Mathematics

Intent

At West Street Community Primary School, we want our children to develop a sense of curiosity and enjoyment about Maths. Mathematics is a fundamental part of each day. We believe that Maths teaches us how to make sense of the world around us. We aim to provide children with the skills in order to develop the ability to calculate, to communicate, to reason, and to solve problems. This enables children to explore, understand, and appreciate relationships and patterns in both number and shape in their everyday life.

We deliver a programme of study that meets the requirements of the National Curriculum 2014. In recent years, we have started to adopt a mastery approach to the teaching and learning of maths, which is based on the belief that all learners can enjoy and succeed in Maths. We offer progression within fluency, reasoning, and problem-solving and in turn aim for children to become true masters of content, applying new knowledge in multiple ways.

At West Street, we want all children to achieve their full potential irrespective of race gender/class/ ability and give all learners the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed.

Implementation

Lessons are taught daily, balancing whole class work, group teaching, practical tasks, and individual practice to encourage mathematical talk, support, and independence. Each day the children build on what they learned the previous day. This allows children to develop a conceptual understanding of the maths they are learning. In addition, each lesson begins with an activity which revises prior learning from previous terms. This ensures that learning objectives are revisited.

Mathematics is taught through the White Rose scheme of work, supplemented where appropriate with other materials. The maths curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced towards building sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning. Mathematical concepts that are taught earlier in the curriculum are revisited in the context of a new area of mathematics. This helps learners to make connections between different mathematical concepts. Children are provided with the tools they need to develop their mathematical thinking, conceptual understanding, and language and communication through the use of a concrete–pictorial–abstract approach to teaching and learning maths. This acts as a scaffold for their thinking and deepens their understanding further.

Key mathematical skills and knowledge are taught in the daily lesson and every effort is made to link mathematics with other areas of the curriculum. Mathematical possibilities are identified across the links between mathematics and other curricular work are made so children see that mathematics is not an isolated subject.

Maths vocabulary is used in the correct way in order to develop children’s knowledge. Children are encouraged to use the correct mathematical language and terminology to discuss their mathematics and to explain their reasoning.

Through our teaching, we continuously monitor pupils’ progress against expected attainment for their age, making formative assessment notes where appropriate and using these to inform our teaching. Summative assessments are completed at the end of each term: their results form discussions in Pupil Progress Meetings. The main purpose of all assessments is to ensure that we provide excellent provision for every child.

In order to advance individual children’s maths skills in school and at home, we utilise Times Tables Rock Stars for multiplication practice, application, and consolidation. Numbots is used to develop addition and subtraction knowledge and skills. In KS2, maths homework is also set weekly.

Teachers’ subject knowledge is developed through regular CPD and senior leaders provide effective support for teachers and support staff who need additional development. We continuously strive to better ourselves and frequently share ideas and things that have been particularly effective.

Impact

It is intended that at West Street Primary School, children will:

increase enjoyment, resilience, understanding, and attainment in maths
secure long-term, deep and adaptable understanding of maths which they can apply in different contexts
take new ideas or relationships and incorporate them into their current understanding and see how they connect with ideas and relationships they have encountered previously
have more memorable and enjoyable experiences in maths that are more likely to be remembered in the long term
set themselves high expectations for their learning as they understand how to push the boundaries of what they know and apply it to solve problems
have achieved age-related expectations for their year group. Children who have gaps in their knowledge will achieve their best possible outcome, having received appropriate support and intervention.

The impact of our Maths curriculum is measured through the monitoring cycle in school.