Mathematics

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24

Just as the wise builder chose to build his house on solid foundations, so a well-lived, successful life requires solid foundations.  Through our curriculum, we aim to give our children the knowledge and skills - the foundations - they need to become fulfilled, successful, loving adults in their world.

Intent, Implementation and Impact – Maths curriculum

Intent

At Netheravon All Saints, we believe all children should leave our school as successful mathematicians who are able to use their knowledge to better understand the world around them and to thrive in their everyday lives. Our children of transient or military families should be able, if necessary, to move between schools as confident, enthusiastic mathematicians.

In order to achieve this, we intend to provide children with a deep understanding of the mathematics curriculum and provide the tools needed to: explore mathematical concepts, reason logically, problem solve systematically, and apply their deep knowledge in a range of real world contexts that take their understanding beyond our surrounding villages and rural locality.

Implementation

In order to achieve our Intent, we:

• have adopted the teaching for mastery approach as this ensures all learners achieve a deep understanding of mathematical concepts. Concepts are taught through the use of ‘Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract’ representations as this allows children to make connections with previous learning and gain a deeper understanding of new learning. In addition to the main mastery lesson there is a fluency session each day which allows children to recap learning from previous units, ensuring this embedded learning is recalled and revisited regularly throughout the year.
• deliver the National Curriculum through manageable small steps using the White Rose scheme of learning as a guide. To support this resource and provide a range of representations and problems we also select resources from NCETM, the Ready to Progress documents, Nrich and Wiltshire 27.
• plan and deliver rapid intervention, including White Rose Fluency Bee resources, to ensure all children are able to access the learning. This may be during a lesson, at another time during the day, or prior to the next lesson. Pre- or post- teaching strategies are used to support some learners.
• promote the importance of becoming fluent in number facts. As such, all classes practice number facts daily at the beginning of the mastery lesson. To ensure all children are fluent in their multiplication facts we follow a systematic approach to learning and practising these in Years 3 and 4 with additional practice throughout Upper Key Stage 2.
• provide robust, focused interventions to address identified gaps in learning quickly, and review progress and the impact of intervention termly through Pupil Progress meetings. These provide an opportunity to discuss all learners and agree short term interventions.

Daily mastery lessons ensure our children:

• develop a deep conceptual understanding of the maths being learnt and become secure in this before moving on to new concepts;
• apply their skills to problem solving and reasoning and are given opportunities to work systematically and logically to solve problems, explore patterns and overcome challenges;
• develop the vocabulary needed to articulate mathematical understanding through the use of stem sentences, sentence stems and generalisations;
• are provided with problem solving and reasoning challenge activities which require them to show determination to extend and broaden their thinking by applying their learning in a new context;
• are provided with opportunities to question, explore and make connections between previous and current learning.

Impact

Through high quality first teaching, learners at NAS will become successful mathematicians who celebrate the challenges, patterns and logical thinking maths provides. As a result of our Implementation our children will be engaged in their maths learning, keen to explore mathematical concepts, able to work systematically, reason and problem solve in a range of contexts, and know they are successful. They will be ready for the next stages in their learning journeys.

Reviewed January 2024