Maths

Intent

Mathematics teaches children how to make sense of the world around them through developing their ability to calculate, reason and solve problems.

A focus on number is maintained throughout the school so that children become confident in their ability to calculate.  Using and applying these number skills is a vital skill which is taught and practised from an early stage and enables them to move effectively into reasoning and solving problems.  We also teach children about shape and space and how to work with data. A variety of manipulatives and multi-sensory approaches are used throughout school to enhance these skills. We use a wide variety of online programmes, games and outdoor maths to support children’s learning and take part in numerous challenges throughout the year: Time Table Rockstars, Sumdog, Primary Maths Challenge, Bebras Challenge, Mathletics, St Ambrose Maths Challenge World Maths Day and MudPi day.

Maths is taught every day and we also take advantage of opportunities to use maths skills in other areas of the curriculum, such as science and design technology.  Children are assessed before each unit of work so that we can personalise their learning and set them individual targets.  In this way, we hope to build an understanding of mathematical methods which we believe helps children to remember how to manipulate numbers and to acquire the confidence to build on their learning. Building on this, children can apply their knowledge to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, justify and prove answers using mathematical language and solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing difficulty.

We aim to ensure that children are taught to the 3 aims of the National Curriculum 2014:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including the varied and regular practice of increasingly complex problems over time.
• Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, understanding relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
• Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Children should develop resilience and self-confidence in applying their learned skills. The collaboration between peers and the relationship between learners and their class teacher drives the learning. We support children to achieve targets that will equip them with a range of computational skills and the ability to solve problems in a variety of contexts that will provide them with life skills for the future.