Here at St. Mary’s, we follow the National Curriculum for mathematics, which aims to ensure that all children:
- 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.
Our intention is that:
We want our children to be confident mathematicians that are fluent, can reason and solve problems with a secure understanding across concrete, pictorial and abstract methods of maths. We are committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of Maths in the wider world and that they are also able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in their lives in a range of different contexts. We want all children to enjoy Mathematics and to experience success in the subject, with the ability to reason mathematically. We are committed to developing children’s curiosity about the subject, as well as an appreciation of the beauty and power of Mathematics.
Our maths curriculum provides opportunities to connect, consolidate and reinforce maths skills whilst also developing fluency in both arithmetic and times tables to allow children to be able to access all areas of learning within mathematics. Key instant recall facts and concepts for each year group are carefully sequenced and mapped for each term.
Implementation
We use a carefully planned small-step based curriculum that allows all children to fully understand their learning behind each concept before moving on. Lessons are progressive and challenging for all which allows pupils to access fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Teachers use the White Rose Maths schemes of learning as the basis of their planning whilst using their professional judgement to adapt these to meet the needs of their class. We supplement White Rose Maths Hub materials with resources such as Classroom Secrets, NCETM Mastering Number at KS1 and Third Space Learning’s Fluent in 5 resources to allow teachers to provide more examples of fluency activities and to give further opportunities for children to reason and apply their mathematical understanding using problem-solving tasks.
The large majority of children progress through the curriculum content at the same pace and significant time is spent developing deep knowledge of the key ideas that are needed to underpin future learning. This ensures that all can master concepts before moving to the next part of the curriculum sequence, allowing no pupil to be left behind. For those who need it, curriculum content and delivery is adapted so that all pupils can access what is needed.
Children’s explanations and their proficiency in articulating mathematical reasoning, with the precise use of mathematical vocabulary, are supported through the use of stem sentences provided by the teacher. These help the children to make connections and expose the structure of the maths.
Fluency is developed through repeating, reinforcing and revising key skills; regular arithmetic takes place in all classes daily. Children are given time to practice and perfect their calculation strategies including giving pupils the opportunity to make appropriate decisions when estimating, calculating and evaluating the effectiveness of their chosen methods.
Times Tables
Each day, children in years 2 – 6, complete daily times tables practise, to give them the opportunity to practise and improve their rapid recall skills with facts 12×12. Children enjoy this challenge and strive to improve their time and score each day. In order to advance individual children’s maths skills in school and at home, all children also have access to their own personal account of ‘Times Tables Rockstar’ where they can compete against other pupils and classes in school.
Key Skills Practice
From Year 1 through to Year 6, the children will complete weekly arithmetic assessments to identify the gaps in learning. These gaps will then be re-visited the following week in order to enhance progress. During ‘Start of the Day’ activities, children complete a range of mathematical tasks, including: fluent in 5, speed tables and recap of previous learning to ensure key mathematical concepts are embedded and children can recall this information to see the links between topics in Maths. We want our children to develop ‘instant and automatic recall’ of key facts and concepts to prevent the working memory from becoming overloaded.
The NCETM Mastering Number is taught throughout KS1 to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense for all children from Reception through to Year 1 and Year 2. This programme focuses on the key knowledge and understanding needed in Reception classes, and progression through KS1. The aim, over time, is that children will leave KS1 with fluency in calculation and a confidence and flexibility with number. This programme will develop solid number sense, including fluency and flexibility with number facts, which will have a lasting impact on future learning for all children. All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 will have a daily teacher-led session of 10 to 15 minutes, in addition to their daily maths lesson, designed to ensure that pupils develop fluency with, and understanding of, number that is crucial to future success in maths and academic progress more generally.
Maths in the Early Years
Our Early Year’s maths curriculum is based around the fundamental requirements set out in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage (2021).
“Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers. By providing frequent and varied opportunities to build and apply this understanding – such as using manipulatives, including small pebbles and tens frames for organising counting – children will develop a secure base of knowledge and vocabulary from which mastery of mathematics is built. In addition, it is important that the curriculum includes rich opportunities for children to develop their spatial reasoning skills across all areas of mathematics including shape, space and measures. It is important that children develop positive attitudes and interests in mathematics, look for patterns and relationships, spot connections, ‘have a go’, talk to adults and peers about what they notice and not be afraid to make mistakes.”
We have adopted a mastery maths approach to teaching, following the NCETM Mastering Number programme to deliver focussed, daily, adult-led maths sessions. We see teaching for mastery in maths as allowing the pupils to gain a deep understanding of maths, allowing them to acquire a secure and long term understanding of maths that allows them to make continual progress to move onto more complex topics. Maths is incorporated into both the indoor and outdoor
environments throughout Early Years so that the use of mathematical language and exploration of concepts are nurtured and embedded in all activities and at every opportunity to reflect the daily importance Maths has in everyday life.
Impact
Children have a positive view of maths due to learning in an environment where maths is promoted as being an exciting and enjoyable subject in which they can investigate and ask questions; they know that it is reasonable to make mistakes because this can strengthen their learning through the journey to finding an answer.
The majority of our children achieve the Age Related Expectations for their year group. They have quick recall of facts and procedures appropriate for their cohort. Pupils have the flexibility to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics i.e. from concrete to pictorial to abstract.
Children perform consistently well in Mathematics and are very well prepared for the next stage in their education.
We gather this evidence through a variety of scrutiny: pupil voice, lesson visits and pupil outcomes in books. Teachers use formative assessment to evaluate learning during the lesson. They will ask questions to check understanding and scrutinise independent work in order to identify common misconceptions. These assessment allows teachers the flexibility to intervene in a lesson to remind, redirect or re-teach pupils as required.
Daily marking of independent work allows teachers greater understanding of whether or not a concept has been grasped and gives the opportunity to provide praise and feedback in order to reinforce learning. It also allows them to reflect on how successful they were in the delivery of their lesson.
Formal end of unit White Rose tests, used alongside termly summative assessments and the end of Key Stage statutory assessments allow teachers to evaluate how individuals, groups and the class as a whole are progressing compared to national expectations. They also provide excellent opportunities to see which concepts need to be given additional time – planning will be adjusted accordingly. This gives the Maths Leader and Senior Leadership the insight to see where the strengths and weaknesses lie, where additional support needs to be focused and what training/ CPD requirements are.
The combination of all of these systems allows us to judge the impact of the maths curriculum in our school.
Maths’ Progression Pathways
Calculation Policies
WRM Multiplication and Division