Teaching for Mastery in Maths

Glenfall Teaching for Mastery in Maths
Leading and supporting schools across Gloucestershire and Worcestershire

Glenfall Primary School started on a journey to develop our Maths learning in 2015 and we are currently adopting a mastery approach to the teaching and learning of Mathematics in our school.  Underlying this approach is the belief that all children should work together to become fluent mathematicians who are able to reason and solve a variety of problems by applying what they have learned in a range of contexts.  Conceptual understanding is developed through concrete and visual representations and children are given opportunity to explain their reasoning as part of our daily maths lessons.  Children are supported through specific planned interventions and are challenged by being exposed to a variety of rich and sophisticated problems.  Classes in Key Stages One and Two hold ‘Number Sense’ sessions daily which enable the children to practise, embed and therefore become fluent in working with number and the four operations.  We encourage students to have a positive mindset and advocate that all children are able to succeed in Mathematics.

As a school we have also been at the centre of the work the GLOW MathsHub have been carrying out and as such have been involved in sharing our practice with other schools in across Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.  We have hosted visits from Debbie Morgan and colleagues from the NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics) as well as a number of schools from the Gloucester Learning Partnership who have all visited with a view to seeing how we have adopted the mastery approach; our Mathematics teaching and learning has been well received by those who have visited.

The Head Teacher is the Deputy Maths Hub Lead for GLOW and is commissioned one day a week to complete this work. One of our Maths Subject Leaders is a Primary Assistant Maths Hub Lead and the other is a Primary TfM Maths Specialist specialising in Teaching for Mastery.

You can view a video, at this link, of the Head Teacher discussing how the school has developed a Teaching for Mastery approach across the school.

For further information please explore the links below:

GLOW Maths

NCETM

Balcarras Teaching School Hub