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Maths Policy | Link |
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St Hilda's Maths Curriculum Statement - Intent
The staff and governors of St Hilda’s CE Primary School are committed to creating an environment that enables children to be curious and positive about Mathematics. The school serves a diverse community with significant levels of social disadvantage; inward and outward mobility are a common feature within our body of children and families. Driven by this context and a commitment to inclusion that underpins all our endeavours, school staff demonstrate an unwavering ambition for all children to fulfil their aspirations.
Mathematics is promoted as a subject which supports development and is profoundly important when making sense of and achieving success in the wider word. We recognise the purpose of Mathematics is to nurture reasoning, creativity, abstract and/or spatial thinking, critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills. Language development is of crucial importance in supporting the use and understanding of mathematical vocabulary. Furthermore, we recognize the importance of providing opportunities to apply mathematical proficiency across the curriculum. By understanding the cultural capital of our community, the St Hilda’s mathematics curriculum builds strong foundations to provide children with the skills and knowledge necessary for the next step of their education and success in the wider world.
Note
The National Curriculum defines cultural capital as “the essential knowledge that pupils need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.”
What a Mathematician looks like...
- To have a love for mathematics.
- To develop fluency in arithmetic.
- To know times tables up to at least 12.
- To apply a variety of mental calculations.
- To understand the abstract through concrete and pictorial methods.
- To apply mathematical skills to reasoning and problem solving.
- To use mathematical skills in everyday life.
Equal Opportunities
A positive attitude towards Mathematics is encouraged so that all children, regardless of race, gender, ability or special needs and including those for whom English is a second language, develop enjoyment and confidence with Mathematics.
As an expression of the school’s intent, staff and governors commit that they will:
- fulfil the requirements and deliver the content of the National Curriculum for Mathematics and the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile;
- prioritise mathematical fluency, arithmetical proficiency and mastery of the four operations;
- maintain an up to date, “real time” understanding of the knowledge and skills required by our children and use this to adapt and inform approaches to teaching, learning and assessment;
- build a Mathematics curriculum based on endpoints that are in sequence and support progression;
- advocate the critical importance of Mathematics within a broad, interconnected curriculum that enables children to make links between learning and avoids narrowing;
- engage parents in children’s learning;
- expect and demand only the best standards of teaching, learning and assessment from school staff with a priority on knowing and understanding the needs of our children;
- use up to date, evidence based research as a source of guidance;
- support the development of school leaders at all levels in order for them to craft a curriculum that builds towards end points, recognizes social disadvantage, addresses gaps in children’s knowledge and supports excellent progress;
Implementation
To ensure that children achieve the best possible outcomes through a well sequenced and inspiring Mathematics curriculum, school staff work within their role to:
- prioritise mathematical fluency as a starting point for progress;
- check understanding, identifying and correcting misconceptions;
- deliver teaching and learning opportunities that develop conceptual understanding;
- use carefully crafted planning to build a progressive understanding of concepts;
- provide planned opportunities for language acquisition that support mathematical vocabulary;
- enable children to routinely explore Mathematics in depth, using mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain their workings;
- provide access to a wide range of mathematical resources in order for pupils to explore and show their workings in a concrete, pictorial or abstract form wherever suitable;
- set an expectation that children can explain their choice of methods and thereby develop mathematical reasoning skills;
- build resilience whilst cultivating an acceptance that struggle is often a necessary step in learning;
- provide opportunities for practice to support mastery of concepts whilst developing speed and accuracy;
- facilitate access to continuous professional development
- collaborate with colleagues across school and external partners to support the provision for our children, personal development and the betterment of the school;
EEF Research Improving Mathematics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1
'Improving Mathematics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1' reviews the best available evidence to offer five recommendations for developing the maths skills of 3-7 year olds.
Recommendations include integrating maths into different activities throughout the day; for example, at registration and snack time; to familiarise children with maths language and make the most of the school day.
