Hayfield SchoolMaths Curriculum
Mathematical Aims
Mathematics is essential to everyday life and a high-quality mathematical education provides a foundation for understanding and accessing the world. At Hayfield we focus on teaching the aims of the national curriculum:
- Becoming fluent in fundermental Mathematics
- Recalling and applying knowledge learnt across a range of areas
- Mathematical reasoning
- Mathematical language
- Exploring and solving problems
Alongside our own aims, supporting the children to build on important life skills so they can access the wider world and have independence:
- A practical curriculum that offers exploration, problem solving and transferring skills
- A secure knowledge in early number skills
- A larger focus on money and time to support pupils
- Independence
Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract Learning
Practical (Concrete) - we have a very practical approach to teaching maths at hayfield school and ensure the children have access to and are encouraged to use concrete manipulatives (equipment) throughout every lesson. We understand the importance of manipulatives to support mathematical concepts and learning for children of all ages. Using practical equipment supports the children to create pictures in their mind which they will then be able to use and draw upon in future learning. This apporoach is the one, as a school, we mainly use and spend the most time on as it allows for children to gain a secure understanding of early number skills.
Pictures (Pictorial) - once the children have a secure understanding of concrete approaches they then move onto pictorial representations. They are shown a range of models they could use to show their thinking through pictorial methods. Teachers will often link the concrete approaches the children have previously learnt to the pictorial ones they then begin to use e.g. using base ten equipment and then drawing base tens.
Number Sentences (Abstract) - the final approach we use is for the children to record and solve their abstract number sentences. This will be linked back to the concrete and pictorial approaches the children have been using.
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