Meet Merlin: Our Longmoor Curriculum Maths Character

Merlin is a whizz in Maths.  He knows his number bonds, times tables, shapes, and measures.  He uses different methods to help him solve a problem and always writes down his ideas to help him develop a reason for the solution he has found.

Merlin encourages you to use TTRS and Mathletics at home to develop your confidence in school.  He wants you to look for shapes, practise telling the time, try to weigh and measure items and to most importantly love discovering facts and solutions to Maths problems.

Maths at Longmoor

At Longmoor, all children's conceptual understanding and engagement is at the heart of our maths curriculum; we follow the use of a concrete, pictorial, abstract (CPA) approach to develop Mastery Maths through the support of the White Rose curriculum from EYFS to Year 6. This is underpinned by the use of manipulatives, models and images that support all children with their conceptual understanding. Throughout the school, we promote the use of a range of representations to ensure that all children develop their understanding of the curriculum and the links across it. Mathematical understanding is developed first through the use of concrete  manipulatives (e.g. dienes, counters, bead strings and multilink cubes) and, in order to do this, each table in each class is provided with a tool box which can be accessed at all times. Alongside the manipulatives, the children are then introduced to the pictorial representation (e.g drawing place value charts, part whole model and the bar model); these are then used to facilitate their understanding of the abstract (e.g mental calculations and formal written methods). 

At the centre of the Mastery approach to the teaching of maths is the belief that all children have the potential to succeed. Maths Mastery is an inclusive approach: all children, including children with SEND, should have access to the same curriculum content. All children are encouraged to deepen their conceptual understanding by tackling challenging and varied problems. Children are taught to not simply rote learn procedures but to demonstrate their conceptual understanding of these procedures through the use of concrete materials, pictorial representations and use of explanations using the correct mathematical language. 

Language plays a vital role in developing the understanding of maths: the ability to reason and to tackle problems. Throughout the school, children at Longmoor are always encouraged to consider their correct use of mathematical language through the demonstration of use by adults in the room, by the  use of oracy (KAGAN talk groups and structures) and through access to language on the working wall in their classrooms. 

New for September 2022.....

Merlin's Multiplication Passport

Maths Learning at Home