Curriculum
Maths
Maths
We endeavour to not only develop the mathematics skills and understanding required for later life, but also to foster an enthusiasm and fascination about maths itself.
Intent
At St. Mary’s the teaching of maths is geared towards enabling each child to develop their learning and achieve their full potential. We endeavour to not only develop the mathematics skills and understanding required for later life, but also to foster an enthusiasm and fascination about maths itself. We aim to increase pupil confidence in maths so they are able to express themselves and their ideas using the language of maths with assurance. We want the children to see mathematics as being relevant to their world and applicable to everyday life as well as being something that they will need as they move on through their school life and ultimately to the world of employment.
Implementation
Our maths curriculum is creative and engaging and embraces the Mastery approach to teaching mathematics. All children have access to this curriculum and make good progress in lessons. We incorporate sustained levels of challenge through varied and high quality activities with a focus on fluency, reasoning and problem-solving. Our children are required to explore maths in depth, using mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain their working out.
A wide range of mathematical resources are used and from an early age, children are taught to show their workings in a concrete fashion, before establishing ways of pictorially and formally representing their understanding. They also need to be able to make rich connections across the different areas of maths and use their mathematical knowledge in other subject areas.
Our aim is to ensure that all children:
- Become FLUENT
- REASON and EXPLAIN mathematically
- Can SOLVE PROBLEMS
Children need to be regularly exposed to increasingly complex problems to solve, which allows them to apply their maths knowledge. In doing so they are encouraged to develop an argument and line of enquiry which they can prove and justify using mathematical vocabulary. This includes the ability to break down problems, both routine and non-routine, into a series of steps.
At St. Mary’s we teach maths in a way that:
- creates a lively, exciting and stimulating environment in which the children can learn maths
- promotes the concept that acquiring maths knowledge and skills provides the foundation for understanding the world around the children
- develops mental strategies
- encourages children to use mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain
- allows time for partner talk in order to stimulate and develop a curiosity for maths
- challenges children to stretch themselves and take risks in their learning
- creates a sense of awe and wonder surrounding maths
- ensures children in Key Stage 1 are secure in their understanding of number and number relationships
- delivers maths in line with new National Curriculum guidelines
At St Marys we use the Whiterose Scheme of learning to support our long-term planning and curriculum organisation. This is further enhanced using a variety of other resources such Nrich, Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots.
Assessment
Children in Reception are assessed through their day-to-day activities and observations using Tapestry. Throughout the rest of the school, marking and verbal feedback are used to provide feedback and support daily. Testbase tests are used to help aid teacher judgements. These formative and summative assessments help support and identify certain areas of maths that teachers need to revisit for their class/year group.
Downloads
Maths Whole School Curriculum Map
Our curriculum maps are designed with both coverage and progression built in. This makes our curriculum dynamic, ever-changing and responsive to the children’s needs and learning styles.
