The National Curriculum for Maths aims to ensure that all children:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of Mathematics
• Are able to reason mathematically
• Can solve problems by applying their Mathematical skills

At St Peter’s and St Gildas’, these skills are embedded within maths lessons and developed consistently over time. 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 maths 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.

Implementation

Here at St Peter’s and St Gildas’, our approach to the teaching of mathematics develops children’s ability to work both independently and collaboratively. Every class from EYFS to Year 6 follows the White Rose scheme of learning which is based on the National Curriculum. Lessons may be personalised to address the individual needs and requirements for a class but coverage is maintained. In order to further develop the children’s fluency, reasoning and problem-solving, we use NCETM and NRich, which correlate to the White Rose lessons and further develop children’s understanding of a concept and the links between maths topics.

In Reception, Mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in the six key areas of early maths; cardinality and counting, comparison, composition, pattern, shape and space and measures. All areas of the provision have mathematical activities for the children to access as well as daily focused maths sessions.

At St Peter’s and St Gildas’, we recognise that in order for pupils to progress to deeper and more complex problems, children need to be confident and fluent across each yearly objective. To ensure children know more and remember more, all maths lessons begin with a brief, daily review of prior knowledge and offer the time to introduce new subject specific vocabulary.

Maths is a subject specific lesson, which builds upon previously taught knowledge, skills and vocabulary covered in our progression grids. We aim to develop children’s enjoyment of maths and provide opportunities for children to build a conceptual understanding of maths before applying their knowledge to everyday problems and challenges. Lessons include times table practice, daily reviews of previously taught skills, knowledge and vocabulary acquisition through guided and independent practice and opportunities to reason and problem solve in a secure learning environment.

Through each maths lesson, new content is taught through small steps to support children in their learning journey. This progresses into supported and independent practice for children to secure their new skills. Through mathematical talk, children develop the ability to articulate and discuss their thinking. We strive to ensure that children are taught to become competent mathematicians by embedding the skills and processes necessary to enable children to use and apply their Maths learning efficiently and in a variety of contexts. In order to advance individual children’s maths skills in school and at home, we utilise Times Tables Rock Stars for multiplication practice and teach a weekly arithmetic lesson to increase speed and recall of key mathematical facts.

Teachers use questioning to elicit feedback from all students to expose and address any misconceptions in learning. Where these misconceptions are seen, they are addressed through supported practice to enable all children to succeed. Teachers also use a range of tools to support children in knowing more and remembering more in maths. These include working walls, knowledge organisers as prompts on tables, vocabulary displays and steps to success. Over the course of the term, children will revisit and recall previous learning to identify gaps in learning which must be planned for.

Through our teaching we continuously monitor pupils’ progress against expected attainment for their age, making formative assessment judgements and using these to inform our teaching. Summative assessments are completed at the end of each term in some year groups; their results from discussions in termly Pupil Progress Meetings. The main purpose of all assessment is to always ensure that we are providing excellent provision for every child.

Impact

At St Peter’s and St Gildas’, we have a supportive ethos and our approach supports the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others.  We aim to ensure that the children have mastered the maths in every lesson, with teachers using assessment for learning, identifying and addressing any misconceptions as and when they arise. Where possible, teachers and teaching assistants deliver targeted focus groups, interventions and boosters based on assessment of the work produced to ensure that all children are ready to move on.

As well as assessment for learning during lessons, regular and ongoing assessment of the pupils’ outcomes informs teaching, as well as intervention, to support and enable the success of each child.

We use a variety of strategies to evaluate the knowledge, skills and understanding that our children gain as they progress from Reception to Year 6:

• Regular feedback marking and pupil voice feedback
• Subject monitoring, including scrutiny of planning, book looks and learning walks
• Regular low stakes knowledge assessments, using a range of creative approaches
• Cross-school moderation to ensure secure teacher judgements
• Termly tests to support our teachers’ assessment

These factors help us to maintain high expectations and high standards in Mathematics.

Maths Mental Calculations Feb 2024

Maths Written Calculations Feb 2024