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Maths at Ysgol Bryn Hedydd
Mathematics teaches us how to make sense of the world around us through developing a child’s ability to calculate, to reason and to solve problems. It enables children to understand and appreciate relationships and pattern in both number and space in their everyday lives.
Through our mathematics lessons at Ysgol Bryn Hedydd it is our aim to develop:
To develop depth of understanding, we try to use what is called the Concrete – Pictorial – Abstract (CPA) approach. This is highly successful in areas such as Singapore and Shanghai. It means showing children with physical (concrete) models what a maths idea such as place value, subtraction or ratio really means. When children have a chance to see and touch maths in physical models, they start to develop a depth of understanding.
Teachers then show how to develop this understanding using a diagram (picture) before progressing to a purely abstract approach (just symbols such as words and numbers). Skilfully used, they provide the right support to CPA All children.
Teaching and learning style
The school uses a variety of teaching and learning styles in mathematics lessons. Our principal aim is to develop children’s knowledge, skills and understanding in mathematics. We do this through a daily mathematics lesson where children are given opportunities for:
Depth of Learning - Longer blocks of time
We use a Mastery curriculum designed to teach all concepts in longer blocks of time so that the children have time to understand and learn an idea in all its forms and subtleties. This curriculum is called the White Rose curriculum, and was developed by a government funded maths hub. This curriculum is supported by further materials from Oxford University and the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics (NCETM). You will see that our curriculum puts an equal emphasis on developing fluency (quick recall of facts and concepts) and then applying this to reasoning problems and problem solving.
Maths Vocabulary
It is important for children to use correct mathematical vocabulary and have an understanding of what these terms mean. Below is a useful document from Rising Stars.
It shows the vocabulary used in our school from Reception to Year 6.