During our review activities, members of the Pupil Voice Group and the AoLE Leader undertook Listening to Learners activities, workbook scrutiny, pupil questionnaires and checked maths homework provision on class pages.

We identified the following strengths related to our Action Plan:

Strengthen pupils’ fluency, confidence and enjoyment in mental maths through engaging and progressive provision across the school.

Weekly testing and mental maths sessions take place weekly in all classes (Y2 – Y6), and this is carried out in a similar way. Strategies are taught as part of the testing session, where methods and strategies for selected questions are discussed and modelled. Additionally, all classes provide weekly mental maths sessions where problems are presented, and methods and strategies are discussed and modelled. Teachers also use morning ‘settling-in’ session to provided maths challenges which provides opportunities for pupils to demonstrate and practise their mental maths skills.

In Progression Step 3, differentiated mental maths tests are provided and presented in a way that allows learners to choose the level of challenge that they are comfortable with. The results are monitored weekly by the class teacher to ensure that learners are selecting a suitable level of challenge. As a result, pupil feedback shows that learners feel more confident during testing sessions and weekly scores show improvement.

In nearly all classes, times tables homework is set weekly. In nearly all classes, differentiated tests are provided and presented in a way that allows learners to choose the level of challenge that they are comfortable with. The results are monitored weekly by the class teacher to ensure that learners are selecting a suitable level of challenge. As a result, pupil feedback shows that learners feel more confident during testing sessions and weekly scores show improvement.

The pupil questionnaire provided the following results:

The results show that pupils are feeling more confident about working mentally when solving maths problems. Professional dialogue with class teachers supports this as they feel that nearly all pupils are more confident using mental strategies within maths sessions.

Next Steps:

• Refine tracking systems (Insight & Teacher Record Files) to be able to efficiently and accurately monitor progress and target individual learners for support.