Ticehurst and Flimwell Church of England Primary School

In the classroom

• Pupils are taught through whole-class interactive teaching, using appropriate manipulatives, enabling all to master the concepts necessary for the next part of the curriculum sequence.
   
• In a typical lesson, the teacher leads back and forth interaction, including questioning, short tasks, explanation, demonstration, and discussion, enabling pupils to think, reason and apply their knowledge to solve problems.
   
• Use of precise mathematical language enables all pupils to communicate their reasoning and thinking effectively.
   
• If a pupil fails to grasp a concept or procedure, this is identified quickly, and gaps in understanding are addressed systematically to prevent them falling behind.
   
• Significant time is spent developing deep understanding of the key ideas that are needed to underpin future learning.
   
• Key number facts are learnt to automaticity, and other key mathematical facts are learned deeply and practised regularly, to avoid cognitive overload in working memory and enable pupils to focus on new learning.

Lesson Structure

• Hook/anchor task –This is a warmup - it is designed to be accessible for all and get every child focussed and ready for learning. It may revisit prior learning, establishing understanding before moving to new learning, or be related to fluency.
• Links to prior learning - this will make the lesson more meaningful for the children and help to find out what they recall about the particular topic.
• I do – new learning – teacher introduces the new learning, modelling and think aloud. This must involve the use of manipulatives and the appropriate representations for the concepts being introduced. Let the children know why they’re learning this.
• We do – questioning, sentence stems, children becoming more active in their involvement. Children will engage in paired work, working together on concepts previously modelled by the teacher with apparatus and whiteboards. Once the children have practiced the concept, they will engage in some reasoning and problem-solving applications for the new learning.
• Independent task – children work on tasks to practice and show understanding of concepts covered. These will generally be recorded in books, or at KS1 may be in the form of photos and recording.
• Reflection - This provides an opportunity for the children to think deeply about what they have learned, to make connections, and to pose questions.