Numeracy
Abbeywood Community School is committed to raising the standards of numeracy of all its students, so that they develop the ability to use those skills in all areas of the curriculum. This will also allow them to cope confidently with the demands of further education, employment and adult life.
Although numeracy is a proficiency which is developed mainly in mathematics it is highly prevalent in other subjects, particularly those of a scientific nature. It is more than an ability to do basic arithmetic. It involves developing confidence and competence with numbers and measures. It requires a deep understanding of the number system, a repertoire of calculative techniques, and an inclination and ability to solve quantitative or spatial problems in a range of contexts. Numeracy also demands an understanding of the ways in which data are gathered by counting and measuring, and presented in graphs, diagrams, charts and tables.
A key part of numeracy at Abbeywood Community School is making provision for those students who have not reached the expected level for primary students, and so implementing strategies to enable students to catch-up. Not only do we aim to catch-up those students we also aim to extend the high ability students with problem solving questions, with one eye looking at their future involvement in the UKMT which is highly regarded here and nationally.
Teaching in Mathematics is based on the White Rose mastery curriculum, developed collaboratively across the Olympus Trust to tailor to our learners. Abbeywood operates smaller nurture groups and core skills groups to provide additional teaching support. These groups will utilise various manipulatives in order to encourage students to transcend from the concrete idea of numbers, to the more abstract form where numbers appear only as numerals.
Students are challenged to complete a weekly Sparx independent homework task which is highly adaptive to their starting point and progress. This is designed to support deliberate practice and aid knowledge retention. Within this there is a weekly times tables task which is punctuated with numeracy games to aid student buy-in. To support students with this independent work we run a weekly IHL club for all year groups.
