Brudenell Primary School

At Brudenell children are encouraged to explore Maths and present their findings not only in a written form but also visually; to that end the school has adopted the CPA approach: concrete, pictorial, abstract. This will allow the children to experience the physical aspects of Maths alongside presenting their findings and understandings in a visual form to show a greater understanding of the abstract form. 

This is more of a CPA triangle where you don’t necessarily start with say the concrete but would use all the methods to deepen the learning. 

We are following a scheme that has been recommended through the NCETM, we are currently in our second year of the mastery programme. There is overlap from the readiness programme due to lockdown. The programme focusses on first assessing the current provision of maths in school and addressing weaknesses and then skilling the lead practitioner up in the 5 big ideas of the mastery curriculum so that he is able to teach and advise others on the pedagogy of the mastery curriculum. 

Pupils across school secure a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. This is taught to maths coordinator and ks1 lead through the 5 big ideas: 

Coherence 

Lessons are broken down into small connected steps that gradually unfold the concept, providing access for all children and leading to a generalisation of the concept and the ability to apply the concept to a range of contexts. 

Representation and Structure – CPA – manipulatives and visual representations 

Representations used in lessons expose the mathematical structure being taught, the aim being that students can do the maths without recourse to the representation 

Mathematical Thinking   

If taught ideas are to be understood deeply, they must not merely be passively received but must be worked on by the student: thought about, reasoned with and discussed with others. 

Fluency 

Quick and efficient recall of facts and procedures and the flexibility to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics. At Brudenell we believe it is important that children from an early age develop their fluency in number facts and mathematical procedure in order that they are able to grasp new concepts quicker and to a greater depth of understanding. This would involve daily practices and consolidation of taught knowledge through the form of Fluent in 5 or Flashback 4, both of these resources support this. 

Variation 

Variation is twofold. It is firstly about how the teacher represents the concept being taught, often in more than one way, to draw attention to critical aspects, and to develop deep and holistic understanding.  

We believe that maths has fluency, reasoning and problem solving are at the heart of good learning. Children at Brudenell are taught the fundamentals of maths and this explored so that they have a deep understanding of the concepts rather than being taught superficial tricks to solve calculations and having no real understanding of the concepts taught or are unable to explain the maths. 

We aim to develop lively, enquiring minds encouraging pupils to become self-motivated, confident and capable in order to solve problems that will become an integral part of their future.  

The National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:  

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems  

• reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language  

• can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions. 

At Brudenell children are encouraged to explore Maths and present their findings not only in a written form but also visually; to that end the school has adopted the CPA approach: concrete, pictorial, abstract. This will allow the children to experience the physical aspects of Maths alongside presenting their findings and understandings in a visual form to show a greater understanding of the abstract form. 

This is more of a CPA triangle where you don’t necessarily start with say the concrete but would use all the methods to deepen the learning.