Maths at Lady Bankes Primary School

Curriculum Intent

At Lady Bankes Primary School our school values of ambition, togetherness, opportunity, respect, curiosity and happiness are at the heart of all we do to ensure that pupils receive the best possible educational experience both in and out of the classroom. 

The intent of our mathematics curriculum is to design a curriculum, which is accessible to all and will maximise the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement.

We deliver lessons that are creative and engaging using the White Rose planning schemes but adapt these to suit the needs of the children in our classes. We want children to make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. We intend for our pupils to be able to apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects. We want children to realise that mathematics has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. We want them to know that it is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. As our pupils progress, we intend for our pupils to be able to understand the world, have the ability to reason mathematically, have an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

The aims of our Mathematics curriculum are that all learners:

• Explore a wide range of mathematical activities, many of them practical, both inside and outside of the classrooms.

• 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. We aim for children to be able to read, understand and use vocabulary to support consistently and our Vocabulary Policy assists with this.

We use a range of online programmes to support children online and in school. Yearly RockStars competitions are held to encourage the recall and fluency of times tables. We also enter other national maths competitions.

EYFS

In both Nursery and Reception, we aim to provide the children with a solid base of mathematical understanding upon which to build and deepen as they progress throughout the school. The children are encouraged to build their understanding of number and shape, space and measure through a variety of multi-sensory and practical experiences to allow them to understand and explore these areas and therefore to make them become more meaningful. For example; the children in Reception take a trip to the local greengrocers shop to help them understand the value of money within a meaningful context.

We embrace the fact that young children learn best from activities and experiences that interest and inspire them to learn. In doing so we can provide children with stimulating, active experiences in which they can explore and develop their learning and to help them make sense of the world.

By using both the indoor and outdoor classrooms on a daily basis the children are exposed to maths in range of different situations. These offer children the opportunity to investigate and explore, problem solve, use their imagination and creativity, and have fun learning while embedding their mathematical understanding and skills.

At Lady Bankes we provide a balance of adult led and independent maths learning opportunities that build upon the key interests of the children, whilst teaching and embedding lifelong mathematical skills. We aim for these activities to enthuse the children and for the children to move into KS1 as confident, competent mathematicians.

Key Stage 1

Within KS1 our children build upon their skills learnt in the EYFS. At Lady Bankes we believe that young children deserve a stimulating and varied approach to learning maths. As a result we continue to provide mathematical learning both in the inside and outside classrooms. Access to our outside classroom supports the children’s understanding of particularly shape, space and measure concepts.  Amongst other things the children have great fun measuring and comparing our home grown plants, estimating and comparing sizes and many more activities.

Each lesson is planned in response to the children’s ability and interest. A range of practical and cross curricular activities support the teaching of the key skills and aim to make the experiences meaningful and exciting. For example; whilst using their geographical mapping skills in year 1 they are also comparing distance and talking about scale when drawing a route map to the local church. Weekly homework is set to reflect the current learning within class and to help embed and deepen the understanding and skills.

By provoking and inspiring mathematical thinking and building a firm foundation of key skills we aim to inspire our children to become confident problem solvers as they move to KS2.

Key Stage 2

The impact of our Mathematics curriculum is that children show a good recall and fluency and are happy and resilient mathematicians who relish the challenge of maths. They are able to use what they have learnt across other learning areas. Some pupils will have a greater depth of understanding. We carefully monitor to ensure pupils are on track to reach the expectations. Along with evidence in books and from lessons, assessment weeks are held termly using Assertive Mentoring, to inform teachers’ decisions and to pin point gaps in children’s learning. Interventions are run to support children further through pre-teaching or recapping the learning in lessons. We also believe that pupil voice is a very useful tool for assessment. By asking pupils questions such as what they enjoyed and what they learnt, we are able to view the impact of their learning experiences.

At Lady Bankes Primary School our aim is to equip our children with the mathematical skills to help them progress throughout their time in education and in the wider world.