It also highlights that story and picture books can be a powerful tool for engaging children with basic maths concepts, while board games (such as Snakes and Ladders) are particularly beneficial to developing understanding of numbers.
We have used the findings of this report to inform the development of our Maths Curriculum. Please use the link to find out more.
EEF Research Improving Mathematics in Key Stage 2
This guidance report focuses on the teaching of mathematics to pupils in Key Stages 2 and 3. Key stage 2 is years 3 to 6 at primary school. It is not intended to provide a comprehensive guide to mathematics teaching. We have made recommendations where there are research findings that schools can use to make a significant difference to pupils learning.
The focus is on improving the quality of teaching. Excellent maths teaching requires good content knowledge, but this is not sufficient. Excellent teachers also know the ways in which pupils learn mathematics and the difficulties they are likely to encounter, and how mathematics can be most effectively taught.
We have used the findings of this report to inform the development of our Maths Curriculum. Please use the link to find out more.
Maths Curriculum in Pictures
Please click on the picture link to see how the curriculum is taught at St Hilda's School.
Breadth of Study
Careful planning and preparation ensures that children engage in:
- practical activities and games using a variety of resources;
- problem solving to challenge thinking;
- individual, paired, group and whole class learning and discussions;
- purposeful practice where time is given to apply their learning;
- open and closed tasks;
- a range of methods of calculating e.g. mental, pencil and paper including formal methods, using a calculator;
Planning and Organisation
Long-term planning
The National Curriculum for Mathematics 2014, Development Matters and the Early Learning Goals (Number and Numerical Patterns) provided the basis of the long term planning for Mathematics taught in school.
Medium-term planning
Reception to Year 6 use White Rose Maths schemes of learning as medium term planning documents. These schemes are broken down into fluency, reasoning and problem solving - the key aims of the National Curriculum. Through high quality exemplification of Mathematics objectives, White Rose strategies support a mastery approach to teaching and learning whereby teachers are guided to prioritise depth of understanding over breadth of coverage. By continuing to explore and apply concepts, children become proficient, secure and confident within the scope of age related expectations. This is fundamental to preparing children for the next step of their education, both within their current year group and as they progress through school.
Short-term planning
The White Rose Maths schemes of learning support daily lesson planning. The school utilizes a common planning format which is monitored at intervals by the Mathematics Subject Lead. EYFS planning is based on medium term plans and delivered as appropriate to individual children with thought to where the children are now and what steps they need to take next.
All classes access a daily Mathematics lesson. Lessons are forty-five to sixty minutes long in Key Stage 1 and at least sixty minutes long in Key Stage 2. Teachers in the EYFS ensure children learn through a mixture of adult led and child initialled activities both inside and outside the classroom.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
Daily mathematics lessons are inclusive to children with special educational needs and disabilities. Where appropriate, the targets in a child’s Individual Action Plan (IAP) incorporate relevant objectives from the National Curriculum for Mathematics or Development Matters. Teachers are required to take into account the content of IAPs when planning lessons. Children work on individual targets within lessons as well as on an individual and/or small group basis outside the Mathematics lesson. Mathematics interventions in school help children with gaps in their learning and mathematical understanding. These interventions are delivered by trained support staff and overseen by the SENDCo and/or class teacher. It is the class teacher’s responsibility to ensure that all children are challenged at a level appropriate to their ability.
Lessons
In all lessons, the learning objective(s) and success criteria are clearly displayed and discussed.
Teaching is interactive, lively and designed to encourage all children to talk about Mathematics:
Within a lesson, the teacher is required to:
- retrieve key knowledge through a review of prior learning;
- direct and instruct using well-structured information underpinned by excellent subject knowledge;
- demonstrate by modelling and describing mathematical methods using appropriate resources and visual displays;
- explain and illustrate by giving accurate and well-paced explanations;
- question using a range of question types;
- provide opportunities for application;
- discuss including making time for children’s ideas and opinions;
- consolidate by pausing and taking stock of what has been learned so far;
- reflect on and evaluate responses - identifying errors as positive teaching points;
- review teaching content, enabling children to focus on next steps in future lessons;
The aspects listed above will be present in balance, as appropriate to the teaching sequence.
