Maths

Easingwold Primary School – Mathematics Curriculum Statement

‘Excellence for All’

Outcomes for Pupils:

An unwavering ambition to ensure all children are equipped with the academic and social skills needed to be ready for the next stage in their education.

Fostering a thirst for the acquisition of knowledge and recognising that learning is a life-long skill.

Embracing a culture of self-awareness and respect to allow us to grow as citizens. 

Teaching and Learning:

Empowered creative and inspirational staff who inspire children to achieve highly.

Enabling our children to widen their horizons and aspire to personal excellence through the development of a broad and exciting curriculum which places experiences as a high priority.

Permitting the taking of risks by means of exploring new and innovative approaches to teaching and learning.

Intent – What do we want to achieve?

The primary aim of our whole school curriculum is to provide ‘Excellence for All.’ To achieve this we want to develop children as curious, independent and resilient learners who have a secure understanding of themselves, their community and the wider world in which they live. We want them to have high aspirations and make positive contributions to their community and society. It is of the utmost importance to us that we provide pupils with indelible experiences from which they can learn and develop a range of transferable, lifelong skills.

At Easingwold Primary School, we deliver our Mathematics curriculum to ensure it follows the key aims of the National Curriculum. We aim to ensure that all pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics so that they can develop solid conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. Children are taught to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, find connections and establish relationships, whilst using mathematical language. Our mathematics curriculum follows the White Rose 3.0 planning to carefully sequence knowledge, concepts and procedures so that mathematical knowledge and skills build systematically over time. Children are taught to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and demonstrating resilience in seeking solutions.

Implementation - How will we achieve this?

Due to a whole class, step-by-step mastery approach, children at Easingwold are able to progress through the curriculum at the same pace. Our curriculum is designed for pupils to keep up, not catch up. As a result of spending additional time on recall and key facts, the children can establish firm foundations upon which to build their understanding. These key facts, such as times tables and number bonds, are set out in a whole school progression document and tested in class weekly. We differentiate our mastery approach through targeted questions and challenging higher order thinking . Because of our concrete-pictorial-abstract approach, children learn to see the connections in maths and understand that mathematics can be represented in different ways. The White Rose Maths curriculum that we follow provides sufficient opportunities for planned revisits of previously learned knowledge, concepts and procedures; this is to ensure that, once learned, mathematical knowledge becomes deeply embedded in pupils’ memories; freeing pupils’ attention to work with independence and apply their mathematical knowledge to more complex problems. We supplement our White Rose planning with reasoning and problem solving from NCETM and NRICH so that ALL pupils have the opportunity to hypothesise and make conjectures.

Any child who struggles with a mathematical concept in lessons, will be provided with same day intervention to tackle difficulties and misconceptions quickly and live marking will be utilised in lessons by both teachers and teaching assistants to address any issues and to inform future planning. Those pupils behind age-related expectations are supported with same day intervention, targeted questioning, access to differentiated learning where appropriate, a wide range of concrete resources to support their thinking and targeted support in lessons from adults. Children who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged with targeted questions and use of HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) problems within lessons.

All lessons start with a 2 minute count and use a mastery style ‘ping-pong approach’ to model the small steps needed to understand mathematical concepts. This includes short sections of teacher modelling followed by pupil work using manipulatives to support their thinking. By approaching teaching in this manner, adults can quickly assess understanding and scaffold or stretch children as necessary throughout the lesson. Teachers will include real world contexts to their questions where appropriate to embed an understanding of Maths in the outside world. Each objective will be taught using mastery sheets which will contain opportunities for the children to attempt fluency, varied fluency and reasoning or problem solving activities. Teachers plan lessons using their own professional judgement, daily formative assessment and feedback from pupils.

Although we follow White Rose planning, teachers use their professional judgement to determine how long to spend on a particular objective to ensure it is taught to full mastery understanding. Teachers do not produce detailed written plans for each lesson, instead notes are added to teaching slides and formative assessment drives learning forward throughout the lesson and steers future learning. Feedback is provided to pupils verbally, through live marking, peer marking and self-marking. 

Maths is included in other subject areas where appropriate exposing children to mathematical thinking and concepts across the curriculum. Homework is provided weekly to reinforce a concept taught that week and to practice key times tables and number bond skills. Children are given opportunities every morning to practice their mental maths skills through the use of Schofield and Sims mental maths books, Times Table Rockstars and Mathsframe. Children are encouraged to use Times Table Rockstars outside of school through regular entry into competitions.

Children will be assessed through SATS at the end of Year 2 and 6. Other summative assessment points come at the end of units, where they're retrieval skills are put to the test on White Rose assessments relating to the previous unit taught.

Impact – How do we know we have been successful?

Children at ECPS know how and why Maths is used in the outside world and in the workplace. They know about different ways that Maths can be used to support their future potential. Mathematical skills and concepts are mastered when a child can show it in multiple ways, use Mathematical language to explain their ideas, and can independently apply concepts to new problems in unfamiliar situations. Children can also demonstrate quick recall of key facts and procedures.

In lessons, pupils will be heard using acquired vocabulary, use methods and procedures independently and show resilience when tackling problems. Children will be able to understand Mathematical concepts in different contexts and using a range of representations. Children will be able to recognise relationships and make connections in Maths lessons.

Outcomes

At the end of each year, we expect children at ECPS to have achieved Age Related Expectations (ARE) for their year group and/or show good or accelerated progress from Autumn to Summer term. Some children will have progressed further and achieved greater depth. Children who are working outside of their year group will show good progress in their understanding of mathematical concepts.  All children secure long-term, deep and adaptable understanding of Maths which they can apply in different contexts.

National Curriculum

Long term plans

Reception follow a mastery maths approach using the Maths Hub Mastery Training, along with the NCETM progression grids. 

Key Stage one follow 'Mastering Number' as additional lessons. 

Years 1 - 6 use White Rose 3.0 Schemes of work for planning Maths.

Progression documents

Useful Websites