Maths

At Bridgelea we want our children to love Maths. We want them to have no limits to what their ambitions are and grow up wanting to be architects, pharmacist and accountants. We want them to make active and positive contributions to the society they grow up in and to enjoy their lives. The Maths curriculum has been carefully designed so that our children develop their Mathematical skills and understanding. We want our children to remember their Maths lessons in our school, to cherish these memories and embrace the opportunities they are presented with. 

At Bridgelea we use the teaching resource, Numicon to deliver the Maths curriculum. 

Numicon is a multisensory approach to teaching Maths and a huge focus on concrete, pictorial and abstract is used in each class. 

Here is an example of the CPA approach : 

Children being taught to add using the column method would practice like this : 

Using numicon shapes :                                        Using base 10 : 

An example of pictorial addition may look like this 

Drawing shapes :                                                            Drawing Base 10 : 

Drawing an empty number line 

An example of the abstract methods may look like this : 

Children will practice these methods for all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). 

At Bridgelea children are taught skills in progressive order (please see the Mile Post Progression of skills documents below) and are taught operations on a bi-weekly cycle. Week 1& 2 is place value and number, week 3 & 4 is addition, week 5 & 6 is subtraction, week 7 & 8 is multiplication, week 9 & 10 is division and week 11 & 12 is fractions. This is repeated 3 times per year in Autumn, Spring and Summer term to ensure repetition and progression of Maths skills throughout the year. At the end of each two week cycle of teaching, children complete a problem solving and reasoning activity from the Numicon Explorer Handbooks so teachers can assess their understanding of the topic covered. Children are regularly given the opportunity to practice their problem solving skills throughout the teaching and delivery of Maths. 

In Early Bird there is a focus on overlearning of basic facts to support children with recalling their facts and learning times tables in particular. We have Times Tables Rock Stars that all children from Year 2 upwards engage with daily. 

Please read through the rationale and the Maths curriculum documents for more information about our Maths approach. 

Here are some more pictures and videos of our children completing their Maths activities. 

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