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Mathematics

At school we follow the White Rose and NCETM Maths schemes. White Rose breaks
down the areas of the curriculum and gives examples based on fluency, reasoning and problem solving. It also provides specific mathematic vocabulary to focus on. NCETM gives example questions to check understanding at the 'expected – mastery' level and 'exceeding - mastery to Greater depth' level. Teachers use this to assess their pupils' understanding and establishing where to provide necessary intervention or extension tasks.


The key focus of our maths curriculum is to ensure that all pupils:

  • become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including numeracy, geometry, measurement, algebra, statistics, ratio and proportion.
  • can reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, establishing relationships and making generalisations as well as justifying their ideas using mathematical language with progressive precision.  
  • solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and resiliently seeking solutions when problems have been presented in new ways.


To achieve this, children initially approach their work using concrete materials. Once confident they then begin to use pictorials to express their ideas before moving onto more abstract representations (digits). This progression is fundamental to foster a deeper understanding of the maths being learned.


Teachers fundamentally plan for each individual within their class, differentiating their planning and delivery in lessons to ensure that the needs of all pupils are met. When marking, daily informal assessment and is used to inform planning, regrouping and any necessary intervention or extension which seeks to maximise progress for all pupils irrespective of their starting point.


Each week, an explicit lesson focuses on mental arithmetic where the children solve questions using all four operations (+, -, x and ÷) and focus on using the most efficient methods. As the children progress through school they are expected to explain their
answers in growing detail. The aim is to ensure that the fundamentals of our maths curriculum are known with such confidence that children can then apply them in a range of areas and to problems of growing complexity. To support this, pupils in KS2 also focus on specific times tables each week and use the App 'Times Table Rockstars' to
support this in school and at home.