Mathematics

Our Maths Vision

At Offmore Primary School, we believe that every child can become a competent mathematician and every member of staff will provide the means to reach this status. We deliver a Maths curriculum which inspires and motivates children to love Maths and enable them to fulfil their personal ambitions and career goals in an ever-changing world, where they can contribute positively to society in their future.

As teaching and support staff, we reach this goal by:

providing stimulating and purposeful learning opportunities
giving a real-life context to the skills and knowledge being taught, through our topics
being enthusiastic and demonstrating our love of maths
taking risks, making mistakes and learning from them
using and expecting the correct use of mathematical vocabulary
providing a balance of concrete, pictorial and abstract teaching resources and strategies across all concepts
facilitating collaborative learning where children can explore, challenge and justify their understanding
using rigorous, formative assessment to support and challenge the children effectively.

To achieve this, the children will:

relish their mistakes and use them as a learning point
actively engage in the learning journey by questioning, challenging and exploring new concepts
seek and understand links between their own experiences, the real world and the learning journey in school
be ambitious about what they can achieve by challenging themselves and each other courteously
work collaboratively and share their understanding using the correct mathematical vocabulary
use concrete, pictorial and abstract representations to explain their understanding across mathematical concepts
practise and take pride in their mental arithmetic knowledge and in its application to the wider curriculum
have fun and love maths.

Maths skill progression at Offmore

Introducing our new Maths Mascots... TAG and TELL!

In September 2021, we introduced our new Maths Mascots! TAG and TELL were designed by two Offmore pupils to help us to organise our answers when responding to reasoning questions.

Here are some brilliant examples of TAG and TELL being used across the year groups to show the great understanding of our Offmore Mathematicians!

TAG and TELL in Reasoning

Power Maths is a mastery approach to Maths which compliments our vision for growth mindset and nurtures the love of Maths using carefully selected questions which progress in expectation. This includes the use of concrete, pictorial and abstract tasks to establish, embed and secure new concepts from year 1 to year 6.

The programme promotes mistake-making and reasoning through tasks and the introduction of Power Maths Pals, who each possess different qualities needed to tackle problems effectively.

These Power Maths Pals grow up alongside the children to make them relatable throughout school life.

Meet the Power Maths Pals

Ash - KS1 Flo - KS1 Astrid - KS1 Dexter - KS1

Sparks

Ash - LKS2 Flo - LKS2 Astrid - LKS2 Dexter - LKS2

Ash - UKS2 Flo - UKS2 Astrid - UKS2 Dexter - UKS2

KIFS (Key Instant Recall Facts

Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFS) are designed to support the development of the mental skills and key knowledge that underpin much of the maths work in schools.

An important part of maths development has always been learning of certain maths facts. For many years this has included practising times tables and addition facts, such as numberbonds and doubles. Each half term children focus on one area of Key Instant Recall Facts (KIRFs) that will be taught in school but also need to be practised at home as well.

It is important that they know these facts thoroughly and can recall them instantly. Whilst children have a wide range of abilities in mathematics, the KIRFs are designed to be a set of facts that need to be learnt thoroughly as they build on each other year on year. Again, we stress that the children must aim to know their KIRFs inside out, back to front and with instant recall.

Please engage with your children in the learning of their KIRFs and make it as fun and practical as you can. There are a number of online links for each KIRF and advice on the key language and questions that can be asked.

Children should aim to undertake these regularly at home, short and often is the best approach. You might find that your child may need to work on some of the KIRFs from the previous year as they may not be secure in those yet.

We know that, by learning these key facts which have been carefully structured to build upon each other term by term, year by year, children will leave school with a much stronger foundation of mathematical understanding to build upon and this will have huge benefits for all of the other topics that they will study in school in maths.

We hope that you enjoy working alongside your children with this mathematics work. Should you have any questions about the KIRFs, please do not hesitate to contact the school to speak to Mrs Brookes.

kirfs offmore primary school 1 .pdf

Every week, the highest earning children from each class will receive a certificate in their phase assemblies. We will also celebrate the highest earner across the whole school, as well as the person with the fastest speed. Each phase also have their own tournaments every week to see which class can achieve the best score.

For your child to be able to log in to Times Tables Rock Stars, please follow the link below and type in the given username and password.

https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student

If you are struggling to log on, please contact your child's teacher to receive login details.

Your child will be able to practise their times tables on their own in readiness to take part in competitions against their friends and as part of a band in the Battle of the Bands competitions!