Mathematics at Cotsford
At Cotsford, we aim to provide all pupils with a mathematics curriculum which will produce individuals who are literate, creative, independent, enquiring and confident. We also aim to provide a stimulating environment and adequate resources so that pupils can develop their mathematical skills to their full potential.
Mastery teaching
Fluency involves:
- Quick recall of facts and procedures.
- The flexibility and fluidity to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics.
- The ability to recognise relationships and make connections in maths.
Representation and structure
Mathematical structures are the key patterns and generalisations that underpin sets of numbers – they are the laws and relationships that we want children to spot. Using different representations can help children to ‘see’ these laws and relationships.
Variation
Procedural Variation – This is a deliberate change in the type of examples used and questions set, to draw attention to certain procedures.
Conceptual Variation – When a concept is presented in different ways, to show what a concept is, in all of its different forms.
Mathematical thinking involves, looking for patterns and relationships, logical reasoning and making connections. Teachers will develop detailed knowledge of the curriculum in order to break the mathematics down into small steps to develop mastery and address all aspects in a logical progression. This will ensure deep and sustainable learning for all pupils.
Please click the link for Maths National Curriculum Information
Genius Maths Booster Support
Below is a link for the Genius Maths Booster Support to support maths learning for Year 6. There are thousands of questions and each has a video linked to it in case you get stuck!
Summer 2
In Early Years this term the children have explored ‘find my pattern’ and consolidated lots of numeracy work that they have been learning throughout the year ready for their big move to Year 1! They have explored doubling, odd and even numbers, as well as using a ruler.
In year 1, he children have looked at multiplication and division with practical resources, pictures and using coins of 2’s, 5’s and 10’s and using skip counting to help them. They have looked at half and a quarter of shapes and numbers, and know half means 2 parts and a quarter means 4. They looked at position and direction, asked their friends to follow their directions and followed their instructions. They needed a lot of practise but they got there! They also looked at numbers to 100, making them and partitioning them into tens and ones, found one more and one less and they added and subtracted with bigger numbers. They looked at coins and their worth, adding 2’s 5’s and 10’s and made a value in different ways. Finally they also looked at time to o’clock, days of the week and months of the year.
Year 2 have enjoyed the many practical activities related to movement and direction. They all learnt the trick to make a ‘L’ with their left hand and a fist with their right. Moving quarter turns, left and right was much easier practically. It was much harder to identify these on paper. Using the balances to explore mass was fun! The children definitely enjoyed filling the buckets to create heavier sides – they didn’t like tidying up afterwards though. Everyone compared and identified heavier and lighter. Working in grams and kilograms secured their knowledge of this as they could see the bigger the numbers the heavier the objects. Pouring liquids is always a challenge but it definitely supported capacity and volume – especially when the containers were too small. Very quickly the children realised that the height did not always mean that it holds more. With the glorious weather, the children found temperature easier to measure. The scales on a range of thermometers proved to be trickier!
Year 3 have been focussing on shape, position and direction. They have enjoyed using concrete resources to understand the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. They have also been working on fractions, where they have been able to recognise wholes, halves, quarters and thirds. The children have also been working on unit and non-unit fractions.
It’s been a very busy half term for Year 4. They have completed their work on decimals so that they are now more confident with rounding and comparing decimals. They then moved on to using money. They even had their own little shop so that they could practise adding and giving change. Next, they moved on to exploring time which lots of the class found quite tricky. The children happily read the time on a digital clock but they need some more practise using analogue. Finally, the children enjoyed collecting their own data which they used to present and interpret in different ways, for example on a bar chart.
Year 5 finished the curriculum with some interesting topics, including properties of shape, translation and symmetry, converting units and understanding volume. These units have been a great chance for the children to showcase their understanding of their times tables, formal written methods of the four operations (+-x/) and it has allowed them to work on their reasoning and problem solving skills. They also made links between their maths learning and different subjects like art, computing and PE.
Year 6 have worked on line graphs and can read and interpret data from them. They can draw a line graph and add their own set of data to it. They can solve problem using line graphs and and can draw and label pie charts. The class have also spent some time working on parts of the circle and can explain the relationship between the radius and the diameter.
Summer 1
In Early Years this term the children have explored numbers to 20 and beyond. They have been learning all of the teen numbers and learning the pattern of numbers past 20.
