Maths
At St Clement's and St John's Infant School we want all children to be fluent in number facts and confidently and efficiently apply this to mathematical problems. Children will be confidently understand, use and apply mathematical vocabulary to reasoning and problem solving.
Intent
At St Clement’s & St John’s CE Infant School our vision is for all children to have equal opportunities to develop the mathematical foundations needed to be skilled and articulate mathematicians in life within and beyond school. We want each of our children to develop true fluency, reasoning and problem-solving skills through a curriculum that is meaningful and that will engage and excite confident mathematicians who have a passion for number.
The aim of our Mathematics teaching is;
To develop pupil’s fluency in the fundamentals of Mathematics through varied and frequent practice so that, over time, they develop confidence in their conceptual understanding and their ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. We then want the children to have confidence in applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication. We want our children to have the confidence to be risk-takers within their learning.
To inspire pupil’s curiosity in Mathematics and a deeper level of thinking. We want our children to ask questions, to notice things within their Maths and to ‘wonder if’. We want our children to develop and follow their own lines of enquiry because they have a desire to find out more!
To develop creativity in the pupils’ Mathematics. We support the children in finding and creating new ways to solve routine and non-routine problems and to persevere in seeking solutions.
To develop our key driver of communication by embedding opportunities throughout our maths curriculum.
Implementation
The National Curriculum is at the core of our maths curriculum here at St Clement’s and St. John’s and is predominantly taught through White Rose Maths. The White Rose scheme was introduced into our school in September 2021 for EYFS and September 2022 for KS1 to develop our children’s mathematical foundations including their conceptual understanding, fluency and their ability to recall and apply knowledge.
We have adapted the scheme to create a bespoke curriculum to meet the needs of our children. We use White Rose Maths resources alongside Number Sense to support and develop fluency in number. We also supplement White Rose Maths with problem solving and reasoning materials to develop mathematical vocabulary and thinking. A key implementation strategy at St. Clement’s and St. John’s is vocabulary development. Children are explicitly taught mathematical vocabulary and provided with opportunities to rehearse this, particularly through problem solving and reasoning.
Key to our children’s success is the Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) approach. First, we introduce mathematical concepts using concrete manipulative resources. This allows our children to develop their mathematical understanding and practise their mathematic skills. For example, children would have 10 frames and counters to support their knowledge and understanding of ways to make 10, moving them around on the 10 frame and looking at different combinations.
Next, we move the learning on using pictorial representations of the concrete resources. We teach children how to write or draw these representations as well as how to read and interpret them. For example, children would have a 10 frame with circles representing counters drawn on it. Children are familiar with the concrete resource and can apply this knowledge and understanding to a visual representation to explain what the pictorial representation is showing.
Finally, when children are secure in concrete and pictorial representations we move on to abstract representations. This could be in the form of written calculations. For example, children have understood that 6 and 4 can make 10 using a 10 frame. They have then been able to represent this pictorially using 10 frames and drawn counters. Now they can apply this to the abstract representation 6 + 4 =.
To support the CPA approach, working walls are used in Maths in every Key Stage One classroom. These display pictorial and abstract representations and mathematical vocabulary relevant to the current mathematical teaching concepts as well as key number facts to support fluency. Adults and children refer to them throughout the learning.
At St. Clement’s and St. John’s we have adopted the Coastal Learning Partnership’s ‘Mathematical Calculations and Representations Policy’ to support the implementation of our maths curriculum. It outlines White Rose Maths key steps and the associated concrete, pictorial and abstract representations of these in a progressive way. This supports the teaching of maths across the school and home learning activities.
Impact
We aim for all children to achieve age related expectations in Mathematics at the end of EYFS and KS1 and for all children to have made good progress in their journey to becoming skilled and articulate mathematicians. Additionally, we aim for our higher attaining children to reach a Greater Depth level in their Mathematics at the end of KS1.
Impact is measured and can be viewed in a number of ways at St Clement’s School, including the following;
Within the children’s Maths books and how they can represent and record their mathematical understanding
Unit assessments
Standardised Assessments (SATs)
Pupil progress meetings
Moderation - in house, across Coastal Learning Partnership and at BCP moderation events and agreement trialling.
Maths - Long Term Planning Progression Map
Maths Long Term Unit Overview
Home Learning
From November 2022, your child will be sent home with a 'Number Sense' exercise each week. These will be relevant to their appropriate number fluency stage. There is a 'Talking Tip' at the bottom of the exercise to support you with your child's learning.
Extra resources:
Here are some examples of applications and online resources we recommend your children play or watch to support their learning. Click the link.
We are however, not responsible for any pop up adds that may appear on each of these websites/ applications.
- White Rose 1 Minute Maths App
- 'Numberblocks' on BBC Iplayer
- Topmarks
