Maths fluency
Mastering number, or maths fluency, has been a new addition to our timetable this year. In case you missed it, Mrs Allaway, who leads on Maths across Sphere Federation, explained more about this in last weeks’ weekly message.
This year, Sphere schools are taking part in a new national programme for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2: ‘Mastering Number’. The programme aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children. The aim over time is that everyone leaves Key Stage 1 with fluency in calculation and a confidence and flexibility with number.
Why is fluency with number facts so important?
We want all children to develop fluency with number facts because we know this makes a huge difference to their progress in maths. For children who find maths difficult, it’s often the case that their only strategy is to count. They don’t see the relationships or make the connections that make maths easier. For example, if five and two is seven, seven minus two must be five – that’s the relationship within the maths.
An over-reliance on counting not only makes maths more difficult, it also inhibits flexibility, thinking and the development of problem-solving strategies. It doesn’t just affect calculating, it affects maths much more widely. We need children to have stopped counting by the time they move into Key Stage 2.
What is number sense?
Alongside fluency in number facts, we want our children to develop ‘number sense’: a flexibility with number where they reason; they see relationships; they see mathematical structures; and they see such things as if six and three is nine, then nine minus three is equal to six. These relationships won’t change in Key Stage 2 and beyond, the numbers just become bigger and more complex.
We want to support all children to think mathematically, make connections and see relationships because we know these are the characteristics that make maths learning successful.
Mastering Number sessions
In our short focused sessions for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, we give children opportunities to think deeply about mathematical relationships and time to practise and really embed fluency with number facts. These 10 minute sessions are in addition to our main daily maths lesson.
In some sessions, we focus on deepening children’s understand of the composition of number: inside numbers there are other numbers. For example, inside eight there’s five and three, there’s six and two. Knowing that inside numbers are other numbers enables children to develop fluency skills.
We’re also developing skills in subitising. This is the ability to look at a small number of objects (often a maximum of about five) and instantly recognise how many there are without needing to count them one by one. This plays a key role in helping children see how numbers are made up, avoiding an over-reliance on counting.
One of the key resources children use in Mastering Number sessions is a rekenrek – a type of abacus or number rack. It supports children to feel and visualise numbers as well as noticing how numbers relate to each other. Children begin to build up strong visual images by first doing, seeing and noticing the maths.
How can I help at home?
Regularly accessing NumBots will support children to practise and really embed and develop crucial number facts. If you need help accessing this, please contact your child’s class teacher.
Learning phonics and practising early reading skills Zoom session
On Monday, there is a Zoom session about our updated provision for learning phonics and practising early reading skills. This is aimed at parents/carers with a child in Early Years and Key Stage 1.
The session is on Zoom at 6pm on Monday 31 January. Contact the office for the Zoom details in case you missed them.
Please get in touch if you’ve any questions, about how this affects your child, after the session.
Spring term after-school clubs
After-school clubs will be restarting next week and they will run for eight weeks until the Easter break. Places can be booked via Gateway.
Our physical activity clubs continue to be heavily subsidised through the investment of our PE and Sport Premium.
Please contact the office if you have any queries about the clubs or the booking system.
Free White Rose Rugby event for all pupils
Gymnastics
On Thursday, Year 2 enjoyed their first gymnastics session with two gymnastic coaches. We showed great resilience, determination and team work during our PE lesson.
Topic learning – History
History is the focus of our topic learning this half term. During this topic, we will be ordering significant events in our lives. We’ll be discussing them using historical vocabulary.
As the half term progresses, the children will discuss how significant things have changed over time: the food that we eat, the shops that we visit and the toys that we play with.
So far during our topic sessions, we have looked at ordering key events in our lives on a timeline, ordering events within living memory (the last 100 years) and discussing the key vocabulary past and present.
Science learning
Our new science topic this half term is seasonal changes. We are biologists.
Here is the related vocabulary that we will be learning. Ask your child about these words at home, to check their understanding.
When we start a new topic, we ask the children what they would like to find out. We’ve been working on asking scientific questions and here are a selection of the great ones about seasons. We’ll look forward to answering some of the questions during the topic.
Does it snow in summer?
Why is summer so hot?
What happens every season?
How did the seasons start?
Does it snow every winter?
What time is night time?
How cold can it be in winter?
Why are there seasons?
When is winter?
When is it time for seasons to change?
Maths learning
This half term, we are continuing our addition and subtraction learning in maths and most recently, this has included adding and taking away ten from a two digit number.
The children can resourceful by using a 100 square to support them with this learning so they can see the patterns of adding and taking away 10 visually.
In class, we might use sentence frames to explain the highlighted numbers on the 100 square above.
78 is 10 more than 68 and 58 is 10 less than 68.
See if your child can use the sentence frame below to explain some of the other highlighted numbers.
__ is 10 more than ___ and ___ is 10 less than ___
To practise this at home, have a go at the Chopper Squad game (selecting ten more or less 1 to 100).
Using Numbots at home, little and often, is a great way to practise these addition and subtraction skills. The children have a number of different levels to complete and are rewarded with certificates for each level they achieve. We continue to have our weekly leader board for the most coins achieved.
We will soon be moving onto learning about multiplication and starting to learn the 2, 5 and 10 times tables. After half term, we will be setting timetables for the children to start to learn at home using Times Tables Rock Stars(TTRS). Login and access details will be sent out nearer the time.
City of Leeds Basketball
Stay safe and well
All the Year 2 adults would like to wish all the children and their families a happy and healthy Christmas. We hope their glitter bottles come in useful if things get a bit exciting over the next few days!
Thank you for all your support this term. The children have been fantastic and they continue to make us proud. Here’s a few pictures from their Christmas party and lunch this week.
Stay safe and well and see you in the new year!