They have also looked at copying 3D models, this was fun but sometimes a little tricky!
Year 1 have looked at height, length, weight and volume, as well as multiplication and division. The children have completed a range of written and practical tasks, used a range of resources and have used their reasoning and problem-solving skills. The children particularly enjoyed measuring items in the classroom with cubes, paper clips and rulers and they enjoyed measuring water in different ways, describing the contents of a container. They have also enjoyed counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s and love joining in with songs. The children have also enjoyed looking at equal and unequal groups and adding equal groups, seeing how repeated addition can become multiplication and making arrays. This was followed by looking at dividing by sharing and grouping.
Year 2 have recapped on addition and subtraction using a range of methods. They definitely prefer to draw methods than write column methods! The children became more confident in exchanging and solving problems. Drawing plates had a positive impact on multiplication and division and seeing the items shared or creating more groups of them deepened their understanding. They explored fractions and using food definitely helped, especially when the teacher ate more than half – it certainly wasn’t fair! The real fun started with lengths. The children measured most of the classroom and were intrigued to find the longest / shortest objects. Be careful at home otherwise they will be measuring you!
The Year 3/4 class have focused on statistics. They have learned how to analyse data from tally charts, pictograms, bar charts and tables. The children have enjoyed working on their problem-solving skills and are becoming more confident with justifying their answers. They have loved collecting their own class data to create a bar chart of their favourite colours.
The children have also worked with length and height where they have learned how to measure using millimeters, centimetres and metres. They have compared the length and height of objects and were able to select the most appropriate equipment to use. The children have loved all of the practical activities in this unit.
Year 4 have continued to work hard to understand fractions and in particular equivalent fractions so that they can add and subtract fractions. Also, the children have shown great understanding during their work on decimals. They can now identify the value of each digit in a decimal number and the effect of dividing a one- or two-digit number by 10 and 100. They are continuing to work on reasoning and problem-solving questions by using stem sentences to support their explanations.
Year 5 have been linking their previous work on fractions with decimals and percentages. There has been some fantastic individual and group work shown, especially when investigating converting fractions, decimals and percentages. They have recapped addition and subtraction skills during the decimals block and everyone has impressed with the amount they have remembered from earlier in the year. The children had a wonderful week working on our 2D and 3D shapes, learning lots of new vocabulary along the way.
The children in Year 6 have practised their mental maths skills to prepare for SATs. They have looked at fractions, decimals and percentages and are beginning to make links between them. They can find simple percentages of amounts to support them with the more complex percentages. They also had fun learning about angles.
Spring 2
In Early Years this term the children have explored the numbers 9 and 10 and began to practise number bonds including taking part in a number bond party in which they had to find their matching partner when the music stopped. They have explored 3D shapes and finding them in the real world. Can you remember what shape a tin of beans is?
Year 1 have looked at place value for numbers to 50 and at 3D and 2D shapes. They have completed a range of practical and written tasks, used a range of resources and transferred their knowledge of numbers 1-20 to those greater numbers. For place value, they have represented numbers to 50 in different ways, partitioning them into tens and ones in a range of ways, counted backwards and forwards to and from 50 in ones and have been practising counting in 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. They have found one more and one less, compared objects and numbers and ordered numbers to 50. They have also looked at 3D and 2D shapes; identifying them in their environment, naming and sorting them and looking at their properties and using these shapes to continue shape patterns.
Year 2 have had so much fun with shapes. The children became very confident in recognising shapes and some of their properties. Using the geoboard was great! It helped to identify vertices and edges. The children shone when drawing some difficult 2d shapes. The real fun started with 3d shapes. Using the shape nets to support learning about faces and help identify the shape proved valuable. Making a 3d shape however, was a little bit tricky. Everyone FAILED (First, Attempt, In, Learning), but they soon spotted theirr mistakes and tried again. Fractions has also been fun, cutting paper into ½ and ¼ then trying to find the equivalent. The children have definitely remembered that fractions need to be equal and to remember to include all of the pieces (they used our knowledge of part, part whole for this).
In Year3/4, the children finished off their division topic, before starting money. The children loved using pretend money to help with their learning. They were able to count pounds and pence and also convert money. The children have thoroughly enjoyed playing shops, where they learned to find the right amount, add different amounts and also give change.
