Our Maths Lessons

The Typical Structure: Gray's Farm Maths lessons aim to sharpen the fluency of our children's maths using 'practice' arithmetic style questions, develop their ability to use maths in real life using 'application' questions and reason at every opportunity.  Our aim is for the children to not only learn skills but to then apply them to ‘real world’ problems. We reinforce the idea that maths is not simply a subject learnt in school, but a vital life skill central to many things people do every day! We therefore include daily application and reasoning activities within our maths sessions to promote this thinking. Reasoning about the number system allows children to better manipulate number and in doing so calculate more effectively. Gray’s Farm teachers regularly assess their children’s arithmetic, application and reasoning abilities to inform the planning of future lessons so that all gaps in knowledge are filled by carefully planned activities.

Ambition and Access: We have high ambitions for everyone and allow all children to access the level of maths that challenges them. Children choose their own challenges with support and guidance from their teachers so that everyone has the opportunity to stretch themselves.

Use of Manipulatives: We believe that concrete learning is important from Nursery to Year 6. Our calculation policies allow our teachers and children to use concrete, pictorial and abstract models of learning to progress confidently in new methods.