At Ash Green Community Primary School, we are committed to providing our pupils with a curriculum that has a clear intention, impacts positively upon their needs and has been carefully designed to ensure coverage and progression right from when our Just Three pupils join us to the Year Six pupils leaving us.
The National Curriculum for mathematics intends to ensure that all pupils:
- 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.
Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. The Programmes of Study are, by necessity, organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils should make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning, and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. Skills are taught progressively through the year groups and content is taught through discrete units of work for each subject. Our curriculum ensures children apply mastery skills.
We follow the White Rose Maths Scheme of Learning from Nursery through to Year Six. Pupils are given the opportunity and encouraged to also apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects. The expectation is that most pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich mastery and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.
When teaching mathematics at Ash Green, we intend to provide a curriculum which caters for the needs of all individuals and sets them up with the necessary skills and knowledge for them to become successful in their future adventures. We recognise that the pupils need both a sense of valuing themselves, and developing aspirations for their future, therefore a primary focus of our curriculum is to raise ambitions and dreams, engender a sense of personal and collective pride in achievement, and provide a purpose and relevance for learning We aim to prepare them for a successful working life. We incorporate sustained levels of challenge through varied and high-quality activities with a focus on fluency, reasoning and problem solving.
White Rose from Nurser to Year Six is based on the National Curriculum and Development Matters. Lessons are personalised to address the individual needs and requirements for a class whilst ensuring coverage is maintained. We also use a range of planning resources including those provided by the NCETM and NRICH to augment our children’s maths diet. Within Key Stage One and Two, at the start of a new unit of learning, a front cover is utilised which introduces new vocabulary as well as accompanying pictorial representations for a unit of work, including any concrete manipulatives they may encounter.
Through discussion and feedback, pupils talk enthusiastically about their maths lessons and speak about how they love learning about maths. They can articulate the context in which maths is being taught and relate this to real life purposes. Pupils show confidence and believe they can learn about a new maths area and apply the knowledge and skills they already have.
Pupils know how and why maths is used in the outside world and in the workplace. They know about different ways that maths can be used to support their future potential. Mathematical concepts or skills are mastered when a child can show it in multiple ways, using the mathematical language to explain their ideas, and can independently apply the concept to new problems in unfamiliar situations.
Implementation:
Please refer to the Mathematics Policy and Scheme of Work for a comprehensive break down of how the Mathematics Curriculum is implemented at Ash Green from Early Years to Year 6.
Impact:
Leaders in school, including the Mathematics Manager regularly measure the impact of our Mathematics curriculum through Deep Dives and the monitoring of teaching and learning, assessment and on-going self-review. We survey staff, pupils and parents, undertake learning walks, carry out both formal and informal monitoring in order to sample typicality, and also scrutinise samples of work produced by pupils both in school, as well as remotely. We have an established system of Governor review with a Standards and Effectiveness Committee who oversee our curriculum. Governors on this committee receive regular reports, and discussions are held at this committee meeting on successes and upcoming priorities. Based on monitoring and Deep Dives, clear next step priorities for Mathematics are agreed as part of a Mathematics action plan.
The impact will be that our pupils will be academically prepared for the next phase of their education, are motivated to succeed and achieve, and are equipped with all the personal skills to do this.
Overview
Policy and Scheme of Work