Good Practice in Primary Mathematics: Evidence from 20 Successful Schools

This resource from Ofsted is a report and summary of the findings of the survey on good practice in primary mathematics teaching, which was conducted following a ministerial request for Ofsted to provide evidence on effective practice in the teaching of early arithmetic, published in November 2011. It focuses on identifying characteristics of effective practice, from 20 successful schools, in building students' secure knowledge, skills and understanding of number so that they demonstrate fluency in calculating, solving problems and reasoning about number. The report also looks at the choice of methods students make when presented with calculations and problems to solve. The report highlights the importance of ensuring that children have the best possible grounding in mathematics during the primary years and the approach taken by these schools, which may be beneficial to other establishments, to address the following issues: *when should students be taught formal methods? *securing successful progression to column addition and subtraction *the use of number lines and partitioning *securing successful progression to the formal algorithms for long multiplication and division *the importance of inverse operations *the use of problem solving *students' preferred approaches and their fluency in calculating *difficulties experienced by students and how schools overcome them *the role of technology and visual images *calculation policies *subject expertise and continuing professional development *working with parents and carers Each section contains examples of good practice and, where relevant, illustrations of students' work.