‘Mathematics has beauty and romance. It’s not a boring place to be, the mathematical world. It’s an extraordinary place; it’s worth spending time there.’

Marcus du Sautoy, British mathematician

Intent

At Chivenor, we are Mathematicians. Maths is a skill we use on a daily basis and is an essential part of everyday life. Therefore, it is vital that at Chivenor Primary School we provide a broad and balanced mathematics curriculum. We are committed to developing children’s curiosity about the subject, as well as an appreciation of the beauty and power of Mathematics. We endeavour to ensure that all children develop an enjoyment and enthusiasm for maths that will stay with them throughout their lives and empower them in their future life. Through enjoyment of maths and opportunities to experience success in the subject, children will have the ability to make good progress.

Our aim is to develop a positive culture of deep understanding, confidence and competence in maths that produces strong, secure learning. As a school, we recognise that the key to unlocking the potential in our children is through the development of basic mathematical skills and the understanding of mathematical concepts. 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.

Implementation

From Reception to Year 6, children follow the ‘White Rose’ scheme of learning, which supports children in learning the fundamentals behind the meanings of number and allows children to explore other key mathematical areas. Our maths curriculum is supported through the implementation of White Rose ‘small steps’ to break down the teaching sequence into small achievable steps and ensuring children develop mastery skills which they can apply in a range of situations. Where children require additional support, ‘scaffolds’ are used to support children further to ensure that they have secured the small step before moving on. These ‘scaffolds’ may be in the form of returning to concrete resources or pictorial representations. For children who understand a concept quicker, challenges are used to deepen and challenge learners further within the curriculum area.

To ensure our children learn and reach their potential, teachers reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards in Mathematics. The large majority of children progress through the curriculum content at the same pace; time is spent developing deep knowledge of the key ideas that are needed to underpin future learning. This ensures that all can master concepts before moving to the next part of the curriculum sequence, allowing no pupil to be left behind.

The structure and connections within the mathematics are emphasised, so that pupils develop deep learning that can be sustained. Lesson structure identifies the new mathematics that is to be taught, the key points, the misconceptions and are carefully sequenced to support children’s journey through their learning. In a typical lesson the teacher leads back and forth interaction, including questioning, short tasks, explanation, demonstration and discussion.

Practise and consolidation play a key role in providing experiences that allow children to make mistakes and explore ideas and concepts in a non-threatening environment. This allows children to learn from their mistakes and enables children to secure and embed new learning. Teachers use precise and differentiated questioning in class to test conceptual and procedural knowledge and assess children regularly to identify those requiring intervention, so that all children keep up.

Children’s explanations and their proficiency in articulating mathematical reasoning, with the precise use of mathematical vocabulary, are supported through the use of stem sentences and generalisations provided by the teacher. These help the children to make connections and expose the structure of mathematical concepts.

Through our teaching we continuously monitor pupils’ progress against expected attainment for their age, making formative assessment notes where appropriate and using these to inform our teaching. Summative assessments are completed at the end of each term and are used to update our summative school assessment tracker. The main purpose of all assessments is to always ensure that we provide excellent provision for every child and all children achieve.

Mathematical skills are embedded within maths lessons and developed consistently over time; helping children make rich connections to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems.

EYFS:
It is widely appreciated that a child’s mathematical understanding is greatly influenced during their early years of life. During these early years, children are given opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems; and describing shapes, spaces, and measures.
Children in EYFS explore mathematical concepts through active exploration and their everyday play-based learning. EYFS practitioners provide opportunities for children to manipulate a variety of objects which supports their understanding of quantity and number. Mathematics in the early years provides children with a solid foundation that will enable them to develop skills as they progress through their schooling and ensures children are ready for the National Curriculum.

Impact

Chivenor Primary School has a supportive ethos and our approach supports children in developing their collaborative and independent skills, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others. Staff and children support each other to promote a growth mindset and with the use of White Rose Maths we address these preconceptions by ensuring that all children experience challenge and achieve success in Mathematics.
Through discussion and feedback, children talk enthusiastically about their maths lessons and speak about how they love learning about maths. They can articulate the context in which maths is being taught and relate this to real-life purposes. Children show confidence and believe they can learn about a new maths area and apply the knowledge and skills they already have.

Children’s learning gives them a good grasp of mathematical concepts and how these are related to real life situations. They can confidently investigate mathematical questions and understand which strategies may be best for a particular mathematical situation. Children are logical, systematic and willing to experiment with mathematical concepts to find solutions. They leave Chivenor with the skills needed to take their learning further in their next schools and within the real world.