What does a Mathematics Lesson at St Matt's look like?

What would I see if I joined in on a Mathematics lesson at St Matthew’s?

At St Matthew’s Mathematics is taught for at least one hour each day, every day in all classes.

All of our classes follow the same outline.

10-15min warm up - focused on whole number games and activities. These differentiated activities are open ended and encourage maximum participation from all students (e.g. no whole class turn taking games). This gets students focused, thinking hard and revises key number concepts.

30- 40min Rich Open Ended Task - With minimal discussion beforehand students are encouraged to do some ‘hard thinking’ about an open ended mathematics problem. Some confusion is important here as students look for solutions and pose questions about the mathematics. This enables teachers or peers to give a prompt or some feedback which can switch on a new way of thinking, leading to that ‘ah-ha! moment that is so rewarding.

10 - 15min Reflection - This is where the explicit teaching happens. Students are brought together to reflect on the maths with a focus on how and why solutions worked.  This leads specifically into more varied or challenging questions which build on the learning of the day. Students are then ready for more hard thinking the next day!

Don’t steal the learning, give students a chance to think hard about Mathematics.   

Students share their number busting solutions on a class white wall. Number busting is a high yield warm up activity completed 2-3 times a week.