Maths

Maths makes us confident, curious and creative problem solvers.

Intent

We aim for all children at St Columba’s to be mathematically confident and have a love of Mathematics. Maths is a journey and long-term goal, achieved through exploration, clarification, practice and application. At each stage of learning, children should be able to demonstrate a deep, conceptual understanding of the topic and be able to build on this over time.

We intend to do this by:

Ensuring a high quality Maths curriculum that is both challenging and enjoyable.
Providing a variety of mathematical opportunities, which will enable them to make the connections in learning needed to enjoy greater depth in learning.
Designing a curriculum that equip students with the tools they need to apply Maths to real life contexts and develop practical skills.
Promote career paths in Mathematics such as accountancy as well as identifying the link between other careers and the importance of mathematics - business, sport, building etc.
Ensuring children are confident mathematicians who are fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics so that they develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
Fully develop independent learners with inquisitive minds who have secure mathematical foundations and an interest in self-improvement so that they can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication and reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry
Challenging pupils so that they completing Maths using the Mastery approach and problem solving using a range of high order thinking strategies.

Implementation

Children have a Maths lesson of at least one hour every day with same day intervention where necessary in addition to this lesson. Targeted and regular intervention allows children to explore their misconceptions and become more resilient when finding work challenging. A metacognitive approach means that pupils are encouraged to access strategies which worked well for them in previous lessons. The use of pre- assessment and knowledge organisers means that pupils’ prior learning is activated in order to introduce new and related content.

The whole school follows a mastery approach which is based on the use of concrete, pictorial and abstract to support mathematical understanding. Long, medium and short term planning that is progressive and cohesive across the year groups and provides opportunities to revisit. We provide quality first teaching in line with the teaching standards.

All teachers:

‘Know where their children are’ through the use of concise summative assessment, prior learning, assessment, Maths talk.
‘Understand where their children need to be’ through a secure understanding of year group expectations and/or pre key stage expectations and incisive, ongoing, formative assessment
‘Know how they are going to get them there’ through the use of a range of strategies to promote independence, mastery and high expectations of all learners.
Plan for progression during and between lessons.

SEND and disadvantaged pupils are supported in the learning individually. There is no cap on learning as we want all children to achieve their full potential. Teachers aim to meet all learning needs through differentiation and the use on concrete resources. Support is guided through information on the individual pupil’s My Support Plans and through Assessment for Learning.

Teachers will use arithmetic quizzes including Flashbacks to refresh knowledge of prior learning to ensure children know and remember more.

Impact

By the end of KS2 we aim for children to be fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics with a conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. They should have the skills to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of situations with increasing sophistication, including in unfamiliar contexts and to model real-life scenarios. Children will be able to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language. Most importantly, children will have felt confident and successful in Maths lessons which will enable them to transfer their knowledge in this subject into the next phase of their education.

The children will have:

Quick recall of facts and procedures
The flexibility and fluidity to move between different contexts and representations of Mathematics
The ability to recognise relationships and make connections in Mathematics
The ability to show how a mathematical concept or skill has been mastered when a child can show it in multiple ways, using the mathematical language to explain their ideas, and can independently apply the concept to new problems in an unfamiliar environment
An understanding of the value of money and can calculate; the total cost of products and the amount of change needed
A secure understanding of being able to tell the time and calculate duration.