What does Maths look like at St Vincent's?

It is a common misconception that hands-on practical resources should only be used in EYFS/KS1 -This is not how we do it here at St. Vincent's.

We feel that to get the best understanding of mathematical concepts, that all children need to be exposed to a range of stimulus. With Practical Maths, the children have this available to them.

Practical Maths is giving the children a range of different practical resources that they can investigate and deepen their understanding of how maths works.

There are 3 different areas:

Concrete - The children are given resources to hold and discover and then using these, solve a range of problems.

Pictorial - The children draw their own representations of mathematical problems and use this information to solve a range of problems.

Abstract - The children use the formal written method from our Calculations Policy to solve a range of problems.

Practical Maths is not a one-way system, the children are encouraged to use the resources available to them and their own pictorial representations whenever they want help to solve a problem that they encounter.

We are also embedding the children’s knowledge through a range of Maths Mastery Characters. This is a way of consolidating the children’s understanding through extension tasks and reasoning/problem solving activities.

Our Maths Mastery Characters are:

Extension Eagle

Prove-it Penguin

Reasoning Rhino

Through this use of Maths Mastery Characters and Practical Maths, we are allowing the children to gain a deeper understanding of both basic and advanced mathematical concepts that they then will be able to use in everyday life.