
Maths
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Maths Events and Activities
CTA
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Maths Non-Negotiables
CTA
Meet our Subject Leaders!
Mrs Alvey and Mrs Yarnold
Meet our Maths Ambassadors!
(From left to right)
Marley G, William A & Chloe P (Not photographed)
Our Maths Ambassadors are elected to support the Maths Leads at Horbury Primary Academy and represent the pupil voice. They are actively involved in the planning of Maths events over the year, looking at Maths work books across school and engaging with the pupils to capture what they think about Maths. We value the pupil voice and our Ambassadors do a great job and are very dedicated!
This year, our maths ambassadors are taking the lead in out TTRS battles across Key Stage 2.
The revised Maths curriculum was designed to ensure that children develop: fluency; reasoning and problem solving. The teaching of Maths at our school should enable children to develop as confident mathematicians who are skilled in fluency, reasoning and problem solving.
Intent
At Horbury Primary Academy, we recognise that Maths is integral to everyday life and with this in mind, we want to ensure that all of our children develop a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards this subject, one that will stay with them forever. The teaching of Maths at our school should enable children to develop as confident mathematicians who are skilled in fluency, reasoning and problem solving. (National Curriculum 2014)
The fundamental skills that children learn in Maths will prepare them well with the essential knowledge and skills required for the next stage in their educational journey and then stay with them forever. This knowledge will be essential for them to succeed in life!
At Horbury Primary Academy, we want children to reach their full potential in Maths and most importantly, to understand that maths is fun and to be enjoyed!
Implementation
At Horbury Primary Academy, we offer our children a rich and enjoyable experience in mathematics by providing the knowledge, skills, concepts and processes that are appropriate to each individual and that relate to the world around them. We make explicit links between real life problems, as this will develop an understanding of mathematical concepts. Maths is a life skill and we try to ensure that real life contexts and links to other curriculum areas are used as frequently as possible.
In our Foundation Stage, Mathematics is supported throughout all areas of provision, both indoors and outdoors. We believe that our children need to develop a strong grounding in number in order to develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Our children should be able to count confidently; develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10 and explore and represent patterns within these numbers.
Our provision is mathematically rich, and our children’s learning is contextualised as we provide a range of real-life experiences such as baking, songs, stories, construction and shopping. To ensure our children have a solid understanding of the basic mathematical concepts in the EYFS Statutory Framework, we use White Rose Maths to help plan our provision as it allows for key mathematical concepts to be revisited and developed further across the year.
In KS1, the learning embeds the skills taught in Foundation stage. The children are exposed to a broader curriculum, which underpins the four number operations, as well as being introduced to new concepts such as learning to tell the time, position and direction and money. The use of manipulatives in their learning is key and develops their understanding through problem solving and reasoning. In Year 1, learning becomes embedded through continuous provision and independent challenges.
In Years 1 – 6, we use White Rose Small Steps of Learning to help plan our provision. We also incorporate CLIC in our daily teaching. Weekly Doctor Doctor Challenge questions allow the children to apply and deepen their learning and mathematical reasoning. We will promote Maths throughout school through meaningful working walls within the classroom and around school. Metacognitive approaches to learning are modelled by teaching staff, to show how to effectively plan, monitor, evaluate and make changes to their learning behaviours. Teachers model how to articulate their thinking when tackling mathematical concepts using sentence stems and pupils are trained to work in this way to deepen their understanding and embed knowledge. The use of the 6 B’s and ‘Little B’s’ scaffold the children’s thinking process and aid independent thinking and learning.
Through their mathematical journey, we encourage all children to develop a positive and confident attitude towards Mathematics, which will enable them to achieve their full mathematical potential.
Throughout the course of their time at our school, we provide opportunities for children to use maths in context, reinforcing the purpose of real-life Maths:
- Counting the profits from bake sales and fundraising days
- Number Day
- Cooking (weighing out the ingredients and increasing the amounts) in Classroom Kitchen sessions
- Stay and play in Maths
- Learning how to manage their own money (Y6 life lifeskills)
- Y6 Fiver Challenge Fair. The Y6 children ‘grow £5’ to make a profit and the school community buy their products
Class teachers are supported in a range of ways:
- Clear non-negotiables for Maths and guidelines for the progression of their subject in their year group
- Termly Pupil Progress Meetings to discuss children’s progress and achievement and address any concerns
- A dedicated Maths team that drives their subject, keeping up to date with new initiatives and developments in an ever-evolving subject.
