Maths

Maths

Mathematics

At Calder Vale St John’s Primary School, we believe that mathematics is a fundamental part of everyday life for people all over the world and across a wide range of different cultures. It helps us understand many aspects of the world around us and live independently both as children and in our future lives.

National Curriculum Purpose of Study

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Our Approach

A mastery curriculum rejects the idea that a large proportion of people ‘just can’t do maths’ (NCETM 2016) and instead focuses on the idea that all pupils can achieve depth in their learning which can be accomplished by using key principles including:

representation and structure (effective pedagogies for modelling, concrete-pictorial-abstract approaches, effective use of manipulatives and transition between them)
coherence (curriculum design, progression of objectives, sequencing learning, small steps, contextualising learning between different areas of mathematics)
mathematical thinking (effective questioning, identifying patterns and relationships, deep understanding through reasoning and problem solving, supporting children to achieve deeper learning where appropriate)
variation (progression through representations using conceptual variation, progression through questioning using procedural variation)
fluency (efficiency, accuracy, flexibility, developing unconscious competence)

These elements of effective mathematics teaching are supported in both the National Curriculum and the Ofsted Inspection Framework.

The scheme provides teachers with comprehensive planning materials for each lesson including teaching resources, detailed planning guidance and children’s task sheets, including deeper learning tasks to challenge more able mathematicians.