Intent:
At St Peter’s our mathematics intent is to be in line with the expectations of the National Curriculum striving for our children to:
- become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics,
- reason mathematically in arrange of situations,
- to develop skills in problem solving.
We aim to deliver this curriculum whilst building confidence, resilience and a passion for maths in our children. We strive for a mathematics curriculum which is accessible to all in order to maximise the development of every child’s ability. Our intention is to give an understanding that maths is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology, necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment by providing opportunities for maths learning outside of the maths lesson.
Implementation:
To ensure whole school consistency and progression we use a scheme of work called White Rose Maths. This scheme of work reflects the principles of a mastery curriculum. Maths is taught daily with 4 sessions using the White Rose Maths planning materials and resources. Our other maths session uses our supplement scheme of work called No Nonsense Number Facts which focuses on an understanding of mathematical relationships and making connections between what is known and unknown, putting reasoning at the heart of teaching for fluency. EYFS follow the ‘Development Matters’ document to guide the teaching and learning of our youngest children at the start of their maths journeys with links to White Rose Maths beginning to take place in Foundation 2. Teachers in all year groups are encouraged to use a concrete, pictorial and abstract approach (CPA) which is reflected in our calculation policy, this is to ensure that procedural and conceptual understanding are developed simultaneously.
Impact:
Throughout each lesson formative assessment takes place and feedback is given to the children through marking and next step tasks to ensure they are meeting the specific learning objective. Teacher’s then use this assessment to influence their planning and ensure they are providing a mathematics curriculum that will allow each child to progress. The teaching of maths is also monitored on a termly basis through either book scrutinies, learning walks, pupil/staff/parent voice or a look at learning environment. Each term children from Year 1 and above complete a summative assessment to help them to develop their testing approach and demonstrate their understanding of the topics covered. We use a combination of end of block assessments, White Rose Maths end of term assessment and SATs testing in the appropriate year groups.
The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress is based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged and those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material can consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.
