachers endeavor to revisit topics within each term (a 12-week period) to revisit learning regularly and support retrieval practice. However, we understand that we must be flexible and adaptable to suit the needs of the children and aim to ensure a full coverage of the Mathematics National Curriculum to give our children the best possible Maths education, prioritising learning over task completion. Teachers always meet children where they are at.  

Using the LTP, teachers will select the mathematical focus being taught. For example, in Week 3 & 4 it will be an additional focus. Using the LTP with the weekly breakdown, teachers will select the appropriate activity group that needs to be delivered in their class. This may be a short revisit of past activities or moving on to the next activity group that is in chronological order to aid the progression of skills. It is the professional judgement of the teacher through assessment to select the relevant activity groups that they deliver based on individual needs. Where possible, children should all access the same mathematical topic throughout the school. However, to ensure full coverage of the curriculum, this might differ slightly depending on the stage that the children are working at.  

It is important that teachers give children the opportunity to use and apply financial literacy skills throughout all mathematical topics. Therefore, where possible, financial literacy activities should be planned throughout each block of teaching.  

The structure of a lesson at Bridgelea 

We have the same lesson structure for every lesson at Bridgelea. To begin our lessons, teachers start by checking prior knowledge and activating prior learning with a ‘Switch On’ task, followed by a ‘Talk Task’ and retrieval practice using mini whiteboards to check every brain.  

Teachers then delve into the main input of the lesson, with fluid use of ‘I do,’ ‘We do,’ ‘You do’ activities. This is followed by a ‘Hinge’ question, which is what teachers use for formative assessment to identify misconceptions before teaching and ensure that the children are ready to complete their independent and supported tasks. If children are not ready to access independent learning, teachers use this point of the lesson to offer immediate interventions to deal with misconceptions.  

An ‘Exit Task’ is given to the children at the end of the lesson. If the ‘Hinge’ question identifies any children are ready to move on, they are offered an ‘Explore and Extend’ task.  

In addition to daily Maths lessons, counting skills will be practiced daily during Early Bird activities to develop fluency.  

Rapid recall of basic facts 

Basic facts such as recalling number sense, number bonds, and times tables are taught daily through Number Sense Maths, Early Bird, and Maths lesson starter activities. Please see the LTP above to support the delivery of Maths Early Bird activities. Counting must be a regular part of Maths starter activities.  

How are gaps plugged? 

We understand children’s learning is developmental and teach at a “stage not age”. Early Bird is an opportunity for identifying and closing knowledge gaps and pre-teaching. This will support children who need additional practice. Our assessment tracker, Learn Trek, provides targets for children to cover. Early Bird activities should encompass the concrete, pictorial, and abstract approach we use at Bridgelea.  

The Numicon Intervention Programme is a bespoke intervention delivered on a one-to-one or small group basis with a TA to support children who have significant gaps in Key Stage 1 but are aged in Key Stage 2.  

Number Box or Power of 2 may also be appropriate for some children and can be delivered by a TA. Please have a discussion with the Maths Lead (Chloe Smith) if you have any concerns regarding children’s attainment in Maths. This also supports practice and consolidation.  

How is Geometry, Measure and Statistics covered? 

Geometry, Measure, and Statistics are embedded and taught as part of the overall curriculum, delivered by class teachers, and delivered by HLTA’s and TA3’s during the class teachers’ PPA time (every 2 weeks).  

The Year 1, Year 2, Year 4, and Year 6 Maths curriculum all have a financial literacy unit which is taught explicitly. However, there is no financial literacy unit in the Year 3 or Year 5 curriculum; instead, financial literacy is taught in the Year 3 and Year 5 curriculum throughout the year.  

How will teachers assess children’s progress? 

On entry, during the first two weeks of the Autumn term, class teachers will baseline-assess the children in all mathematical strands using the NCETM’s assessment materials. When teachers are planning the delivery of their lessons, they should be mindful of the resources available from Numicon and use this primarily, with the resources from Oak National Academy to supplement lessons where appropriate and necessary. Children will work on their problem-solving skills throughout the entire curriculum, as we plan and teach for Mastery. Throughout the year, teachers will use Learn Trek (our assessment tool) using their teacher’s knowledge and judgement to capture and determine children’s progress and assess learning.  

Additionally, at the end of every unit, we assess the children using the exit questions, which is usually one per lesson covered in each unit. 

Teachers will use Learn Trek to capture progress and assess learning. Evidence in each child’s books will look different as the journey to answering the questions will be personalised to the needs of the individual children in the class. However, as the NCETM uses standardised questions for year groups, this will support our internal moderation process.  

To support progression of skills and transition into new classes, teachers will have a transition meeting with the children’s new teacher, reporting on their progress throughout their time in the class.  

Where children are achieving more than 85% of a year’s group objectives, teachers should ensure that they are aware of the objectives of the year group above and ensure that children can access learning activities to ensure good progress in Maths. This will mean that children are accessing more than one year of learning to support progression.  

At Bridgelea we use the teaching resource, Numicon to deliver the Maths curriculum. 

Numicon is a multisensory approach to teaching Maths and a huge focus on concrete, pictorial and abstract is used in each class. 

Here is an example of the CPA approach : 

Children being taught to add using the column method would practice like this : 

An example of pictorial addition may look like this;