Intent
At Asquith Primary School, we believe mathematics is a vital life skill and is an important part of children’s development throughout school, right from an early age. We intend on delivering a curriculum which:
- Allows children to be a part of creative and engaging lessons that will give them a range of opportunities to enjoy and explore mathematics following a mastery curriculum approach.
- Allows children to develop understanding and reasoning through a Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) approach.
- Recognises that mathematics underpins much of our daily lives.
- Engages all children and entitles them to the same quality of teaching and learning opportunities, allowing them to achieve their potential.
- Makes rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems.
- Is in line with the expectations in the National Curriculum 2014.
- Gives each pupil a chance to develop confidence in themselves as mathematicians and develop the power of resilience and perseverance when faced with mathematical challenges.
- Allows children to develop their understanding of numbers through ‘number sense’.
Implementation
As a school, we are developing our teaching into a mastery approach using CPA to build understanding. The curriculum is designed to develop children's knowledge and understanding of mathematical concepts from the Early Years through to the end of Y6.
Teaching and Learning, Content and Sequence:
- In school, we follow the national curriculum and use White Rose Schemes of Work, supplemented with a subscription to White Rose Premium resources and White Rose CPD videos to support teachers with their planning and assessment.
- At the start of each new topic, key vocabulary is introduced and revisited regularly to develop language acquisition, embedding as the topic progresses. The use of STEM sentences is beginning to develop across the school to aid children with the recall/ skill of reasoning tasks.
- Children are taught through clear modelling and have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of mathematical concepts. The mastery approach incorporates using objects, pictures, words and numbers to help children explore and demonstrate mathematical ideas, enrich their learning experience and deepen understanding at all levels.
- Use of the part-part whole model is introduced in foundation stage, allowing children to develop their understanding of number sense. This develops into using this model alongside the bar model in KS1/KS2.
- Reasoning and problem solving are integral to the activities children are given to develop their mathematical thinking. In most cases, problem solving/ reasoning should be taking place in every lesson.
- Concrete resources are readily available to assist demonstration of securing a conceptual understanding of the different skills appropriate for each year group.
- Children are encouraged to explore, apply and evaluate their mathematical approach during investigations to develop a deeper understanding when solving different problems / puzzles.
- Children with additional needs are included in whole class lessons and teachers provide scaffolding and relevant support as necessary. For those children who are working outside of the year group curriculum, learning activities are provided to ensure their progress. TA support may be used to support these children where needed.
- A love of Maths is encouraged through engaging lessons and additional practise they can do at home, such as timestable rockstars/Numbots.
- Timestable Rockstars/ Numbots is used daily in the classroom to develop fluency and fact recall as well as developing number sense in KS1.
- Children who have shown their understanding at a deep level within a lesson/ unit are encouraged to dive deeper. They can choose to draw, explain, prove, make a mistake, or tell a maths story.
- Other opportunities to practise fluency are given within the timetable through the teaching of Flashback 4 and the ‘10 in 10’ sessions.
Calculation Policies
These documents have not been published by Asquith Primary School. Full credit is given to White Rose Maths for the publication of the calculation policies used at Asquith. Our thanks is also given to White Rose Maths for giving permission for us to use these policies and upload them to the website. No White Rose Maths logos have been removed.