Our Maths Lead is Mrs Crosby 

Intent

By the time our children leave St Peter’s we hope that they will have a love of mathematics. We believe the purpose of mathematics is not solely to gain classroom based skills, but to develop enquiry and reasoning skills and inquisitive minds that will develop through life. We want our children to understand, as they progress through the school, that maths is not only essential to everyday life, necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment but is also a fun and engaging experience. Our aim is to ensure that all children become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics and be able to solve problems.

So our aim is to ensure that all pupils:

Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.

Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.

Can solve problems by applying 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.

Implementation

To ensure whole consistency and progression, the school uses the White Rose scheme of work that is matched to the DFE’s National Curriculum.

Mathematics is taught at least 4 times a week and offers the children the opportunity to have varied and frequent practice of their maths skills with the focus on their ability to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately. Reasoning is a key area in all our lessons as our children need to be able to describe, explain, convince, justify and prove to be successful in this subject. Mathematical vocabulary is an essential part of each lesson and the children need to understand this within the area they are studying and be able to make rich connections across other areas within this subject. Each lesson provides children with the opportunity to reason through their ideas, use their mathematical language to explore a line of enquiry to solve routine and non-routine problems.

Teaching will cater for the individual needs of the children and include some element of reasoning and problem solving. Challenging questioning is a key part of the maths lesson – allowing the children to demonstrate what they know and to extend their understanding.

At St Peter's we teach Maths through White Rose and NCTEM Mastering Number (EYFS and KS1)

SEND

Developing an understanding of the basic skills in mathematics is a crucial.  For children with a special need or disability, teachers will plan learning which teaches these skills at an appropriate level.  Recording in maths for some children can be difficult and teachers and teaching assistants will work to support children to present their work in a way which enables them to show their learning to the optimal level.  Manipulatives are used by all pupils and are chosen specifically to scaffold learning in maths and children may have access to these whenever they need them.

A selection of pupil voice from Number Day:

"I love Maths, we always have lots of fun" Orla, Year 1

"Number day is the best!" Camilo Year 2

"Maths is cool at my school" Neveah Year 5

"We did loads! We got to play multiplication pong and count how many times we could bounce the ball whilst timing it!" George, Year 4

In line with the White Rose Scheme of Work these Calculation Policies inform teaching.  The foundations of maths begin in our Reception class; they receive a diet of Mastering Number and the Shape, Space and Measure strand of White Rose Maths.  All of this is embedded in their continuous provision time.

Mastering Number

No more counting in ones!

St Peter's is taking part in the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) project to support the teaching of basic Maths skills in our school.

This project aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense (a deep understanding of number) for all children from Reception through to Year 1 and Year 2.

The aim over time is that children will leave KS1 and begin KS2 with fluency in calculation and a confidence and flexibility with number. Research shows that children with secure ‘number sense’ early on will make more progress later on in Maths and across the curriculum.

Each class, in KS1, has a daily ‘Mastering Number’ session in addition to their timetabled Maths lesson. Over the year, the children will experience using a range of resources and representations, including a small abacus-like piece of equipment called a rekenrek.

Thank you to those parents who attended the Mastering Number Workshop in November 2023.  Parents were also invited to their EYFS, Year 1 and Year 2 child's classroom to take part in a lesson on subitising! 

In Year 4 and Year 5, we also deliver Mastering Number at KS2 which is a project that enables pupils to develop fluency in multiplication and division facts and a confidence and flexibility with number that exemplifies good number sense. Knowledge of multiplication and division and its applications forms the single most important aspect of the KS2 curriculum and is the gateway to success at secondary school. 

The Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) is an assessment that the Government has introduced for all pupils in Year 4. It is an online assessment that has been designed to assess whether pupils can recall their times tables fluently, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will also help schools to identify pupils who have not yet mastered their times tables, so that additional support can be provided.

From 2022 onwards the MTC has been compulsory, with all pupils in Year 4 completing the assessments in June.

The MTC is an on-screen check consisting of 25 times tables questions, which means it will be completed on a computer. Your child will answer 3 practice questions before moving on to the official check and will then have 6 seconds to answer each question. On average, the check should take no longer than 5 minutes to complete.

When it comes to times tables, speed AND accuracy are important. The more facts your child remembers, the easier it is for them to do harder calculations. Times Table Rock Stars is a fun and challenging programme designed to help pupils master the times tables! To be a Times Table Rock Star you need to answer any multiplication fact up to 12×12 in less than 3 seconds!

All children from years 2 to 6 have a username and password so they can also access this website from home. If they lose this, please see their class teacher.

Useful Websites for MTC: