2. Maths At LHPSN Weds. 17th January 2018
MG to greet, welcome and intro CW.
Welcome everybody. Glad you make it. Can I just check that everybody signed in please? - Just write your name on the clipboard circulating that would be great. Just FYI we do have to finish at 10am this morning because Mr. Witcomb and I are back in class teaching then. This presentation is available to you on the school website - on the maths page so if you want to you can find it there.

3. What we’re aiming to cover
What is the school’s ethos with regard to maths?
How is maths teaching different today than it was in the past?
How can parents help at home?
Where can parents find more information and resources? MG
1 minute

4. What is the school’s ethos with regard to maths?
At LHPSN we believe that mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline. Maths is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject. MG
3 mins.
This actually largely comes from the National Curriculum document for maths which all schools have to cover. It has some words in there which you might be surprised by; “we see maths as a creative subject” its a way of “understanding the world” “maths can be beautiful in and of itself” and can generate a sense of enjoyment”.
This may not have been your experience of mathematics at school but actually this is much more akin to the way mathematicians really work and is a long way from the way maths used to be taught in schools; as a set of steps to be learned and rules to be followed which we’ll address today.

5. How is maths teaching different today than it was in the past?
More talk
Greater use of equipment for longer
Not rushing to the abstract
Concrete - representational - abstract
Related to real life
Other methods as well as traditional- written calculation policy
More investigations
Broad curriculum MG
6 mins
Talk to non- traditional methods. That in the past, certainly when I was at school maths calculations were taught as a series of steps to be followed. If you remembered all the steps you could do it and you were good at maths and if you couldn’t then - well you couldn’t and you just had to keep trying to remember the steps- called an algorithm. There has been a big push over the last 15 years to help children understand the maths behind what they’re doing so that they are less likely to forget and if they do then they have other ways of finding a solution.
For an explanation of the way the calculations are taught see our website where you’ll find our calculation policy.

6. Key ideas since Curriculum Change in 2014
Depth - Building firm foundations not racing ahead
Fluency
Understanding
Reasoning (not just doing calculations)
Solving problems
Persevering
Linked to other subjects and real life
Higher expectations
Less emphasis on data
No longer teach probability MG
9 mins
More recently changes in the curriculum have again come into force and I’ve listed some of them here- the main changes are that the curriculum for maths has been slimmed down a little and that we are aiming for greater depth. It’s recognised that rushing children forward through the maths curriculum doesn’t provide them with a good foundation going forward, so there is a lot more emphasis on then understanding concepts deeply and in many different contexts rather than just rushing them onto higher numbers for example.
The video here is useful because it illustrates the point that if we rely too heavily on remembering an algorithm without understanding it then it can lead to poor results.

7. New in school in the last week.
Based on Singapore maths because it has been shown to be a highly successful program but it is adapted to the UK.
It is the only maths scheme to be found to meet all of the requirements of a mastery program by the Department for Education.

8. Interactive Maths Teaching
It’s your turn!
MG to teach the parents 14 x table
28 mins
Ok I did promise that you would be doing some maths as well and so we’ll do an activity that we do with many of our children to help learn step counting and times tables - beut we’ll do it at a slighty higher level. Now this does involve you joining in - we’ll learn our 14 times table….

9. Other methods
A demonstration of the Grid Method by CW CW
38 mins

10. Other Methods Empty Number line
MG to demo use of the empty number line for subtraction. MG
46 mins
Once we’ve established the concept of finding the differenece with children e.g. that the difference between 9 and 7 is 2 and that we can f
Then we can use an empty number line

11. Flexibility of thinking
When is it appropriate to use a counting on method for subtraction? =
MG to demo on whiteboard.
Bring in a w/b from KS1 corridor

12. How to help at home Mental activities:
Counting up in times tables when climbing stairs, walking to the car etc.
Quick-fire mental questions. E.g. Simple addition and subtraction calculations ( ), times tables questions, number bonds, “What do I have to add to 8 to make 20?”
“The answer’s 5. What’s the question?”
“I’m thinking of a number...” Child must then work out which number you’re thinking of by asking questions which have the answer, “Yes,” or, “No.”
Times tables bingo CW
50 mins

13. How to help at home Games you could play with your children:
Top Trumps
Dominoes
Monopoly
Uno
Pontoon
Darts
Hexago Continuo (available from Amazon) CW
53 mins

14. How to help at home Websites: Topmarks Oxford Owl Maths Zone
Math Playground
Maths is fun
BBC Bitesize
Apps:
Maths Sumo
Mathemagics
Mathletics CW
56 mins

15. Where Can you find further Info. and Resources?
The school website maths page is developing all the time.
Take a look. MG
60 mins
Wrap up and

16. MG to intro.
18 mins
We’ll take a different tack now and I’d like to share with you a video which we share with children which we think gets across some important messages about how our understanding of how people learn maths has changed because of advances in brain research. Please excuse the way it’s pitched at older students but the messages are really important.