Maths
Intent: At St James C of E Primary school, we strive to ensure all children develop a love of learning maths and are able to use their mathematical skills to solve problems in real world contexts. By the end of their journey at St James’ all of our children are confident, resilient and fluent mathematicians. Collaboration, challenge and support is at the centre of all our maths lessons to allow children to acquire a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding. By creating a positive and supportive learning environment, we aim to instil confidence, critical thinking skills, and a curiosity for exploring the beauty of mathematics, laying the groundwork for future academic success.
Implementation: Our maths lessons are rooted in developing mastery skills through providing children with a wealth of rich, varied and flexible reasoning and problem-solving activities. Children are encouraged to make connections, develop mathematical thinking and represent concepts and ideas in a range of ways. We provide an engaging curriculum in which all children are challenged and supported, ensuring that enjoyment and success is at the heart of all lessons. Our lessons, just like our children, are creative, dynamic and full of zest. Fluency is integrated into all lessons ensuring that children are efficient and effective in their recall of number facts thus allowing them to thrive in a maths world.
Impact: Each child at St James’ will leave Year 6 with a rich, secure knowledge of mathematics allowing them to approach the Key Stage 3 Mathematics curriculum with confidence and a solid understanding of the fundamentals of maths. Regular formative assessments and personalised feedback enable continual improvement. Our curriculum's impact extends beyond academic success, empowering students with a lifelong appreciation for mathematics, a crucial asset for their future endeavours.
We use White Rose Maths as a tool to support our teaching and learning and teaching is aligned with their yearly overviews:
Arithmetic and times tables are taught in separate sessions to the main maths lesson although many maths lessons still incorporate the fundamental skills associated with arithmetic.
A yearly overview of the times table each class is working on each term can be accessed at the bottom of the page.
Maths lesson structure
■Fluency: pupils develop their knowledge of number facts and patterns
■In focus task: an open-ended problem that pupils discuss with one another
■Let’s learn: Teacher modelling how to solve the problem. A focus upon questioning pupils throughout: What if…, what should I do next…, what operation may I use….
■Guided practice: Pupils have opportunity to investigate/try out problems in small groups. They could teach a method to their peer, journal their thinking, show another method or use resources to show their thinking
■Independent task: Pupils have a go at solving the problems themselves
■Plenary: Check of understanding
Children are asked to access Mathletics and TT Rockstars as part of their home learning. We are currently the top performing school in the area for Mathletics and children are super engaged in our TTRS and Numbots competitions!
Useful Maths websites
- https://login.mathletics.com/ - take a look at the 'how to log on to Mathletics' document at the bottom of the page for assistance in logging on
- https://www.ncetm.org.uk/
- https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student - you will find guidance on how to access TT Rockstars at the bottom of the page
- https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/ordering-and-sequencing-numbers
- https://nrich.maths.org/primary
