When studying Maths, many students find that they do not naturally grasp concepts that other students seem to easily understand. As a result, these students often become quiet in lessons, demotivated, and disinterested in all that the subject has to offer.
At Cirencester Tuition Centre we believe that three of the most important factors in academic success are understanding, practice and positivity. With these three things in place, our tutees increase confidence in their abilities, and are able to boost their understanding and marks.
At Cirencester Tuition Centre our tutors aim for all children to see mathematics as a vital part of everyday life. We want children to develop a confident and enthusiastic attitude towards mathematics that will stay with them through their education.
As mathematics is such an important life skill, we aim to equip children with the skills necessary for life outside the classroom. As the New curriculum states
‘Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.’
The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:
* become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
* reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
* can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.
To achieve these aims the children are taught number and place value, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, fractions, measurement, properties of shape, position and direction, statistics, ratio and proportion, algebra. A coverage grid is in place which is used alongside the teachers own creativity to produce a range of written and practical tasks to aid the children’s learning.
We aim to foster in children a love of number and the inspiration to solve problems. Talking is a big part of what we do and we aim to give the children the confidence to talk about how and why they have used certain strategies. There is high level of emphasis on mental calculations where children are given the time to solve calculations.