If some children have gaps in their mastery of specific maths skills then you will need to plan supplementary activities for individual pupils in the class to complete so that they can equipped with the skills and knowledge required for their current year group. Teach the children the building blocks that they will need to access more complicated problems in maths and show mastery of specific concepts.

Targeting Key Skills
Identify a key skill for the current year group’s National Curriculum objectives. Spend time discussing the key skill and setting the class some problems to assess their current understanding. If the children can successfully understand the key skill and utilise it for concrete, contextual and abstract activities then you can move the class to the next objective. If the class or individual children are having problems grasping the key skill then you can plan matching activities to build the blocks needed to further their understanding. Sometimes these activities can take place during the normal maths lesson with the whole class working on a previous skill that they need to master before progressing further. Sometimes children will need to work in a small group or individually outside of the normal maths lesson so that they can acquire the blocks needed to further their understanding.

Maths Written Addition
This is an example of how to support the children’s development in adding four digit numbers using a formal columnar method which forms part of the programme of study for Year Four

(a) Spend time assessing the children’s current grasp of written addition of four digit numbers with no exchange between place value. This can involve working as a whole class to complete some addition number problems or by setting the children some more formal problems that they can try and solve when working individually. Encourage the class to talk about the techniques that they are using to add numbers including referencing the place value of digits in a number.

(b) If the children can successfully add four digit numbers with no exchange then you can progress the class onto working with numbers where exchange is required between place value. The class can show how to carry forward when completing the sums for different place value columns.

(c) If the class or individual children are having problems adding four digit numbers using a columnar method then you can plan supporting activities to help them progress further. You can delve into objectives from previous year groups to select matching activities.

(d) If the whole class are having problems adding four digit numbers then select some previous attainment targets such as working with two or three digit numbers or using an expanded addition method to indicate how to add using place value. Once the children have mastered the particular year group’s objective then you can advance them forward to work with four digit numbers with no exchange and exchange between place value.

(e) If individual children are having problems adding four digit numbers then you can plan some paired or group work to support their understanding. Use objectives from the programme of study from previous years to build supporting activities such as using base ten equipment to model changes to place value when adding or by using frameworks to scaffold changes to numbers when adding hundreds, tens and ones.

Mastery Assessment
You can assess the children’s mastery of specific maths targets by getting them to participate in a range of activities. Allow some children to demonstrate their mastery by explaining to the rest of the class how they solved a particular problem. You can also provide the class with some example problems where the solution contains a number of errors. The children can demonstrate their mastery and understanding by correcting any mistakes and explaining how and why they should be corrected.