Year 4 have continued to work hard on improving their multiplication and division knowledge. They have used a variety of strategies including place value charts, counters and even lolly pop sticks to help them multiply and divide two-digit and three-digit numbers by a one-digit number.
They then moved on to explore fractions and being able to recognise equivalent fractions and solve problems involving increasingly harder fractions. The children enjoyed playing matching games and matching their own fraction walls to support their understanding.
Year 5 have been working on their understanding of fractions. This can be a really difficult area of maths and the class have done brilliantly! They started with a reminder of what fractions are and how they link to whole numbers. Then, using plenty of food-based examples, they understood equivalent fractions and how to work out which are larger or smaller. They now understand all about mixed numbers and improper fractions and even how to convert them. Finally, they have started adding and subtracting fractions, and how to multiply them! What a busy half term!
Year 6 have mastered fractions! They can identify and convert improper fractions to mixed numbers and back again. They can also compare and order fractions in many different forms. Year 6 have spent time learning how to add and subtract fractions with the same and different denominators and can find common denominators to support the task. The children are solving problems involving fractions and can show these in many different forms.
Spring 1
In Early Years this term the children have explored the numbers 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10! They have played lots of matching games and finding ways of making 6, 7, and 8. Exploring their outdoor water area has been great too when looking at full and empty.
Year 1 have looked at place value and addition and subtraction for numbers to 20. They have completed a range of practical and written tasks, using a range of resources and transferred their knowledge of numbers 1-10 to those greater numbers. For place value, they have represented numbers to 20, worked with tens and ones in a range of ways, identified one more and one less, and have compared groups and numbers, and ordered groups and numbers. They looked at addition by counting on, found and used number bonds to help them to add, and added by making 10. They then looked at subtraction by both crossing out and not crossing out, by counting back and subtraction crossing 10.
Year 2 carried on with multiplication and division. Much of this was achieved practically and with pictures. They worked extremely hard identifying equal groups and the importance of sharing equally. The children were introduced to Times Tables Rockstars to support their work on 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. They accepted school challenges as well as weekly class challenges! Pictograms representing 1:1 proved fun as all children had to communicate with others, work as a team and collect their own data to record. They found it more difficult when each picture was representing 2, 5 and 10, and realised the importance of continuing to learn times tables.
Y3/4 have focused on multiplication and division. The children have used concrete manipulatives to get to grips with making and adding equal groups and also sharing. The children have been developing their times table knowledge to help them when multiplying numbers. Some children have started to use a more formal method to multiply a 2-digit number by 1-digit.
Year 4 have focussed on multiplication and division, and learning all of the multiplication facts up to 12 x 12. Their favourite activity was the treasure hunt! As you can see in the pictures below, the children have worked with different concrete resources and pictures in order to represent their learning in different ways.
They loved the problem-solving nature of area. They used post-it notes, bean bags and challenges to explore what area is and how they could make shapes in different ways.
Year 5 have been working so hard on formal multiplication and division. These fundamentals are vital for all of their maths learning and the children are starting to build both their understanding of the process and their confidence in their own abilities. Times table knowledge has continued to improve and they have loved taking part with the NSPCC Rocks competition. The class have started taking maths outside and completing more practical learning which has helped with their recall of facts!
Year 6 have focused on division and fractions. They have begun to understand the relationship between multiplication/division and fractions. They have used concrete resources to support division techniques and are using this knowledge to support work on fractions. The children know the difference between unit fractions and non-unit fractions, can show equivalent fractions in their simplest form and can covert improper fractions to mixed numbers.
Autumn 2
In Early Years this term the children have deepened their understanding of the numbers to 5. They have played lots of games and can show lots of different ways of making numbers to 5. They love learning along with Jack Hartman, he’s a big part of their classroom learning. Why don’t you have a sing along too at home?
Year 1 have looked at numbers 0-5 in more depth, including subitising numbers to 5 quickly and writing our numbers to 10 as numerals and words. The children have looked at addition and subtraction for numbers to 10 using both practical resources and transferring these skills to written tasks. They have looked at number bonds to 10, fact families for addition and subtraction, and addition and subtraction number sentences. They also found parts and wholes using large part whole models.
