Maths
Our Curriculum Principles in Maths
Within each classroom, visual prompts are used to aid children through the use of 'working walls'. The Maths Working Walls reflect the current learning taking place and are for the children to use as a prompt in their learning and to help explain their thinking. Displayed on the walls are key vocabulary, relevant models and images to support childrens understanding, any key strategies as well as children's voice reflected through our STEM sentences.
See the pictures below of KS1 Working Walls and Reception activities.
'APE'
At Sarisbury we promote reasoning through the 'APE' approach where children are encouraged to explain their thinking through sentence starter scaffolds. This happens during carpet input discussions, in our adult led activities/ in children's books and, is evident as part of our learning journey displays. Children begin in Reception focusing on the green speech bubbles and they progressively move through the colours as they go through the school. Below is an example of how 'APE' has been incorporated into a maths input with the speech bubbles which capture children's responses.
Maths Rewards
During our Celebration Assembly we recognise one 'Maths Magician' from each class across the school. Children could be chosen because they have shown some fantastic recall of number facts, great reasoning or some brilliant problem solving. If your child is chosen they will have a certificate to bring home each week which will be ‘pulled’ from our very own maths magician magic hat.🪄✨
Harri Heart
In maths Harri Heart helps us stay safe by reminding us how to use the equipment safely. We always make sure we look after our resources and treat them with respect.
Whole School Maths Day 2026
We have had a super Maths Day today wearing our number, pattern and shape themed clothing!
We have learnt about the importance of maths in our everyday lives and did some fantastic problem solving. We all guessed how many pom poms were in the jar and a huge ‘well done’ to our winner who correctly guessed that there were 89 pom poms.
Throughout the morning both Reception and KS1 enjoyed taking part in maths Scavenger Hunts and did a super job looking closely to find all the answers. Whilst unfortunately we didn’t get to join with the Junior school for this event due to the heat, we hope to reschedule this soon.
Whole School Maths Day 2025
We have had a fantastic Maths Day today in partnership with Sarisbury Junior School. Children enjoyed working across both sites to complete a scavenger hunt in mixed year group teams.
Back in the classroom we have explored lots of shape focused activities through the book ‘The Perfect Fit’. We looked for shapes in art by Wassily Kandinsky and made our own shape themed artwork. As part of the days activities we’ve discussed the numbers we are wearing as well as estimated how many sweets are in the jar.
Well done to all of our children showing such enthusiasm to the days activities 🧮🔢🪄✨
Home/School Links
At the beginning of each academic year, we deliver a mathematics workshop for parents/guardians to attend. In this session we show the progression of learning from Year R through to Year 2 and highlight what the expectations of children are for the end of each year group. Most importantly we model the strategies used to teach the four mathematical operations and concepts. Throughout the year ‘Maths Tool Bags’ are sold which can be used to support children’s maths learning at home.
Home learning can sometimes be maths related and will lead on from a concept the children have been taught in school aleady so they have some knowledge to share at home. Often there is also an activity linked to our maths marines sessions so the children have the opportunity to practise their fluency of number recall at home, as well as at school e.g. 1 more/1 less, multiplication number facts, counting forwards and backwards from different starting numbers in jumps on 1's and then moving on to 2's, 5's and 10's.
To support number recognition and counting at home, please see the below links to online games to play with your child. Number recognition, counting and ordering up to 20 and then beyond, are crucial foundations for children’s learning of number. We suggest that you start by securing understanding with numbers 0-5 then progress to 0-10 and then 0-20.
Please adapt these games to best suit your child’s interests. Plus, playing them ‘little and often’ will help to secure their understanding of the number system.
Snakes and Ladders, Ludo, dominoes and card games support oral counting and recognition of numbers. Using questions whilst playing can challenge their thinking. Good questions to ask are: What number do you need to roll to avoid the snake/to reach the ladder/to get home? How many more did I roll than you? What’s the biggest number you can move? What if we used two dice?
What’s Missing? Using number cards 0-5/10/20, ask your child to put them in order. Then ask them to close their eyes whilst you remove one of the cards. Can they tell you which card is missing? How do they know? Then close your eyes and ask your child to remove a card either verbalise how you reach your decision i.e. 1,2,3,5,6…that's not right! 5 doesn't come after 3? 3 isn't one less than 5! Or deliberately make a mistake so that your child has explain the right answer and why.
Highest Wins. Using a pack of cards with the picture cards removed, deal the pack between two players. Both players turn over a card and the person with the highest number wins a counter (or a sweet!). The winner is the first person to collect 10 counters/sweets. Variations: Play lowest wins! The difference between the cards has to be more than 1. You turn your card over first and then ask your child what numbers they need to turn over to win the counter.
Invisible Number Line. Using number cards 0-5/10/20, use a piece of ribbon or string as the structure for the number line. Turn the cards face down and ask your child to choose one. Where on the number line would it sit? How do you know? What would be at the beginning/end? Do you need to leave a space? Why? What number would go between those numbers?
Drop Out. Using a handful of small bricks, dried beans or pasta, pick up a handful of items and how them to your child, ask them to count them. Turn around so that they can’t see and remove some of the objects. Show them the remaining items and ask them how many were taken. Start with a small number i.e. 5 and build up to larger numbers.
Maths Workshop
Please click here to find the presentation for the Maths Workshop.
At Home
Click on the websites below to access free resources, activities and games to use with your child at home.