Curriculum Intent Statement : Mathematics

Intent

At Flitwick Lower we are committed to developing a curriculum that is accessible to all our children from age two to age nine. This curriculum will maximise the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement. Our children will have opportunities that will enable them to have rich connections to be developed between the maths they learn in school and its real-life application of numeracy for life. Children will be taught maths in an environment that will allow them to become confident in their own mathematical abilities in a range of fun, purposeful experiences that will help them to become fluent, determined mathematicians who can solve increasingly sophisticated problems.

Implementation

To ensure the consistency of our teaching we follow the White Rose scheme of mathematics as this meets all the needs of our cohort as the scheme is progressive and allows our children to make progress. Therefore we can teach not only the mathematical methods but gives us the opportunity to focus on mathematical vocabulary and use mathematics mastery to broaden and deepen our children’s understanding. Maths is taught daily using a range of resources to teach different startegies and approaches in maths. We teach two strands in maths – fluency and problem solving – which provides children with skills to apply their maths knowledge in different ways. In addition to this, children can practise their number bonds and times tables on a daily basis in preparation for a timed challenge each week. Children challenge themselves to progress through our times table challenge board from year one onwards. At home, children have access to Times Tables Rock Stars to practise their times tables.

For early maths we use a range of physical resources to enable children to understand the basics before the abstract. Mathematics is incorporated into the continuous provision to enable children to independently apply their maths skills in creative, fun ways.

We use Fluent in Five, Times Table Rock Stars and NCTEM activities. We assess mathematics in a number of ways including the use of classroom monitor, book looks, moderation, pupil progress meetings, termly analysis and pupil interviews as well as with the times table challenge which we monitor each half term. In our Early Years settings we use observations and practicals to inform our assessment and plan next steps for our youngest learners.

Impact

We want all of our children to have a secure recall of key mathematical facts which is why we use the White Rose scheme of work across the school. This allows our children to become fluent and confident in applying their mathematics skills and become more willing to attempt and achieve mathematics mastery. It will allow them to make links to real life mathematics with an understanding of why they learn the different aspects of maths so that they can then apply their knowledge. Children will be able to demonstrate what they have learnt and put this into practise.