Intent of the Mathematics Curriculum
The 2014 National Curriculum for Maths aims to ensure that all children:
- Become fluent in the fundamentals of Mathematics
- Are able to reason mathematically
- Can solve problems by applying their Mathematics
At Hunton and Arrathorne, these skills are embedded within Maths lessons and developed consistently over time. We are committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of Maths in the wider world and that they are also able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in their lives in a range of different contexts. We want all children to enjoy Mathematics and to experience success in the subject, with the ability to reason mathematically. We are committed to developing children’s curiosity about the subject and supporting them through innovative teaching styles, accompanied by rich resources and cross-curricular links.
Implementation of the Mathematics Curriculum
Organisation
From Year 2+ the children have daily mathematics lessons. In Foundation Stage 2 and Year 1, children may spend a whole morning doing mathematics to allow them to engage in depth and explore concepts in continuous provision.
Planning Structure
As a school, we follow the White Rose Maths Hub long term plan. In EYFS and KS1 pupils follow single aged overviews and associated small steps guidance; in KS2 mixed age plans are followed. Although teachers use the White Rose plans to sequence lessons appropriately we are committed to ensuring children receive a wide diet of mathematics tasks and therefore activities will not be exclusively from the White Rose resources and will be made bespoke to our school and pupils.
It may be appropriate, for example at the beginning of the unit, to spend one session investigating concrete representations. Likewise, at the end of the unit the teacher may choose to spend a session entirely on the application of reasoning.
In addition to the White Rose overviews, we also have created bespoke progression documents unique to our school for calculations and mental calculations. When teaching these aspects, teachers refer to these. Likewise, in rapid recall work these follow the basis of our plans.
Impact of the Mathematics Curriculum
We want our children to be passionate about maths – as a result, they will talk confidently about maths and their understanding. They will be resilient in the face of problems and have the skills to work logically and reason. They will be able to choose and use appropriate methods with secure number sense and explain their thinking.
Regular and ongoing assessment informs teaching, as well as intervention, to support and enable the success of each child. Our mathematics curriculum is high quality, well thought out and is planned to demonstrate progression. Within each objective, children should access varied fluency, the opportunity to reason and problem solve. Children use mathematics books to record their progression which are marked in accordance to our feedback policy.
The expectation is that the majority of the children will move through the domains of mathematics and where needed, will access ‘keep up’ interventions to ensure they do not fall behind. Staff monitor this through the use of our assessment package which is formally monitored on a termly basis. In conjunction with this, teacher’s make sound teacher assessment judgements through the use of summative assessments (PUMA) tests and past SAT’s papers for Y6. Progression in mental calculations is assessed termly through our ‘Progression in Mental Arithmetic’ document. Rigorous assessment of this tracker ensures gaps are closed readily and children are secure in their mental knowledge at the end of each stage of learning.