Example Lesson Plan - Topic on a Page
Please select the document below.
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Year 6 Maths Planning Autumn - Fractions | [pdf 5MB] |
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Year 6 Maths Planning Summer 2 Week 1-3 - Fractions and Multiples | [pdf 133KB] |
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Example Knowledge Organiser
Please select the document below.
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Year 6 Knowledge Organiser Autumn - Fractions | [pdf 285KB] |
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Impact - Assessment and Recording of Attainment and Progress
Marking and Feedback
Marking and feedback are essential to ensure children make sustained progress. Work is marked against success criteria, in line with the Assessment and Marking Policy. Through the use of MAD (Make A Difference) Time, children are encouraged to self-assess work and given time to read teachers’ comments as well as to make corrections and improvements. Responses to marking are made as close to the time of the work as possible, ideally at the start of the next lesson. Some pieces of work - including exercises involving routine practice - may be marked by children themselves with support and guidance from the teacher.
Assessment is an integral and continuous part of teaching and learning. Teachers and classroom based staff make formative assessments of children’s progress on a daily basis through:
- regular marking of work;
- analysing errors and picking up on misconceptions;
- asking questions and listening to answers/explanations;
- facilitating and listening to discussions;
- making observations;
These ongoing assessments inform further planning and teaching. Lessons are adapted readily and short term planning evaluated in light of these assessments.
Termly assessments are carried out from Years 1 - 6 using NFER material and, where appropriate, White Rose Maths resources e.g. end of unit assessments. Scores and outcomes are considered alongside evidence from children’s work over time in lessons to make a judgement for each child. Children in Years 2 and 6 complete national statutory attainment tests in early summer term.
Please refer to the school’s Assessment, Recording and Reporting Policy for further information about school’s protocols and procedures.
What does the National Curriculum say about Mathematics?
Purpose of study
Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
Aims
The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:
- become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
- reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
- can 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.
Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. The programmes of study are, by necessity, organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils should make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They should also apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects.
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 should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.
Information and communication technology (ICT)
Calculators should not be used as a substitute for good written and mental arithmetic. They should therefore only be introduced near the end of key stage 2 to support pupils’ conceptual understanding and exploration of more complex number problems, if written Mathematics – key stages 1 and 2 4 and mental arithmetic are secure. In both primary and secondary schools, teachers should use their judgement about when ICT tools should be used.
Spoken language
The national curriculum for mathematics reflects the importance of spoken language in pupils’ development across the whole curriculum – cognitively, socially and linguistically. The quality and variety of language that pupils hear and speak are key factors in developing their mathematical vocabulary and presenting a mathematical justification, argument or proof. They must be assisted in making their thinking clear to themselves as well as others and teachers should ensure that pupils build secure foundations by using discussion to probe and remedy their misconceptions.
School curriculum
The programmes of study for mathematics are set out year-by-year for key stages 1 and 2. Schools are, however, only required to teach the relevant programme of study by the end of the key stage. Within each key stage, schools therefore have the flexibility to introduce content earlier or later than set out in the programme of study. In addition, schools can introduce key stage content during an earlier key stage, if appropriate. All schools are also required to set out their school curriculum for Mathematics on a year-by-year basis and make this information available online.
Attainment targets
By the end of each key stage, pupils are expected to know, apply and understand the matters, skills and processes specified in the relevant programme of study.
This document should be read in conjunction with the following:
- Calculation Policy
- Assessment, Recording and Reporting Policy
- Marking and Feedback Policy
- SEND Policy
The National Curriculum - Maths
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KS1 Maths Curriculum Year 1 |
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KS1 Maths Curriculum Year 2 |
