Maths
At Home Farm Primary School from Years 1 to Year 6 our maths curriculum is driven by Maths No Problem as our core learning scheme and is supplemented with White Rose Maths. This provides a unique approach that develops true mathematical understanding right from the start.
Maths No Problem recognises the importance of maths in our daily lives and helps our children to:
- learn the skills of numeracy, geometry and measure that can be used in everyday life and developed later for the specific demands of a particular career
- develop problem-solving and reasoning skills that are so vital in day-to-day life
- develop thinking skills - an invaluable skill in every subject area
Maths No Problem gives our school:
1. A consistent whole-school approach - A structured and coherent mathematics curriculum for the whole school, helping us to deliver a high-quality mathematics education to every child whch builds upon the skills taught in each year group.
2. High expectations for all - Underpinned by the ambition for all children to excel and develop a sense of excitement about mathematics.
3. Fluency with number - Strong emphasis is placed on developing quick and accurate number skills.
4. Deep Understanding - Using a powerful learning system of concrete objects, actions and vocabulary, a solid understanding, maths is developed from the earliest stages, leading to strong reasoning and problem-solving skills.
The Maths No Problem Approach
Maths No Problem uses a learning system of a variety of concrete objects to help every child succeed in our school and become a confident mathematician. Maths No Problem builds upon skills taught the previous year in each strand of maths. The approach builds deep understanding and embeds a picture of the maths in children's minds so they progress to thinking without the aid of physical objects, they refer to their mental images instead.
For more information, please see the link below:
Maths Mastery Curriculum
Teaching maths for mastery is a transformational approach to maths teaching which stems from high performing Asian nations such as Singapore. When taught to master maths, children develop their mathematical fluency without resorting to rote learning and are able to solve non-routine maths problems without having to memorise procedures.
Please see below for videos of Dr. Yeap Ban Har (the consultant and author of MNP) as he explains some if the basic principles of MNP.
Fundamental Idea
Dr Yeap talks about one of the fundamental ideas in mathematics: that items can only be counted, added, and subtracted if they have the same nouns. He uses a simple example with concrete objects, chocolates and glue sticks to illustrate the point and then shows how it relates to column addition and the addition of fractions.
Number Bonds
Dr. Yeap explains how young children can use concrete materials and later use pictorial representations as number bonds. Number bonds represent how numbers can be split up into their component parts. Children can explore number bonds using a variety of concrete materials, such as counters with containers and ten frames or with symbols.
Subtraction
Dr. Yeap explains how standard column subtraction can be taught meaningfully by using children's knowledge of number bonds. Once children can explain how numbers can be split into their component parts, they can adapt their understanding to the conventional column subtraction method.
Mental Calculations
Dr. Yeap discusses how children can develop an ability to calculate the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) in their heads without the use of paper and pencil or calculators.
Multiplication
Dr. Yeap discusses how children can learn their times tables meaningfully by using visualisation and other strategies.
Long Division
Dr Yeap discusses how children can learn to do long division meaningfully by first using concrete apparatus, such as base-10 materials, to perform the operations. They can then explore how this idea is represented in the long division algorithm.
Bar Model 1
Dr. Yeap discusses how diagrams can be used to represent a situation in a problem: such as rectangles representing (unknown) quantities. This method of visualising problems is known as the bar model.
Bar Model 2
Dr. Yeap gives another example of the bar model: how diagrams can be used to represent situations in a problem.