ST MARY’S CHURCH OF ENGLAND

Mathematics

At St Mary’s, we aim to deliver high quality mathematics education to give children a thorough understanding of number and place value, the four operations, fractions, geometry, measurement and statistics. Throughout Early Years, Year 1 and Year 2, the maths curriculum is taught through a series of lessons which build on prior knowledge, reinforcing children’s understanding of key learning, while introducing new concepts and methods.

Throughout a child’s time at St Mary’s, we aim to foster a deep understanding through a gradual progression of teaching methods. In Reception, children engage in more concrete methods - practical activities that are hands-on, such as using counting objects, number lines, and manipulatives to build number sense. These activities help children grasp basic concepts of quantity, addition, and subtraction in a tangible way. As children move into Year 1, the focus shifts towards more structured activities that still incorporate physical objects but begin to build on using simple pictorial and written methods, such as representing numbers using drawings, and writing number sentences. By Year 2, children are still encouraged to represent numbers using concrete and pictorial methods, but also work on using more formal written strategies, as well as developing their mental maths skills, in order to achieve quick recall of key number facts, which supports their understanding across the curriculum. Mathematical language is taught explicitly and children are encouraged to use appropriate vocabulary to explain their answers. This progression ensures that children develop the confidence and skills to use practical strategies first, before transitioning to more abstract, written methods that develop their mathematical understanding.

At St Mary’s, we have chosen to follow the White Rose ‘Power Maths’ scheme, which supports the objectives of the National Curriculum and embraces the principle of the ‘Mastery’ approach to learning. Mastering Maths means acquiring a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. At any one point in a pupil’s journey through school, achieving mastery is taken to mean acquiring a solid enough understanding of the maths that’s been taught to enable them move on to more advanced material. Please find more information about ‘Maths Mastery’ here.

Using ‘Power Maths’, in each year group, the curriculum is broken down into core concepts, taught in blocks. A block divides into smaller learning steps. Step by step, strong foundations of knowledge, skill and understanding are built.

Engaging visual resources are part of every lesson, as well as opportunities for mathematical discussions, practical activities, and investigations which challenge the children to apply their learning in a different way.

Using this scheme, children are able to work on their fluency in the fundamentals of maths, and are also given regular opportunities to solve problems using their mathematical knowledge, as well as activities where they can reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, developing an argument, and using justification or proof, giving their explanations using mathematical language.

This Calculations Policy sets out the guidelines that we follow in teaching the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division). As the children progress through the school, they will learn new ways of solving problems using a variety of different methods, in order to give them plenty of opportunity to find a process that works best for them.