- Training sessions for staff on developing reasoning skills, physical activity linked to maths (Big Maths; Bar Modelling; Supermovers; PE coordinator organised staff training for TagTiv8 and Orienteering; TTRockstars)
- Opportunities to moderate with year group partners and across the MAT.
Impact
By the time our children leave Foundation Stage, they should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers. They develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary.
Children develop their spatial reasoning skills across all areas of mathematics including shape, space and measures. It is important that they develop positive attitudes and interests in mathematics, look for patterns and relationships, spot connections, ‘have a go’, talk to adults and peers about what they notice and not be afraid to make mistakes.
We measure the impact of our curriculum through the following methods:
- A reflection on standards achieved against the planned outcomes
- Weekly BMBT tests (Y1-Y6) and regular arithmetic tests
- Termly assessment is carried out through the use of NFER tests which are a suite of termly standardised Maths tests which enable school to track progress, predict future performance and benchmark against national averages
- In Foundation Stage, a baseline is carried out at the beginning of the year (RBA) and then children are assessed against Development Matters prior to them moving into year 1. This contributes towards them meeting the Early Learning Goal.
- Pupil discussions about their learning
At the end of their Mathematical journey at Horbury Primary Academy, we expect our children to:
- Perform basic numeracy skills fluently
- Perform basic Mathematical skills to allow them to be secondary school ready
- Understand the Mathematics likely to be encountered in daily life
- Articulate their thinking, reason Mathematically and think logically, using the correct Mathematical vocabulary to develop sound Mathematical discussions
- Identify patterns encountered in diverse situations and to make inferences from these
- Approach problems systematically and choose appropriate techniques for their solution
- Use equipment such as rulers, compasses, protractors etc. correctly and recognise when the use of such equipment is appropriate
- Experience satisfaction in and enjoyment of Mathematical experiences and achievements
- Develop fluency in performing key Mathematical skills so they become second nature.
- Solve problems in a diverse range of situations.
Most importantly, our ultimate aim is to prepare our children well for the future. We want children to leave our Academy with a positive and enthusiastic approach to Maths but most most importantly to understand that Maths is fun and to be enjoyed!
Curriculum Structure
Early Years
Children develop their understanding of number.
Key Stage One and Two
Mathematics is a core subject and is divided into the following areas;
Number
- Number and place value
- Addition and subtraction
- Multiplication and division
- Fractions
Measurement
Geometry
- Properties of shapes
Position and direction
Statistics
Ratio and proportion (Year 6)
Algebra (Year 6)
Continuity and progression are ensured and is appropriately differentiated to meet the needs of our children.
Long Term Plan KS1 and KS2
In Maths, we use White Rose Small Steps of Learning to help plan our provision.
Useful websites
These are helpful Maths websites to use with your children:
http://www.mathematicshed.com/
https://komodomath.com/blog/the-38-challenge-make-times-tables-easy

TagTiv8 is used to consolidate and extend Maths understanding
Big Maths - A Guide for Horbury Primary Academy Parents
Big Maths is a teaching method used at Horbury Primary Academy that embraces the logical nature of maths, translating it into simple Steps and Progress Drives. This makes progress easy and fun for both children and teachers, giving all children the opportunity to achieve. Progress is checked on a weekly basis when the children take part in ‘Big Maths Beat That’.
The Big Maths teaching programme is known as CLIC (Counting, Learn Its, It’s Nothing New and Calculation) and is characterised by accurate steps of progression (known as Progress Drives). This makes new learning easy and obvious to children by cashing in on the timeless natural laws of Maths.
Adults in our school can easily and accurately intervene and plug gaps where necessary. The Progress Drives help to prevent future gaps from developing as all children make their way through the system with the necessary pre-requisite skills to meet new learning with further success and confidence.
CLIC sessions are fast and fun! This daily sequential programme of mental maths provision has a strong emphasis on learned facts which aids the development of children’s mental agility when working with these facts. Our children work mainly on whiteboards so then teachers can ‘brain scan’ their answers. The sessions are fast paced as children need to have maths facts instantly available, rather than counting on their fingers.
