Maths fluency
Mastering number, or maths fluency, has been a new addition to our timetable this year. In case you missed it, Mrs Allaway, who leads on Maths across Sphere Federation, explained more about this in last weeks’ weekly message.
This year, Sphere schools are taking part in a new national programme for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2: ‘Mastering Number’. The programme aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children. The aim over time is that everyone leaves Key Stage 1 with fluency in calculation and a confidence and flexibility with number.
Why is fluency with number facts so important?
We want all children to develop fluency with number facts because we know this makes a huge difference to their progress in maths. For children who find maths difficult, it’s often the case that their only strategy is to count. They don’t see the relationships or make the connections that make maths easier. For example, if five and two is seven, seven minus two must be five – that’s the relationship within the maths.
An over-reliance on counting not only makes maths more difficult, it also inhibits flexibility, thinking and the development of problem-solving strategies. It doesn’t just affect calculating, it affects maths much more widely. We need children to have stopped counting by the time they move into Key Stage 2.
What is number sense?
Alongside fluency in number facts, we want our children to develop ‘number sense’: a flexibility with number where they reason; they see relationships; they see mathematical structures; and they see such things as if six and three is nine, then nine minus three is equal to six. These relationships won’t change in Key Stage 2 and beyond, the numbers just become bigger and more complex.
We want to support all children to think mathematically, make connections and see relationships because we know these are the characteristics that make maths learning successful.
Mastering Number sessions
In our short focused sessions for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, we give children opportunities to think deeply about mathematical relationships and time to practise and really embed fluency with number facts. These 10 minute sessions are in addition to our main daily maths lesson.
In some sessions, we focus on deepening children’s understand of the composition of number: inside numbers there are other numbers. For example, inside eight there’s five and three, there’s six and two. Knowing that inside numbers are other numbers enables children to develop fluency skills.
We’re also developing skills in subitising. This is the ability to look at a small number of objects (often a maximum of about five) and instantly recognise how many there are without needing to count them one by one. This plays a key role in helping children see how numbers are made up, avoiding an over-reliance on counting.
One of the key resources children use in Mastering Number sessions is a rekenrek – a type of abacus or number rack. It supports children to feel and visualise numbers as well as noticing how numbers relate to each other. Children begin to build up strong visual images by first doing, seeing and noticing the maths.
How can I help at home?
Regularly accessing NumBots will support children to practise and really embed and develop crucial number facts. If you need help accessing this, please contact your child’s class teacher.
We won the Choice Cup!
Well done to Y6 for your superb choices. Let’s retain it next week!
Learning phonics and practising early reading skills Zoom session
On Monday, there is a Zoom session about our updated provision for learning phonics and practising early reading skills. This is aimed at parents/carers with a child in Early Years and Key Stage 1.
The session is on Zoom at 6pm on Monday 31 January. Contact the office for the Zoom details in case you missed them.
Please get in touch if you’ve any questions, about how this affects your child, after the session.
Living and Learning: Identity
This week, we learned all about identity in our Living and Learning session.
We had to think about what makes us who we are.
We thought about all the different things that mean something to us and all the different things that make us both similar to others but unique from others, too.
Grace said, “I’m unique because my family are from China.”
“Something that makes me unique from others is my religion. I’m a Muslim,” said Raheem.
“Something that Jack and I have in common is that we both have brown eyes,” added Zac.
Ava said, “I’m unique because out of everybody on my table, I’m the only one who plays piano.” Ava then found out that she had that in common with Mr Wain!
The whole class had something in common – we are all part of the same community in Moortown Primary School!
Living and Learning: Identity and Community
Hello!
Over the last two weeks, the Living and Learning statements have been based around identity and community.
We have been talking about our identities and why being proud of our own identities is important. What makes me, me? Everyone in the class was able to identify important parts of themselves that they believe makes them special. Examples of these consisted of certain interests they have, clubs they belong to and religions they follow. The best part about this was that everyone’s identities are so different!
We have also discussed different roles that exist in our communities and how they relate to us. We looked at key jobs such as doctors, nurses, emergency services, bus drivers, teachers, club leaders etc. Finally, we decided who, out of all the people we come across in our everyday lives, is in our close inner circle.
As you can see, lots of us chose to have close friends and family in our inner circle and put other people like club leaders and shopkeepers in our outer circle.
It was great to explore this topic with the class and to see how confident they became in expressing their own identities!
Making a switch!
In this week’s science learning, we learnt about switches and even made our own!
See if your child can fill in the gaps to our learning below.
When a switch is ______, the light bulb will turn on as the power from the cell can flow through the circuit.
When a switch is _____, the light bulb will not turn on as the power from the cell cannot travel around the whole circuit.
open, closed
Living and Learning: Identity
Over the past two weeks, Year 5 have been learning about identity. Identity is what makes you, you!
Year 5 were great at explaining the similarities and difference between themselves in a respectful way.
Last Friday, we also took part in Identity Day. This was an amazing opportunity to show who we are as people by coming into school wearing clothes that show a community we are a part of.
All the children were extremely proud of their identity – as they should be! And I was proud of them, too, for expressing themselves so confidently but respectfully with their classmates.
Great job, Year 5!
Spring term after-school clubs
After-school clubs will be restarting next week and they will run for eight weeks until the Easter break. Places can be booked via Gateway.
Our physical activity clubs continue to be heavily subsidised through the investment of our PE and Sport Premium.
Please contact the office if you have any queries about the clubs or the booking system.
Living & Learning: Identity
This week and last week’s Living and Learning lessons have had a strong thread of respect running through them.
“Respect is important because people have different personalities and like different things like football or make up. You should never say nasty things about what they like. Or at school if you’re playing a game of tig, you should follow the rules and tag them respectfully,” explained Billy.
“Respect is when you treat someone fairly no matter what even if they have different beliefs to you. We should all try and get along,” stated Saahir.
“Respect is understanding why they like something. If you don’t like something, that’s fine but keep rude comments inside. You should support the people around you,” said Christina.
We took part in Identity Day which is an amazing opportunity to show who we are as people by coming into school wearing clothes that show a community we’re a part of.
Take a look at our fantastic choices!
We also explored our own identities in even more detail by creating our own unique identity maps. Take a look at some of the great examples below.
Can penguins fly?
In Friday’s assembly, I was reliably informed that penguins can’t fly but that they are very good swimmers. Just an example of the learning that has been happening in Reception.
They haven’t just been learning about penguins; one of the new phonemes in phonics was ‘ng’ and there has been lots of investigating about the number 5.
We hope that your child is enjoying the e-books – they’re showing excellent reading skills in school and they can show you at home that they are ‘readers’. Lots of practice in school means that they will be familiar with the e-books that they can see at home. Happy reading!
