Practical Maths in action

At the start of the academic year, we embarked on the roll-out of our new Maths scheme, Busy Ants, across the school. Six months on,  Mrs Francis reflects on the strengths of the Busy Ants approach to teaching Maths and the progress the pupils are making.

Busy Ants is a mastery approach to learning Mathematics. The curriculum is broken down into small, sequential steps, fostering a ‘can do’ attitude and deep conceptual understanding. This mastery approach in Key Stage 1 and 2 focuses on developing deep, secure understanding through small, carefully sequenced steps that keep the whole class learning together. Concepts are explored in depth, with pupils spending longer on key ideas to build confidence, fluency, and reasoning skills.

Concrete resources and visual representations are used consistently to help our pupils understand why Maths works, not just how to get an answer. Through targeted questioning and answering and greater depth questioning to promote further challenge, our pupils are enjoying and thriving in their Maths lessons. The Busy Ants Maths scheme promotes a positive Maths mindset, strong number sense and the belief that everyone can succeed in Maths.

Mrs Francis, Head of Maths