Intent

The mathematical learning journey at St John’s begins in our Early Years and the curriculum has been planned alongside our Early Years lead to ensure continuity and progression from the different starting points of each child.

At St John’s Primary School, we aim to deliver a mathematical curriculum that teaches children the importance of and how to make sense of the wider world around them through developing their ability to calculate, reason and solve problems. The intent of our curriculum is to help children to become confident and capable mathematicians who display an enjoyment for the subject and have that resilience to tackle new concepts and challenges. Mathematics is not only taught discreetly but mathematical skills are embedded and consolidated throughout the day. We are committed to developing children’s curiosities about the subject and we want all children to have a sense of enjoyment and achievement.

At St John’s C of Primary we follow the National Curriculum for Mathematics to ensure all children:

  • become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately
  • reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
  • can 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 persevering in seeking solutions. 

Implementation

At St John’s we are committed to developing children’s curiosity about all subjects, we want all children to enjoy Mathematics and experience successes in the subject throughout their journey. This is at the heart of our teaching.

We ensure that children study mathematics daily to ensure coverage of the curriculum and to enhance progression. At St John’s we are also committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of Mathematics in the wider world therefore skills and vocabulary are embedded throughout the curriculum daily.

In order to ensure coverage, progression and deepening children’s understanding we currently use the White Rose Scheme. As we begin our journey into mastery maths, we have adopted a scheme that ensures that all children have access to all of the National Curriculum objectives for their year group with access to ‘recap’ sessions to embed basic knowledge and skills that may have been missed during COVID. COVID has impacted on our pupils’ ability to retain information causing gaps in knowledge therefore it has been essential to ensure objectives from previous year groups are recapped.

The White Rose Scheme allows children to use their mathematical skills and knowledge through fluency, reasoning and problem solving approaches therefore deepening their understanding. The White Rose Scheme allows each area of Mathematics to be broken down into smaller steps and the continuity of teaching methods which is what we feel our children need at St John’s. As part of our mastery journey we also are beginning to adopt more of a CPA approach, meaning that more practical equipment is used more to support the children’s variety of learning styles. This scheme also offers ‘Flashback 4’ material which is used on a regular basis in classrooms to keep revisiting and consolidating teaching from previous units. A fundamental to the retention of Mathematical skills and knowledge at St John’s. White Rose also offer a ‘1-minute Maths’ app which is heavily used in our KS1 and also in KS2 to support learners who need extra support. This is also an app which we encourage parents to use with their children at home.

As well as daily Mathematics following the White Rose Scheme we also deliver a weekly arithmetic session where we use ‘Rising Stars Arithmetic Tests’. The outcomes from the weekly arithmetic assessment then informs our teaching and allows us to address any misconceptions or gaps in basic skills.

Alongside our teaching schemes and programmes we also use a range of assessment material. Formative assessment is ongoing daily within lessons, additional daily maths board work, and group interventions through questioning, discussion and tasks set. At the end of each unit staff will carry out an end of unit assessment provided by White Rose. This gives an analysis of how well children have done in each individual topic- showing strengths and weaknesses within mathematical areas. Also at St John’s we use NFER for our summative assessment which is carried out each term to monitor progress. Data is analysed to ensure efficient tracking is in place and intervention and support can be offered accordingly.

At St John’s C of E Primary implementing the curriculum is:

  • Teachers constantly reinforce expectations that all children are capable of achieving high standards
  • All children are offered full access to learning objectives taught in their year group
  • Differentiation is achieved by outcome, support when needed and appropriate interventions
  • Challenge is provided to learners through deepener and applying their understanding
  • ‘Maths Talk’ and discussion is always encouraged to deepen children’s reasoning
  • Planning lessons covering small steps, rich in manipulatives to support learners, providing children with multiple approaches to embed learning and create a deeper understanding, good use of questioning and the inclusion of all learners

Impact

At St John’s as a result of our implementation we aim to develop learners with the knowledge, skills and understanding to be successful in the wider environment. We hope that our pupils have progressed to enable them to have good number sense and an enjoyment of Mathematics where they confidently explore and solve problems.

We believe that the impact of our curriculum will mean that by the end of Key Stage 2 our pupils will be:

  • Confident and more resilient learners
  • Able to demonstrate quicker recall of facts and procedures
  • Able to apply their knowledge and skills in different real life scenarios

SEND

At St John’s C of E Primary School we offer all children the opportunity to access all learning objectives regardless of their ability. Within each Mathematics lesson we then ensure that those SEND children are supported through adult support or additional resources/manipulatives.

We have implemented a Mathematics support and intervention programme, ‘Number Stacks’. Children are given an initial assessment which indicates their level of need. Support staff can then pitch small group interventions with those children. This is delivered a few times a week for those learners and are given the opportunity to have those pre requisite skills embedded to support in daily lessons. This is being monitored and recorded by staff.

Those children with SEND support plans will also have specific target on their plan. At St John’s we use our support staff to ensure that these children are given additional support and intervention in order to achieve these additional target that meet their needs.

Subject Plan

You can view or download the subject plan by clicking the link below.

Maths Long Term Plan
Progression in Mathematics
Mathematics Policy