In our daily mathematics lessons, we help children to acquire
basic mathematical skills and to develop mental strategies to
enable them to solve problems and undertake investigations. There
is a good proportion of oral and practical work, whole class
teaching and many opportunities to work in pairs and groups as well
as individually. We encourage the children to work according to
their own preferred learning style and provide support for those
who would benefit from it. Open-ended questioning, extension
exercises and challenges are used to develop skills further and,
from the start, we give the children investigative tasks to
attempt. The use of correct vocabulary by staff and children helps
the children talk about the strategies they employ to solve
problems.
Teachers incorporate mathematical skills into many areas of the
curriculum and real experiences (such as sales of cakes where Year
2 children are 'shopkeepers' and the younger children are their
customers) are provided whenever possible. A wide range of
resources, including ICT software, is available to stimulate
independent learning and enquiry.
We regard assessment as an integral part of teaching and
learning and use our findings to help the children in our care to
make good progress.
I like maths because it gets your brain going for the rest of
the day.