Big Maths provides our children with a fun and lively experience as they learn with jingles, songs, games and the famous Big Maths Characters.
Why have we chosen to use Big Maths?
- Clear progression from year to year
- Common language and methods taught are used throughout the school
- Builds on prior learning and ensures children are secure in their knowledge
- Objectives are clearly matched to National Curriculum 2014 objectives
- Improve mental maths skills and general mathematics across the school
- Insists on every child learning
What is CLIC?
Big Maths is based upon the principle that there are 4 core skills that lie at the heart of maths. These core skills form the platform for virtually all other maths skills and are affectionately known as CLIC ….
Counting
Learn Its
It’s Nothing New
Calculations
CLIC is fundamental to mathematical development as it is the learning sequence through which we all develop our numeracy skills.
Learn to count (C)
Learn to remember totals as facts (L)
Apply these facts to new situations through swapping the thing being counted (I)
Apply the first three elements into a formal calculation (C)
By implementing this programme we can ensure that all children have a constant, daily drive to up-level their mathematics knowledge and skills.
Counting – Counting is done in many ways including counting forwards and backwards in various increments; work on place value and reading and ordering numbers.
Learn Its – Learn Its are 72 number facts which are learnt throughout the years from Year 1 to Year 4. They are split across the different terms so that each class works on a few Learn Its at a time, to ensure they are fully embedded. 36 are addition facts and 36 are multiplication facts; these are learnt in class and practiced at home and are tested once a week in school through the ‘Big Maths Beat That!’ Challenge.
It’s Nothing New – Children use a bank of facts and methods that they already have, to solve problems and that each step of progress is very small; children will use and apply their skills and methods to a range of different situations and problems.
Calculation – This is often the main part of the maths lesson which focuses on teaching solid written and mental methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The children move through progress drives which introduce small, focused steps of progress throughout the year.
CLIC on a Thursday or Friday will be a challenge session where the children all take part in Big Maths Beat That! This consists of CLIC Challenges and Learn Its. The CLIC Challenge is 10 questions relating to concepts taught at a child’s own level throughout the daily CLIC sessions and the Learn Its Challenge is a timed challenge which covers all the addition and multiplication facts needed. The aim is to beat their previous score.
Meet the Big Maths Characters
During each lesson on numbers, the children will experience CLIC taught in various ways, often using the Big Maths characters below.
This friendly alien is Pim, the ‘principle of irrelevant matter’! That means that number facts stay the same and it doesn’t matter what you are counting:
3+4=7 is true if you are counting dogs, chocolates, metres, boys, girls or teachers!
Pom is Pim’s friend. He helps children learn specific maths vocabulary so that they can talk about their maths. The space on his tummy is for multiples!
Pom helps the children to learn about factors, square numbers and prime numbers.
When Pom is left with only two factors the number on his tummy is a prime.
Meet Squigglesworth, he is the Place Value Pet!
What is that squiggle worth?
Mully helps children to put numbers in order and work with multiples.
Speedy Col appears for column methods. She is full of energy. She does everything quickly but also carefully too! She likes everything to be done properly and is motivated to get the right results.
SUPER-Fab helps children to hold numbers in their head, do something else and then come back to those numbers. SUPER-Fab reminds children that they are challenged to do something mentally.
How can I help my child?
Help your child to practise their ‘Learn Its’ at home so they become ‘sticky knowledge’.
*Insist that numbers are written the correct way round
*Ask your child to tell you about Big Maths.
*Praise! Celebrate the successes.
*Make maths a positive experience
For more information, please visit the Big Maths Website: http://www.andrelleducation.com/big-maths/
Please click here for our Big Maths Parents’ Meeting Information
"Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computations, or algorithms: it is about understanding William Paul Thurston"
"I like maths because it challenges you but then you get the hang of it! Lucy Year 4"
"Maths is important because you need it in the future when you get a job."






"I enjoy maths but sometimes it can be tricky! Maggie Year 3"
"When I get stuck in maths I use bits and bobs to help me."
"On number day we made our own maths board games. They were all to do with our learning. We really enjoyed playing our board games. 4M"