Being a Mathematician

INTENT – what are we trying to achieve with our curriculum?

At Whiteparish, the intent behind our Maths curriculum is for children to enjoy learning and explore mathematical concepts building confidence, curiosity and resilience in a subject that is essential to everyday life.

 

We believe that children need to be taught to manipulate numbers and find patterns. We encourage children to be reflective about their learning and approach problems with a ‘can do’ attitude, tackling unknown problems with resilience.

 

In EYFS, children build a strong understanding of number up to 10. They do this through the use of Mastering Number sessions and learning through engagement with their environment. In Key Stage 1, children have opportunities to develop their understanding of number through guided practice, continuous provision and Mastering Number sessions. In Lower Key Stage 2, the emphasis is on securing an understanding of number and place value, with the expectation that children will also be fluent in their times tables by the end of Year 4. In Upper Key Stage 2, the prominence is on children using their understanding of the number system to ascertain known facts and applying this to a range of complex, multi-step problems. Scroll down to see each class's Yearly Overview.

 

Through a series of coherent, well-planned ‘Learning Journeys’, children will be able to make connections, reason with confidence and have a true enjoyment and love of mathematics. In all classes, we am to provide suitable learning opportunities for all children by matching the challenge of the task to where the child’s learning is at so that all children make good progress from their individual starting points.

 

Our staff fundamentally believe that “Everyone can do maths.” – our approach to teaching mathematics incorporates this and that mathematical ability is not something that is fixed but something that develops over time with high-quality teaching, positivity and practise.

 

IMPLEMENTATION - how is our curriculum delivered?

At Whiteparish, we use the White Rose Maths scheme of work to ensure coverage of the National Curriculum and progression throughout the school.

 

While we use White Rose Maths to provide us with an overview and guidance, our teachers use their subject knowledge to design lessons that are best suited to their class achieving the learning outcome. As a Whole Staff Team, we have created our own bespoke Calculation Policy (see link below) based on our beliefs and knowledge of how children learn best. This allows for there to be a ‘golden thread’ throughout the school so that children get consistent sequential, teaching throughout the school.

 

To ensure children can build a secure understanding and deepen their learning, we incorporate the 5 Big Ideas from Maths Mastery into our Maths lessons (see picture below). We believe that all children deserve to be taught at their starting points and as a result you will see teachers plan lessons accordingly using our Progression Document. We achieve this through a range of strategies including: explicit teaching, differentiated tasks, adult assistance and the use of scaffolds to support learners. The benefit of this approach is it caters for all styles of learners: it enables our greater depth children to flourish with deeper reasoning and problem-solving challenges whilst also enabling children who are working towards other year group objectives to make accelerated progress.

5 Big Ideas of Maths Mastery, which underpin our approach to teaching Mathematics

 

IMPACT - what difference is our curriculum making?

The impact of our high-quality Mathematics curriculum is that our learners achieve excellent results by the time they leave Year 6, setting them up for the next stage of their education.

 

Over the last three years, 43 out of 45 children (96%) have met the expected standard in Mathematics. This includes 17 children who met the expected standard at a greater depth level (38%). We are also extremely proud that in the last three years, 100% of children with SEN have met the expected standard in Mathematics.

 

The subject lead continuously monitors the impact of the curriculum by carrying out lesson observations, pupil conversations and book looks. As well as this, all year group’s termly assessments (Autumn, Spring and Summer) are standardised through SmartGrade and we also use this to carry out gap analysis to ensure effective interventions and better outcomes for pupils.

 

                            

Children are set home learning via MathShed. On here, children are assigned tasks based on the foundations of mathematics. It is essential that children know their number bonds and times tables for them to be able to access the Primary Curriculum and beyond. Therefore, we believe that the most valuable maths homework is learning these foundations to enable children to succeed.