Within the maths curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on providing children with opportunities to use and apply their skills in a range of problems, investigations and puzzles.
Maths is not just about knowing how to add, subtract, multiply and divide, it is more about using these skills out of context to solve a range of different problems. Through our maths lessons, we are providing children with the opportunity not just to talk about maths but to talk maths These are two quite different skills; children can talk about what they are doing in maths but talking about, 'why, why not and what if' is something else. At St. Christopher's, we use a range of resources to support the children in developing their use of maths talk:
Year 6 also work with John Dickinson, who runs a 'maths reasoning club' once a month for them.
If you would like to have a go at applying your skills, why not visit the NRICH website and have a go at some of the challenges. WARNING: Some of them are tough so persevere!
Reasoning
There are may different ways to reason about something in maths but below is an example of what reasoning looks like in St Christopher's. These strategies are used to promote deeper understanding and application of a skill in all domains of the maths curriculum. Below, you will also find an example of the strategies in each year group. This is just a sample of what is available at our school. These challenges can be found within the daily maths lesson but also on our working walls.