Last week pupils at Kennet Valley Primary School in Lockeridge celebrated their love of maths with a themed week of activities and adventures linked to numbers, shapes, and measures. Teacher and Maths subject leader, Sarah Hues, shared her enthusiasm for numbers by leading the activities.
Sarah Hues said, “We are passionate about Maths at Kennet Valley and know that our children enjoy these sessions each day. We have been developing the Maths approach of mastery which enables children to use their knowledge and skills in different ways when solving problems. We have invested a great deal of time and funding to ensure that all the classes have access to a wide range of Maths equipment which enables all of our learners to make good progress in every aspect of the Maths curriculum. We want children to love Maths and to use it well in everyday life.”
Classes used books such as ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘365 Penguins’ as inspiration for their writing and for other activities such as cookery. The youngest children in the school made their own fruit salads at the end of the week.
The wide range of activities also involved parents. On Tuesday and Wednesday parents were invited in to play number games with their children and friends. Parents commented, “It was really fun to join in with Maths activities and to feel the buzzing atmosphere of this happy school – thank you.”
“I counted lots of happy faces. A fun morning. Maths Rocks!” and “It was good to watch the children interact with each other and see them enjoy the topic of Maths. There seems so much enthusiasm for learning, which was a pleasure to witness.”
On Thursday, the whole school took part in Maths outside. They walked to West Woods where they spent a sunny morning problem solving. On Friday the school dressed up in costumes linked to Maths to raise money for the school.
Emma Russell, Headteacher, commented, “I love that our staff and children LOVE Maths! Sarah Hues and the whole team work exceptionally hard to ensure that children are enthusiastic for this subject as it has so many vital skills that children will need as they get older. It has been lovely to see the children working together, not only with children from their own classes but from other classes too, while they take part in maths activities, games and problem solving.
Simon Jones, Maths Link Governor, came in to judge a competition that the children took part in. This competition was to design and make their own family maths game. He was extremely impressed by the games, and by the whole of the maths week.”
Simon Jones said, “It was a great pleasure, although exceedingly difficult, to judge the winner of this competition. The children had amazing ideas and such creativity – I was blown away! Well done to everyone who took part.”