Maths

Being a Mathematician

Intent

At Corsham Primary School, we aim to offer pupils a rich and enjoyable experience in mathematics by providing the knowledge, skills, concepts and processes to enable children to apply their skills and knowledge in a range of contexts. We aim to inspire every pupil to develop a love of maths and to leave Corsham Primary School with a secure knowledge of mathematical skills.

We are constantly striving to ensure that all children have a secure understanding of the Maths curriculum through a mastery approach. Mastery of maths means a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. This concept also adheres to the three main aims of the National Curriculum:

Fluency - rapid and accurate recall and application of facts and concepts.

Reasoning - a growing confidence to justify ideas using mathematical language.

Problem Solving - the ability to solve problems by applying mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication.

Implementation

Consistently developing a positive and confident attitude towards mathematics and supporting all children in achieving their full mathematical potential.
Learning in a way that promotes conceptual understanding using concrete equipment initially, then visual representations, and finally abstract activities.
Developing the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
Developing fluency in the fundamentals of mathematics through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time.
Using correct mathematical vocabulary to explain their mathematical thinking to others, including concepts they have a secure understanding of.
Opportunities are presented for children to learn in a variety of ways, as individuals, partners, groups or as a class, to further develop their mathematical skills and understanding.

This is achieved through:

Daily, dedicated mathematics lessons teaching children the necessary skills to become independent explorers of mathematics.
Using the White Rose pedagogy and a mastery approach to teach key skills and topics in depth.
Using "Times Table Rockstars" to develop fluency and quick recall of multiplication and division facts.
Effective questioning from teachers and encouraging children to explain and demonstrate their methods, as this consolidates their understanding.
Using and applying their mathematical knowledge by making appropriate choices in real-life situations.
Experience of a wide variety of mathematical situations, developing cross curricular links, home links and links with the wider world.

EYFS

In the Early Years, maths involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers as well as calculating simple addition and subtraction problems. The children have the opportunity to explore the characteristics of different objects and shapes, using mathematical language to describe them. There is provision for creating repeating patterns and identifying them in the wider world. The children’s understanding continues to be supported and developed through practical activities, stories, songs, games and imaginative play, so that children enjoy using and experimenting with numbers to 20.

Key Stage 1

In Key Stage 1, maths focuses on developing children’s confidence and fluency with numbers, place value and calculations. This encourages a focus on practical methods using concrete resources and pictorial representations. Alongside this, the children will develop their ability to recognise, describe, draw, compare and sort different shapes. Children will experience opportunities around a range of measures to describe and compare different quantities such as length, mass, capacity/ volume, time and money. Throughout Key Stage 1, the children will be taught a range of mathematical vocabulary and will be encouraged to use this to support their explanations and reasoning. This provides the foundations for Key Stage 2, where children will to start to deal with more complex problem solving, more abstract representations and will be expected to further develop their reasoning skills.

Key Stage 2

In Key Stage 2, maths continues to develop children’s fluency with number and calculation. However, there is now a greater focus on mathematical reasoning and analysing connections between a range of concepts. This in turn enables children to apply these skills in a range of contexts. Key Stage 2 children will be exposed to different measuring instruments and will be taught to use them with accuracy whilst also making connections between measure and number. Alongside this, the children will continue to practice their multiplication tables up to and including the 12 times table and show precision and fluency with these facts. In Upper Key Stage 2, once the children have developed a solid foundation in arithmetic, the children will be introduced to the language of algebra as a means for solving a variety of problems.

Please use the links below to see our Maths Policy and White Rose Policies