Our Maths Vision

At St Joseph’s Primary School, we teach using a ‘mastery’ approach and ensure the children all develop number sense as they progress through the year groups.

Our vision is for all children to enjoy maths and to have the knowledge, skills and understanding to be able to problem solve and to apply this in real life situations. Therefore, we endeavour to develop our children to become confident mathematicians. Pupils will be taught key mathematical vocabulary so they can confidently explain their working out and to explore different solutions and make links between different areas of mathematics. At the heart of our curriculum is a focus on developing and practising mental calculation skills that ensure children can access all aspects of maths. We follow the teaching sequence outlined by the White Rose Maths Hub schemes of learning. This ensures that a coherent, consistent approach is adopted in all year groups. It provides our pupils with a deep understanding of the subject through a concrete, pictorial and abstract approach and this ensures that our pupils fully understand what they are learning. Our pupils will thrive upon conquering problem-solving challenges and they will not be afraid to make mistakes but instead view these as valuable learning opportunities. We compliment this with other high-quality resources, especially arithmetic focused, that are adapted to the needs of our children to ensure progression.  

The National Curriculum for Primary Mathematics has three main aims which are at the heart of how the children learn Mathematics in our school. These are:

• Fluency –The children will have varied and frequent practise with increasingly complex problems over time, so that they can develop understanding and the ability to recall and apply their mathematics rapidly and accurately.
• Reasoning – The children will follow a line of enquiry, investigating relationships and generalisations, developing an argument and justification and proof using mathematical language.
• Problem Solving – The children can apply their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

What does a learner in maths at St Joseph’s look like?

A learner in maths at St Joseph’s will be able to use concrete apparatus to apply, show and explain their understanding and learning. They will be able to use mathematical vocabulary in their dialogue throughout the lesson and this will be guided through the use of STEM sentences to teach key mathematical vocabulary. It is a priority that children will have or will be developing number sense. They will be able to subitise and have visual models of number, a deep understanding of number and number relationships and fluency in addition and subtraction facts. The children will be able to use this fluency to support them in all areas of their maths learning. Children in Key Stage One and Two will be able to recall taught times table and division facts.

How is maths at St Joseph’s taught?

Maths at St Josephs is taught using a mastery approach to ensure that the children at our school develop key mathematical skills and a deep understanding to enable them to independently problem solve. We follow a sequence outlined by White Rose Maths which has been developed by maths specialists and we challenge all learners through regular problem solving activities. Number Sense is a vital part of maths teaching and this teaches children key mathematical skills. Children in the Early Years learn to subitise numbers to 5 and learn number as an amount rather than just a numeral. Children then progress through the school developing this number sense which they apply to all areas of their maths learning. Rapid recall is a very important part of maths and arithmetic teaching is intertwined into all of our teaching. Children are also taught the key mathematical vocabulary that they need to explain their thinking and working outs. This is taught using STEM sentences which gives all the children the correct vocabulary in the form of a scaffolded sentence. 

Times Tables Rock Stars

At St Joseph’s we subscribe to Times Table Rock Stars and use it in our classrooms and for home learning for Years 2 to 6. This is a system that the children use to practise the instant recall of their multiplication and division facts. Please watch this video explaining what Times Table Rock Stars is and how you can support your child at home. Please explore the documents below for more information.

https://www.youtube.com

National Curriculum and Ready to Progress Mapping

The aim of this document from White Rose Maths is to give an at-a-glance guide to how the White Rose Maths curriculum links to the Key Stage 1 and 2 national curriculum, and how it progresses through topics.

In each of the major topic areas (Number, Measurement, Geometry and Statistics), the curriculum has been broken down into key areas. For each of these areas, you can then see which NC objectives are covered in that year, together with the term and block in which that objective is first met in version 3 of the White Rose Maths schemes.

Many schools are using the ‘Ready to progress’ criteria produced by the DfE as part of their assessments of pupils’ learning. This document also lists the key steps in the White Rose Maths schemes of learning that support each of the ‘Ready to progress’ criteria, in the same sections as the national curriculum objectives. In many cases, the criteria are also addressed in other steps and in other blocks, for example looking at addition and subtraction in the context of measure.

Please view the whole document below.

Please see below for some examples of our maths learning:

THE ESSENCE OF TEACHING FOR MASTERY

• Maths teaching for mastery rejects the idea that a large proportion of people ‘just can’t do maths’.
• All pupils are encouraged by the belief that by working hard at maths they can succeed.
• Pupils are taught through whole-class interactive teaching, where the focus is on all pupils working together on the same lesson content at the same time, as happens in Shanghai and several other regions that teach maths successfully. This ensures that all can master concepts before moving to the next part of the curriculum sequence, allowing no pupil to be left behind.
• If a pupil fails to grasp a concept or procedure, this is identified quickly and early intervention ensures the pupil is ready to move forward with the whole class in the next lesson.
• Lesson design identifies the new mathematics that is to be taught, the key points, the difficult points and a carefully sequenced journey through the learning.
• Procedural fluency and conceptual understanding are developed in tandem because each supports the development of the other.
• It is recognised that practice is a vital part of learning, but the practice used is intelligent practice that both reinforces pupils’ procedural fluency and develops their conceptual
• Significant time is spent developing deep knowledge of the key ideas that are needed to underpin future learning. The structure and connections within the mathematics are emphasised, so that pupils develop deep learning that can be sustained.
• Key facts such as multiplication tables are learnt to automaticity to avoid cognitive overload in the working memory and enable pupils to focus on new concepts.