Every one of our maths lessons is based on the principals that all children can achieve. Pupils at Lindley Junior School are taught in mixed ability class groups, with all of them accessing the same learning*. This allows all pupils to be exposed to the same content and offered the same opportunities, rather than placing a ceiling on children’s learning. Pupils are then given tasks to enrich and stretch this learning in the form of ‘challengers’ to further independently extend pupils. Those who may need extra help are supported through scaffolding, such as using concrete manipulatives or by requiring teacher/ LSA support.
No pupils are given different objectives unless they have an EHCP/SEND, in this case pupils may follow a individualised curriculum which best reflects their specific needs.
* There may be occasions where children are fluidly grouped for a short period of time to allow specific misconceptions to be addressed.

• Each lesson begins with a revisit of previous learning (retrieval activity) This enables pupils to exercise their working memory and to better retain facts taught previously. This may take the form of a ‘fluent in 5’ arithmetic activity or a ‘flashback 4’ with factual questions from last week/ last lesson/ previous topic.
• The new lesson content is then introduced in the form of small steps and a ‘ping pong’ style session. There are opportunities for guided practice and independent practice. Concrete materials are on hand if pupils wish to use them. They make that choice themselves to enable them to own their own learning.
• The small steps of the lesson mean that pupils are all brought along together as a whole class.
• The independent tasks are then explained and the pupils complete their work at the level that suits them, starting on different questions depending on ability/confidence. The tasks are high ceiling, low threshold, so that everyone can access the first questions and then go as far through them as they can, completing the challenger activi-ties where possible.
• Teachers active mark through the lesson providing immediate feedback and intervention where needed. LSAs do not always sit with a group/ pupil as we aim to ensure that all pupils develop independence. So once they have introduced and supported certain pupils, they may leave them for independent practice; visiting them later to monitor progress.
• LSAs may provide immediate feedback to pupils and the teacher where needed.
• Mini plenaries are used effectively to address common misconceptions identified by active marking.
• Our plenaries are usually in the form of whole class reasoning or ‘true or false’ style questions to enable the whole class to experience this level of reasoning.
• Pupils self-assess their work based against the lesson outcome(s) - they use the RAG system.
• All teachers assess and RAG pupil’s work using a stamper and make notes on planning to inform future lessons and identify who may need reactive intervention or who may need to work in a smaller group the next day. We do not always provide written feedback to pupils in books or expect this from staff and research shows that ver-bal feedback at the time of the misconception is more beneficial to move learning forward. Pupils are encouraged to self-mark where appropriate and are expected to correct their mistakes where they see a (c) indicating a correction is needed (see marking and feedback policy).