‘I hear, and I forget
I see, and I remember
I do and I understand.’
A
t Wisborough Green Primary School, we focus on developing children's mental arithmetic, investigative skills, reasoning and understanding of number, with practical learning experiences relevant to the real world. This provides children with opportunities to make rich connections between mathematical ideas and the wider curriculum. We also help our children to become fluent in solving calculations involving the four mathematical operations and to equip them with the tools to solve a variety of problems. Children are 
constantly challenged to explain why, to prove how they know, to show us that they are correct or to find all possible outcomes.
In 2020/21, Wisborough Green became a member of the Sussex Maths Hub. This programme is funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and coordinated by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM). Through our focus on a mastery approach, we are working with other schools to develop and improve mathematics teaching, leadership, and professional learning practice. A central component in the NCETM/Maths Hubs programmes is a focus on Five Big Ideas, drawn from research evidence, underpinning teaching for mastery. The diagram below is used to help bind these ideas together. We also ensure that a Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract approach (CPA) is embedded in our teaching in order to develop fluent mathematicians.
Mathematics is taught daily at Wisborough Green, through a range of approaches. Firstly, we plan and teach sessions which relate to the foundations and long-term planning of White Rose Maths. This planning is further adapted to suit the needs of our children. We also incorporate Numicon and NCETM resources to support teaching and learning.
Alongside this, we teach mental maths strategies and fluency through Big Maths. Big Maths is based on four core skills that form the platform for virtually all other maths skills and are known as CLIC:
- Counting,
- Learn its,
- It's nothing new,
- Calculations.
We have adapted Big Maths to ensure it has the best possible impact on our children and their progress by focusing on the first three core skills and incorporating calculations into our daily sessions. We teach three 30-minute Big Maths sessions per week.
At Wisborough Green, every child has a personalised mental arithmetic objective that they are working towards. Once children have mastered their objective, they receive a wristband that they can wear proudly in and out of school. There are various wristbands to earn, and children focus on one objective each week. The objective may stay the same for several weeks while the children build their confidence in each objective. The system starts with ‘Number Bonds to 10’ and steadily progresses towards ‘Using 12x12 times tables facts fluently and confidently’. Apart from the Reception strand, the rest of the objectives are not year group specific as we want to ensure that gaps are filled and secured. Children have a clear focus to work on and wear their wristbands with pride! 
Please see the National curriculum in England: mathematics programmes of study for a detailed outline of the programme of study for each year group.
Supporting your child with maths at home
Whilst children learn about maths in school every day, there are also lots of ways that you may want to support your child at home. All our children have a subscription to TTRS Times Tables Rockstars and NumBots as we believe that regular practice is vital to help improve children’s understanding of number. Number bonds and multiplication and division facts underpin many areas of the mathematics curriculum so a solid understanding is going to help children feel more secure and develop their confidence with maths.
We put a great emphasis on maths in the early years therefore, on entry into Reception at Wisborough Green, our PTA kindly provide every child with an individual set of Numicon resources to use at home. Maths is taught daily in EYFS and children are given opportunities to explore with different amounts, a variety of spaces, compare sizes and spot patterns. We also take part in finger rhymes and spend time focusing on using vocabulary to compare amounts and sizes. We use the Numbersense programme to underpin our teaching of number and to secure the understanding of numbers to 10, whilst ensuring they have a full understanding of subitizing. By using these approaches, we are building on the early foundations in preparation for Year One.
There are lots of practical ways to include maths in your everyday life such as baking, counting and sharing, learning the time, measuring distance and many more. Below is a list of websites you may find helpful. The most important thing you can do is to make learning maths FUN!
EYFS /KS1
Numbots
Times Tables Rockstars TTRS (Year2)
ictgames || html5 Home Page
Hit the Button - Quick fire maths practice for 5-11 year olds (topmarks.co.uk)
Crickweb | KS1 Numeracy
Fun maths games and activities | Oxford Owl
KS1 Maths - England - BBC Bitesize
Arcademics - Math Games, Language Arts Games, and much more
Numberblocks - CBeebies - BBC
Numbertime videos (via YouTube)
KS2
TTRS
Hit the Button - Quick fire maths practice for 5-11 year olds (topmarks.co.uk)
Most Popular Free Maths Games - Mathsframe
Crickweb | KS2 Numeracy
Home - Maths Zone Cool Learning Games
Fun maths games and activities | Oxford Owl
KS2 Maths - BBC Bitesize
Math is Fun (mathsisfun.com)
This link will take you to Oxford Owls, where there are a variety of videos demonstrating how school teaches your children maths as well as ways you can help them.
https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/at-school/maths-at-primary-school/
Place Value - how to videos
