Intent Statement

The Maths curriculum at Crockenhill Primary School has been designed to be accessible to all and to ensure the maximum development of every child’s ability and academic achievement, in line with the national outcomes. We deliver lessons that are creative and engaging, using a range of stimuli such as books, Number Blocks and real-life problems, to hook the children and allow them to make links between their learning and everyday situations. Our curriculum aims to help children develop a love for Maths through growing confidence in their ability and enjoyment of what they are learning. We want children to make connections, develop their fluency, reason mathematically and solve problems with increasing sophistication. We understand that the way pupils speak and write about mathematics transforms their learning, so we plan in carefully sequenced and structured vocabulary to ensure that the children not only know what the answer is, but can confidently articulate their reasoning behind their understanding. Our intention is for our pupils to be able to apply their mathematical knowledge, understanding and skills in other subject areas to maximise their enjoyment and curiosity about the subject. 

Implementation 

Maths is a core aspect of our curriculum and is taught daily in every year group. We are aware of the importance of the children being fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics as well as developing their problem solving and reasoning skills. At Crockenhill, we ensure learning is cumulative and progressive by following ‘White Rose - small steps of learning’. This ensures our children are confident and secure in their understanding of each small concept, which enables all children to embed the learning and make progress. Our staff use a carefully adapted ‘whole school overview’ to ensure there is progression in knowledge and skills throughout the school. Using this, lessons are planned carefully to ensure links between Maths concepts are made when appropriate. Learning is taught through the Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract (CPA) ways of learning and mathematical vocabulary is taught explicitly and the children have regular opportunities to talk about maths and explain their thinking. We have adapted a mastery approach to the way that we deliver our Mathematics curriculum. During each lesson, children will receive teaching that is pitched and modelled appropriately, which focuses on their level of understanding. Our input starter activities support the children to: 

• Recap skills that will support them in their new learning in the lesson
• Develop core skills such as number bonds, partitioning, rounding and times tables
• Reinforce and recap ‘sticky knowledge’ that has been previously taught in other topics of learning Independently solve open ended problems/ challenges 

During our daily Mathematics lessons, the children will work alongside the teachers and support staff to recap prior knowledge and are taught new learning, while receiving in lesson marking/ verbal feedback to ensure all children make progress and master each concept. Teachers use ‘flexible grouping’ to seat the children in order of understanding, to ensure the learning in each lesson is pitched appropriately. This means that extra support can be given to children that struggled the previous day and challenging questions given to children that are excelling. Marking, targeted questioning and children’s own self assessments are used to ensure children are grouped appropriately. Children have a variety of strategies to support them during a lesson. An example of this is when they get stuck, they can use manipulatives to support them, look at the maths modelling on the working wall, talk to a buddy on their table or re-read the question and use an alternative method. If a pupil has demonstrated that they have not mastered a concept, they will receive additional support to secure their understanding either later that day (same day intervention), during early morning work the next day or whole lessons may need to be re-taught, this ensures staff intervene quickly to tackle any key misconceptions, so that children keep up and don’t have to catch- up! 

At Crockenhill, we encourage our children to become confident problems solvers. We offer a range of opportunities to apply their mathematical knowledge, to show their ability to be systematic, logical, to find all possibilities and to find the rules and patterns that support their conjectures. It is also important that the children at Crockenhill are able to reason mathematically. We provide regular opportunities for the children to apply and explain their mathematical understanding and model this, in turn, so they can demonstrate real rigor and depth of knowledge. Teachers will challenge children who grasp concepts quickly by providing sophisticated problems, rather than accelerating them through new content from other year groups. 

Strong roots in maths start early in our EYFS and Year 1 classrooms. In Reception and Year 1, the children learn through continuous provision. The children have access to a range of visuals and manipulatives to support them in consolidating learning, practising core skills, deepening their understanding through problem solving and reasoning challenges, as well as their love for Maths. The children have regular small, adult-led focus groups in which adults model and support the children to develop their oral fluency, automaticity and understanding. Children receive immediate, individual feedback to support them to secure their understanding and skills in each small concept of learning. The Maths provision area is used to further consolidate learning through adult directed enhancements and questioning as well as using the wider provision to develop and apply their understanding through meaningful experiences. In Reception, the children have one adult-led focus group a week. In the Autumn term of Year 1, the children will begin with two adult-led focus groups a week. During the Spring term this will increase so that in the Summer term of Year 1, the children learn through whole-class teaching, ready for the transition to Year 2.

At Crockenhill, we use online learning platforms to support the children’s love of maths at home. Children are set tasks to help secure and master concepts taught, as well as to keep core skills on the boil. In addition to this, throughout the year there are ‘Early Morning maths sessions’, where children have the opportunity to come into school to practise core skills, solve mathematical problems and apply these skills to answer reasoning questions. Throughout the school, children use a range of manipulatives to support their understanding in Maths lessons, such as Numicon, dienes, bead strings, counters, 100 squares and multi-link, as well as different stimuli such as books, Number Blocks and real-life problems to ensure Maths is purposeful and enjoyable.

Impact

 As a result of our Maths teaching at Crockenhill Primary School children are:

• Enriched - they make good progress during their time with us
• Excited - they can recognise and use a wide range of different representations of mathematical concepts
• Engaged - they are all challenged appropriately
• Experienced - they can use a variety of resources to support (and explain) their Maths learning
• Equipped - they can articulate their Maths learning and the links between mathematical concepts and how these will be used in their lives beyond the education setting