Year 2 have carried on with addition and subtraction. The children became very confident with exchanging and wanted more complex challenges. The children have used a range of resources to support this as well as money and multiplication. Their favourite topic was money. The children shone at this and understood how to work out change as well as reasoning which coins to use. The children made equal groups and are beginning to understand how to make arrays and write multiplication calculations.
In Year 3/4 the children first finished off the topic addition and subtraction, demonstrating their understanding of various methods and trickier calculations. Then they began their multiplication and division topic, using Times Table Rockstars to help. They have looked at grouping and sharing, and also touched on 2, 5, 10 times tables so far.
Year 4 love Maths and the challenge questions. This half term, they have been able to add and subtract numbers by using their preferred column method. The children have been able to use this knowledge to solve two-step problems and they have focused on providing full and clear explanations.
They then moved on to length and perimeter, where the children recapped their understanding of converting between different units of measure, for example, kilometre to metre and measured the perimeter of different shapes by using a ruler, counting the squares or applying their knowledge of 2D shapes and their properties.
The children continue to practise their times tables and they even won the Key Stage 2 Times Tables Rock Stars battle for Maths Week.
Year 5 have continued with their work on addition and subtraction and are really confident with this now – even with huge numbers! Next, they moved on to multiplication. They have become ‘Posh Pooches’, amazing at following actions and even created their own decorations to help them to remember all of the times table and division facts. It hasn’t been easy, but they have come on such a long way with their knowledge and this will help them so much in their future learning. They have finished the term with work on area and perimeter, which has seen their confidence with converting units soar. They were also able to take part in a ‘Magic Maths’ event, which was a real highlight!
Year 6 have worked on addition, subtraction and multiplication. They have secured their understanding of column addition and subtraction and can exchange with confidence. The children have worked hard to learn times tables to support their working with multiplication. They can multiply up to 4 digits by 1 digit with confidence and are beginning to solve problems using the long multiplication method.
Autumn 1
In Early Years this term the children have exploring matching and sorting. They have sorted animals, colours and even some of their socks! They have looked at patterns and have made their own patterns using lots of different things including items from their autumn walk! They found making patterns a little tricky at first but now they are all super pattern creators!
Wow! This half term Year 2 began with numbers to 20 and quickly extended to counting and ordering numbers to 100. They have explored several ways of representing larger numbers to support their understanding of tens and ones. Their favourite is the part whole model as they like to use the counters and move them down the lines. The children are becoming clever mathematicians by drawing larger numbers using base ten and partitioning into tens and ones. To support adding larger numbers they have been exploring number patterns i.e. number bonds to 20. The children have taken on the challenge to add using column addition with 2-digit numbers.
The first topic Year 3/4 looked at was Number and Place Value. They looked at numbers to 1,000 and represented them in different ways. They also compared objects and numbers, and found more and less. They then started addition and subtraction, first recapping addition and subtraction of 1 and 2 digit numbers, then moving on to 3 digit numbers. The children used various methods of addition and subtraction using manipulatives, then they moved onto more formal methods like the column method.
Understanding place value has been the focus of Year 4 who have now have secured their knowledge of 4-digit numbers by using Base 10, part whole models and place value charts. They have practised rounding to 10, 100 and 1000. The children enjoyed the challenge of reading and writing Roman Numerals, especially as it was also a part of our History topic. You can learn how to read and write Roman Numerals too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1UmAgekzbs. The children have also started to look at addition and subtraction. The children have made a fantastic start at using place value charts and the column method to add two 4-digit numbers.
Year 5 have spent time this half term understanding place value, looking at numbers all the way up to 1 million as well as negative numbers and Roman numerals! They especially loved learning how to round up to the nearest million, using the rounding rap. Yo, we are winners in the rounding game! They have started to focus on addition, using the formal written method and investigating how to work out missing numbers. They have also been looking at their arithmetic skills, including lessons on adding and subtracting fractions, multiplying 3 numbers together and finding fractions of amounts.
Year 6 have worked on place value this half term and can read, write and say numbers up to 10 million. They can use this knowledge to help round any number to the nearest 10,100 or 1000. Working on negative numbers has helped them to understand how the number system works both positive and negative. They can use negative numbers in context for eg: temperature scales and building levels and can add and subtract these using a number line.
