Mathematics

Maths is everywhere. From using spatial awareness to park your car, reading time, budgeting, making decisions on the best value offers, understanding and using money to pay for goods, we need Maths. We use it every day and will do throughout our lives. Mathematical thinking helps us to spot patterns, make predictions and make sense of the world around us.  

In our school, we embed the Mastery Approach in all of our Maths lessons to encourage logical, systematic and efficient thinking that fosters active learning. Through the use of sentence stems, manipulatives and mastery-style tasks, we intend to immerse the children in opportunities to allow their fluency, reasoning and problem-solving skills to flourish. The Mastery Approach also complements our school value of Harmony with the focus on working together on the same lesson content at the same time, allowing no pupil to be left behind. This develops children’s social skills by teaching them to actively listen and respond appropriately to build on other’s ideas. 

But Maths is not just about numbers. As well as mathematical fluency, we believe Maths teaches many important skills of resilience which help our children to become confident young people. We learn through forgiving our mistakes on our journey to mastery. All pupils are encouraged to believe that, through tenacity, they can ‘Aspire to Succeed’. We encourage children to look at problems from different angles and select the most efficient method to solve each one. We celebrate the difficulties and mistakes we make along the way, which, in turn, help to drive our children’s learning on as well as developing their positive growth mind-set. 

We aim to continue to challenge all of our pupils in every context. For our Able, Gifted and Talented mathematicians, we provide opportunities to extend and celebrate their skills. Those who lack confidence are supported through interventions such as Number Stacks and scaffolding that allows for growing independence. Enjoyment is also raised through whole-school celebrations such as World Maths Day and Times Tables Rockstars Championships. 

Logical thinking, systematic reasoning, and the ability to think deeply about a problem, extend into all areas of life. In foundation subjects, the cross-curricular links to Maths are highlighted and are seen as a key priority. It gives them the assurance to justify their opinions and explain their reasoning by using precise and accurate vocabulary. We encourage children to have mathematical confidence so they can challenge ideas presented by peers and adults alike, through verbalising their methods and extending their own thinking.  

We inspire children to enjoy Maths and aim high.

At our school, teachers have high expectations for each child and promote a positive mind-set towards Mathematics. Maths is taught daily, with learners benefiting from both a main Maths lesson and an additional shorter session on multiplication tables in Years 3 and 4, and arithmetic skills in Years 5 and 6. 

Teachers follow the White Rose Hub’s Yearly Overview, adapting each unit to meet the needs of the individuals and class they are teaching. White Rose breaks down mathematical concepts and skills into small steps. It ensures there is a consistent approach, and, as they progress through the school, they build on previous learning. They are familiar with the models, apparatus and strategies taught, so they can build their confidence and independence as they move throughout the school. Pupils are taught through whole-class interactive, inspiring teaching that journeys through both fluency and problem solving. Visualisers are used to model work and clearly demonstrate the use of manipulatives.  

Further enhancing the impact of White Rose Hub, staff at Harnham C. of E. Junior School embed strategies from the Mastery Approach in all lessons. This is done through the repetition of sentence stems that use technical mathematical terminology from the very beginning, securing its use each time a theme is revisited. Other strategies include mastery-style tasks where all children work on the same activity at the same time; this gives every child and young person an equitable chance for success. It also ensures that all can master concepts before moving to the next part of the curriculum sequence.   

Questions often begin with a fluency opener, followed by opportunities to reason and problem solve. The tasks get progressively more challenging with each subsequent question. Instead of the traditional method of differentiating three ways, our pupils decide how far they can stretch their learning with each inquiry. This blurs the lines between different ability groups and eliminates predetermined attainment caps.

Regarding scaffolding, manipulatives are used as a form of support that promotes growing independence. The intervention of Number Stacks is administered to build number confidence in our lowest attainers.  

We believe that all children, regardless of ability, can access problem-solving through whole-class interactive teaching. We use this opportunity to develop their communication skills, resilience and extend their learning. In this time, you will see children engaged and chatting enthusiastically about Maths whilst challenging each other. This involves lots of chat: talking between Learning Partners, whiteboard work and discussion, exercising the sentence stems in the process. 

We use Assessment of Learning and Assessment for Learning to carefully address any skills gaps and identify next steps. Formal assessments are also used to inform planning content and where to direct support in class. Live marking allows teaching staff to address any gaps immediately. 

Each child across school is given a login to Times Tables Rockstars at the start of each academic year. The website is promoted across school, culminating in our annual Times Table Rockstars Championship. Each week, the Times Tables Rockstar from each class is announced and celebrated in assembly, with a certificate given. 

Able, Gifted and Talented children have opportunities to celebrate their mathematical prowess in new contexts. This includes taking part in the UK Maths Trust Junior Mathematical Challenge, partaking in a Maths Outreach session hosted by South Wilts Grammar School and being invited to a multitude to Braeside courses that encourage critical mathematical thinking. In each classroom, there is also a Greater Depth Box, filled with investigative problems to explore. 

To raise the profile of Maths across school, we celebrate World Maths Day annually, where we provide the children with a plethora of ‘real life’ Maths activities. Previously, this has included planning a day’s trip to Paris for one of our Maths Subject Leads, creating an online basket for a weekly food shop for a family of four and comparing the value of theme park annual passes to ‘on-the-door’ prices. Year 6 also benefit from an annual visit by staff at Natwest Bank to explain the importance of budgeting and savings.

The impact of our Maths provision is assessed through pupil voice, termly assessments, lesson observations and end of Key Stage 2 SATs results. Regarding the latter, the percentage of children achieving Expected in Maths has increased each year since the reintroduction of SATs after the pandemic. This is a trend we aim to continue. 

By the end of Key Stage 2 our successful curriculum will allow all children to: 

Understand place value and read, write, order and compare numbers up to one million. 

Add, subtract, multiply and divide numbers using formal methods and solve problems involving all of these. 

Recall and use equivalences between simple fractions, decimals and percentages, including in different contexts. 

Have a grasp of algebra. 

Understand different units of measures and properties of shapes. 

Present, interpret and analyse different forms of data. 

We want children to love Maths and enjoy the challenges it poses. We aim for all children to reach their full potential, having made progress in our school as gaps and next steps have been addressed and the curriculum tailored to their needs. Whilst we want all children to leave our school with a secure foundation of Maths skills, it is their want for challenge and ingrained tenacity that will have the most significant and lasting impact. The resilience that comes with being a relentless problem-solver is life changing.