
MATHS
INTENT:
At St. Mark’s, we recognise that Mathematics forms a part of every day life, therefore Maths takes an important role in our broad and balanced curriculum. We endeavour to empower children to feel confident in their arithmetic and reasoning skills to question, answer and explain problems, and enthuse children to gain a love for Maths.
Through our approach of maths mastery, the school provides a positive culture of Maths fluency with secure and deep understanding. We do this by providing children with foundation skills for understanding number and reasoning, and allow children to think logically and systematically. Equally we allow children to problem solve which in turn allows them to create a Maths toolkit for their future.
We place great emphasis on the use of concrete resources and pictorial representations at all ages, to enable children to fully understand the concepts and principals when presented with abstract calculations and questions.
By adopting a Mastery approach, it is also intended that all children, regardless of their starting point, will maximise their academic achievement and leave St Marks with an appreciation and enthusiasm for Maths.
IMPLEMENTATION:
At St. Marks we implement maths using the maths mastery approach utilising White Rose’s resources. The schools follows the National Curriculum 2014 and deliver maths daily. Planning is supported by the use of the White Rose Maths Hub materials and our school calculation policy.
By utilising the White Rose scheme, which is fully supported by the Department for Education, we are confident progression across the subject is made from EYFS to Year 6. This takes into account children’s prior knowledge to allow best progress for all children, regardless of their starting point. Lessons are designed and delivered using the concrete, pictorial, abstract approach (CPA) providing our pupils with the scaffolding required to access the learning at all levels. Equally this approach allows the scaffolding to be taken away to aid learners in the best possible way.
Throughout the school lessons remain engaging and follow a clear cycle of planning, to ensure St. Marks we can evidence progress over short and long periods of time. Marking in the moment and formative assessment allows teachers to cover misconceptions either as a whole class or in small groups to allow children to meet the learning objectives of the lesson.
Summative assessment is used through the form of White Rose end of unit baseline assessments and White Rose end of term tests. The data provided, along with teacher judgment informs the teaching and learning sequence, and if areas of learning require revisiting. Interventions are in place for children who are not meeting the required progress, along with pre-teaching.
Summative assessments are also completed at the end of the academic year and help influence the overall judgement reported to parents in the form of parent’s evenings and school reports.
The maths leader works closely with SLT to create a clear direction for the subject with overall responsibility for the progress of all children in Maths throughout school. Key data is analysed regularly during pupil progress meetings and feedback is discussed with SLT and teaching and support staff.
IMPACT:
St. Mark’s impact for maths is seeing children progress through our school meeting or exceeding their potential in mathematics. It is also to inspire and create confident problem solvers who embrace maths as a subject as opposed to fear it. At St. Marks we aim to make children happy learners who talk enthusiastically about their learning and are eager to further their progress in maths.
The impact of the recently introduced ‘Mastery’ scheme is becoming evident, and emphasises accurate use of mathematical language which is apparent during pupil voice discussions. Children’s fluency in number and arithmetic is strong across the school, equally the use of reasoning through the ‘Mastery’ and White Rose scheme helps develop learner’s ability to question and explain their Maths knowledge.
These factors ensure that we are able to achieve high standards, with achievement at the end of KS2 in-line with that of the national average.