Intent

At St Gabriel’s Primary School, we provide a mathematics curriculum for everyone. Our belief is that children who are functional in mathematics are able to think independently, reason, solve problems and develop resilience. We believe that mathematics should be about creating awe and wonder, enabling children to make exciting discoveries and connections as well as developing positive attitudes, curiosity and an enjoyment that will stay with them.

Implementation

At Gabriel’s our mathematics curriculum is underpinned by a maths mastery approach that has been carefully sequenced and mapped out across all phases; establishing continuity and supporting the children’s progression through the school.  Children develop their fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills throughout their journey. They explore learning through concrete, pictorial and abstract representations. Manipulatives (physical resources) are carefully selected to allow children to explore the structure of maths and develop conceptual understanding.

When planning maths, we use the Maths Beat scheme and enhance this with other resources such as White Rose scheme and NCETM, examples of high quality resources supporting our mastery curriculum and which enable us to meet the aims of the national curriculum as set out in 2014.

Please also refer to our Maths Calculation policy which shows how we use concrete (physical equipment), pictorial and abstract representations to progress through the mathematics curriculum.

Our well-designed lessons allow children to:

• relate new learning to previous learning
•  develop the confidence to talk about their maths ideas and why they do things in a certain way, including 1-1, group and whole class discussions
• Re-visit core skills in mathematics to continue to develop their fluency skills.
• Deepen understanding by exploring reasoning skills and solving problems in real-life contexts
• Explore new learning together
• Explore ways of recording their thinking in different ways
• explore learning using physical resources, through concrete, pictorial and abstract representations to secure understanding
• regularly review key skills, including times tables (Using Times Tables Rock Stars)
• access maths through differentiation and adaptation for all abilities
• enjoy learning maths

Impact

Assessment is an integral part of our learning process and our curriculum is designed to be flexible to meet the needs of all pupils by using regular gap analysis to reflect upon the children’s skills and ensure all children are making excellent progress. Children are assessed on their knowledge and skills regularly and in a variety of ways. Teachers respond the children’s work through written marking and verbal feedback on a whole class, group, paired or individual level.

A mathematical concept or skill has been mastered when a child can show it in multiple ways, using the mathematical language to explain their ideas, and can independently apply the concept to new problems in unfamiliar situations.

The progression in knowledge and skills is carefully planned in order to build fluency and deepen understanding of underlying mathematical concepts to help children commit learning to their long- term memory.

The impact of our mathematics curriculum means children are happy mathematicians who confidently talk about their learning using increasing mathematical language, applying their knowledge and skills to make increasing links in learning and develop both fluency and reasoning skills. Our curriculum leads to children making excellent progress over time across all key stages relative to each individual’s starting point.