‘I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

Subject Lead - Maria Mulholland

Intent

At St. John’s Catholic Primary School, we deliver our Mathematics curriculum to ensure it follows the key aims of the National Curriculum (2014). We aim to ensure that all pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics and in number so that pupils develop solid conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. Children at St. John’s are taught to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, finding connections and establishing relationships whilst using mathematical language. Our mathematics curriculum carefully sequences knowledge, concepts and procedures to build mathematical knowledge and skills systematically over time. Children are taught to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions. We are committed to developing children’s curiosity about the subject, as well as an appreciation of the beauty and power of Mathematics.

At St. John’s Catholic Primary School, we strive to promote and instil a positive mind-set about mathematics for all children. We believe our children should thrive in our curriculum during their time here. We have created a curriculum which encourages children to be ambitious in their learning through embracing challenge. Through careful linking with STEM subjects, we aim for children to fulfil mathematical curiosity with enjoyment and enthusiasm. This is done through interweaving mathematics into our creative approach to the curriculum and through providing opportunities for children to follow their own investigations.

Implementation

Due to a whole class, step-by-step teaching approach, children at St. John’s Primary School are able to move through the curriculum at broadly the same pace. As a result of spending more time on fundamentals, the children can establish firm foundations on which to build their understanding. Because of our concrete-pictorial-abstract approach, children learn to see the connections in maths and understand that mathematics can be represented in different ways. The maths curriculum, provides sufficient opportunities for planned revisits of previously learned knowledge, concepts and procedures; this is to ensure that, once learned, mathematical knowledge becomes deeply embedded in pupils’ memories; freeing pupils’ attention to work with independence, apply their mathematical knowledge to more complex mathematics. The teachers are given flexibility and can use their judgement to adapt the scheme to suit the needs of their children.  Those pupils behind age-related expectations are supported with pre-teaching,  targeted questioning and targeted support in lessons from adults. Children who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged with greater depth problems from the within lessons.  We use White Rose sheets, but teachers can gather relevant resources to supplement the learning objective, where necessary.

Lessons, typically begin with “Flashback 4”, retrieval practice, to establish any prior learning misconceptions. Teachers plan lessons based on the White Rose Math long term overview aligned to the NCETM to meet the key objectives. Teachers plan lessons using their own professional judgement, daily formative assessment and feedback from pupils. Teachers use their professional judgement to determine how long to spend on a particular objective. Teachers do not produce detailed written plans for each lesson. Feedback is provided to pupils verbally, through teacher marking, peer marking and self-marking. This informs teaching for the next lesson. Maths is included in other subject areas, where appropriate exposing children to mathematical thinking and concepts across the curriculum. Home learning and deliberate practice of key number facts is encouraged across school through participation in online games such as Time Tables Rockstars and EdShed. 

Impact

The school has a supportive ethos and our approaches support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others. Our children therefore use mathematical concepts and procedures fluently and confidently across the curriculum; looking for opportunities to further their learning within mathematics. Children can underperform in Mathematics because they think they can’t do it or are not naturally good at it. The teaching of Maths at St. John’s addresses these preconceptions by ensuring that all children experience challenge and success in Mathematics by developing a growth mindset. Regular and ongoing assessment informs teaching, as well as intervention, to support and enable the success of each child. These factors ensure that we are able to maintain high standards, with achievement at the end of KS2 above the national average and a high proportion of children demonstrating greater depth, at the end of KS2.

The Mathematic curriculum at St. John’s enables the children to: apply their skills in everyday situations; grow in their love and appreciation of the mathematical world around them; and have a readiness to continue their mathematical learning journey into KS3 and beyond.

Maths in EYFS

Implementation: The Early Years
How is Maths enabled in the Early Years?
We believe that a structured Mastery approach, based on the White Rose Long Term Plan, and implemented throughout provision and focussed teaching sessions ensures children learn new concepts that they can then demonstrate in their own independent learning. The component of Number is enabled through for example: encouraging children to count the things they see and talk about and use numbers beyond ten; providing a wide range of number resources and encouraging children to be creative in identifying and devising problems and solutions in all areas of learning. Additionally the component of Shape, Space and Measure is enabled through for example: encouraging children to record what they have done, e.g. by drawing or tallying; providing collections of interesting things for children to sort, order, count and label in their play; displaying numerals in purposeful contexts; creating opportunities for children to separate objects into unequal groups as well as equal groups; having areas where children can explore the properties of objects and where they can weigh and measure, such as a cookery station and building areas; planning opportunities for children to describe and compare shapes, measures and distance

In Early Years children are assessed against the Early Learning Goals:
Early Learning Goal – Numbers.
Children count reliably with numbers from one to 20, place them in order and say which number is one more or one less than a given number. Using quantities and objects, they add and subtract two single-digit numbers and count on or back to find the answer. They solve problems, including doubling, halving and sharing.

Early Learning Goal – shape, space and measures. Children use everyday language to talk about size, weight, capacity, position, distance, time and money to compare quantities and objects and to solve problems. They recognise, create and describe patterns. They explore characteristics of everyday objects and shapes and use mathematical language to describe them.