Page 20 - Shaw Education Trust December Newsletter

MASTERING MATHS

The Meadows Primary School have taken an inno- ‘Power Maths’, as well as numerous physical
vative approach to developing pupils’ maths skills. resources which allow children to articu-
late their understanding of formal written
The school believe that, to be successful m e t h o d s .
in maths, pupils need to develop their con-
ceptual under-standing; therefore, pupils Mrs Procter commented: “Already we are
at Meadows are learning how to apply their delighted with the children’s increased
knowledge to a range of dif-ferent contexts, confidence and abil-ity to represent
including those that are new and unfamiliar. calculations in many different ways.”

To aid this, pupils are now learn- Meadows isn’t the only school to have
ing ‘Maths Mastery’, an approach based caught the maths fever this term.
upon best practice found in Singapore.
In Widnes, Brookfields Special School have
Principal, Helen Procter, said: “This year we had a whole school Maths Day with a focus
are striving to further develop our pupils’ on shape. This day included a wide range of
characteristics as mathematicians by advanc- activities taking place across the
ing conceptual understanding in our pupils.” whole school; inside and out.

The school is also implementing the CPA Meanwhile, Wolstanton High School in
approach to learning (concrete, pictorial and ab- Newcastle-under-Lyme are busy organ-
stract). This approach recognises that in order for ising a maths gifted and talented af-
pupils to understand abstract concepts, they must terschool club for local year 6 pupils.
first learn mathematical concepts through the use
of concrete resources and pictorial representation. There is a clear focus on developing
maths skills across our schools and we
To help embed this approach, Meadows have look forward to seeing the different in-
invested into a new scheme of learning called novative approaches schools are using.