Effective Maths
Nov 3, 20233 min
The Effective Maths Securing Fluency Programme is designed to help teachers ensure children have the necessary declarative (factual) knowledge to enable them to solve problems and understand concepts. In addition to this, for Key Stage 2, it helps teachers to secure a core set of varied calculation methods.
The declarative knowledge included within the programme is largely number facts, but also includes factual knowledge linked to measures and geometry.
The column methods for calculation are addressed in the main EM programme. However, teachers should provide additional practice as needed so all children secure fluency in these methods.
In addition to column methods, during Key Stage 2 children need to secure fluency in a range of methods for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. These are included within the Securing Fluency Programme.
The units for Year 1 are best delivered in four ten-minute sessions across the week. The different units for Year 2 should be delivered different ways: some in short sessions across the week, some in a weekly session of around 45 minutes. Most of the KS2 units are best delivered in a weekly lesson lasting 45 - 60 minutes.
Access to the programme
Access to the programme is free to schools that have had training as part of a development day.
Schools that subscribe to Effective Maths can access the programme for a one-off payment of £200. You will continue to have access to the Securing Fluency Programme for no additional charge for the duration of your main EM subscription.
Schools that do not subscribe to Effective Maths can access the programme for an annual payment of £250.
What does the programme cover?
An overview of the Securing Fluency Programme can be viewed here (see link below).
This overview seeks to ensure that planning identifies all the mathematical facts, methods and strategies that children need to learn.
Sample lessons
You can view some sample lessons by clicking on the links below.
Stage 1 - Coins and notes to a total of 6p or £6
Stage 1 - Squares and triangles
Stage 2 - Number bonds for 7 and related facts
Stage 2 - Addition facts for 11 and related facts (making the next/previous ten)
Stage 3 - Methods for addition
Stage 3 - 8 × table
Stage 4 - Methods for subtraction
Stage 4 - 3 × table
Stage 5 - Methods for multiplication
Stage 5 - Days in the month
Stage 6 - Adding related fractions that bridge one
Key quotes from Ofsted’s Coordinating Mathematical Success report (July 2023) that support the need for high quality fluency teaching
“There are some deficiencies in the quality and quantity of practice that pupils undertake. Even when teachers teach with clarity and precision, it is likely that these deficiencies undermine pupils’ ability to remember important knowledge. For older pupils, these deficiencies affect their ability to attain procedural fluency (speed and accuracy).”
“Pupils’ gaps in knowledge tend to be centred around, but not limited to, addition facts in younger year groups. This was for some, but not all pupils. These early gaps in knowledge may not become apparent until a significant amount of time has elapsed. This is because it is possible, in the medium term, for pupils to understand what is being taught and then keep up with extra classroom support and slower calculation. However, this is at the expense of later ability to access the curriculum.”
“Pupil practice is sometimes limited in quality and quantity in both primary and secondary schools. This happens when leaders see practice as an activity, rather than focusing on its outcomes – whether pupils have practised until they have learned, to automaticity, the intended mathematical knowledge. There is often no consensus among leaders about benchmarks for optimal quality and quantity of practice that gives assurance that pupils have learned what is intended.”
(In the Effective Maths Securing Fluency Programme the benchmarks are clearly defined.)
The point below is key.
“An ambitious curriculum is one that maximises the mathematics that pupils learn. In some schools, teachers move on before ensuring pupils have learned important knowledge and committed that knowledge to long term memory. In schools where this is common, leaders focus on what pupils study, rather than on what pupils learn. Moving on when pupils are not mathematically ready gives the illusion of progress but creates ever greater gaps that will take more time to address in the future.”