Maths Intent
At Ridgeway Farm CE Academy, we follow a Teaching for Mastery Approach and have chosen to use White Rose Maths to underpin our mathematics curriculum as it provides an ambitious, connected curriculum that is accessible to all pupils and has a clear progression through the primary years and beyond. At the heart of our curriculum is a commitment to develop resilience, confidence and self-belief; enabling our children to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics as well as develop their ability to reason and solve problems. Pupils are introduced to new mathematical concepts and develop reasoning and problem-solving skills using concrete resources; pictorial representations and finally numbers and symbols. We use the CPA (Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract) approach to help pupils understand mathematics and make links in their learning. We place great importance on mathematical language and questioning so pupils can discuss their understanding and develop their thinking.
Our intent focuses on equipping all pupils with the mathematics they need to master the curriculum for each year group, which requires that all pupils:
- recall key number facts with speed and accuracy and use them to calculate and work out unknown facts;
- develop their ability to apply mathematical skills with confidence and understanding when solving problems.
- apply 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
- express themselves and their ideas using the language of mathematics with assurance.
- have sufficient depth of knowledge and understanding to reason and explain mathematical concepts and procedures and use them to solve a variety of problems.
- develop positive attitudes to mathematics, recognising that mathematics can be both useful and enjoyable.
- nurture a fascination and excitement of mathematics
- are able to use and apply the skills in other curricular areas.
Our expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress is based on the security of the pupil’s understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those children who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier materials are supported in a number of ways to consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on. As well as being fluent mathematicians, we aim to foster a love of learning; developing curious minds that are willing to take risks and experiment with ideas. With kind hearts, resilience, guidance and support our aim is to develop a generation of children who leave primary education believing that they can be successful mathematicians.
Maths Implementation
- A daily mathematics lesson is taught in Year 1 – Year 6.
- In EYFS pupils experience daily mathematics learning through whole class teacher input; teacher directed tasks and child-initiated play. Opportunities for mathematics is developed through daily routines and all areas of learning.
Ridgeway Farm’s calculation policy is used across the school to ensure that there is a clear progression and consistency of calculation methods.
- We implement our approach through high quality teaching, delivering appropriately challenging work for all individuals. To support us, we have a range of mathematical resources in classrooms including Numicon, Base10 and counters (concrete equipment).
- Lesson starters are used to quickly recap the previous learning to ensure that maths concepts have been learnt and remembered.
- Pre teaching, catch-up sessions and short maths interventions (E.g. Plus 1 and Power of 2) are used to support the children in consolidating their maths understanding and to ensure that any misconceptions are quickly addressed.
- Through our teaching, we continuously monitor pupils’ progress against expected attainment for their age, making formative assessment notes where appropriate and using these to inform our teaching.
- Cold and hot assessment tasks are used at the beginning and end of each maths block so that progress can be monitored, and gaps can be easily identified before the unit has been taught
- In terms 2, 4 and 6, summative assessments (NFER or SATs) are used to monitor the progress and attainment of the children’s maths understanding. The results form discussions during termly Pupil Progress Meetings which ensures that we are providing excellent maths provision for every child.
- Children at Ridgeway Farm use Times Tables Rockstars and Numbots to support fluency and quick mental recall of known number facts.
- Maths is taught across the curriculum ensuring that skills taught in these lessons are applied in other subjects
Maths Impact
Children will enjoy mathematical experience and want to find out more about how being numerate will support them in the real world.
The children will be encouraged to practise their basic number skills on a range of websites and apps in school and at home independently. This is to further their own enjoyment and fascination about the subject.
Evidence of work will show secure knowledge and basic skills coverage; it will also show cross curriculum links.
Standards in maths will be consistently high.
Subject Leaders and SLT will monitor the subject by looking at work, displays and by talking with children.