Shrubland Street Community Primary School

The intent of our maths curriculum is to provide all children with a secure foundation, which can be built upon at any point in their future and aim for all children to develop their fluency, reasoning, and problem-solving skills, regardless of their starting point. We intend to challenge, build resilience, provide context to number and a belief  that they can achieve in maths.

We understand that maths has deep connections with the world around us and that real world contexts help children to see some of the ways in which maths can be applied. We want children to leave Shrubland Street confident in their abilities and with a positive, ‘can do’ attitude.

At Shrubland Street we are constantly evaluating and improving the teaching and learning of maths and follow a 'maths mastery' approach to teaching.  This year Miss Cowan (our maths lead teacher) continues to be part of a Teacher Research Group for sustaining the maths mastery approach in schools, led by the Orgin Maths Hub.

Each maths lesson include the three aims of the National Curriculum - Fluency, Reasoning and Problem Solving. Maths concepts are built in small, logical steps and are explored through clear mathematical models and images.

Lessons are planned on continuous assessment of what students already know and consider the scaffolding that may be required for children who find a concept difficult to grasp, as well as challenge 'greater depth' questions for those who grasp concepts rapidly. 

During maths lessons:

· the whole class moves through content at the same pace

· there is time to think deeply about the maths

· adults build self-confidence in learners

· content focuses on depth rather than acceleration

Through both discreet and cross-curricular lessons, in conjunction with daily fluency sessions, we aim to ensure that all pupils:

• become fluent in the four operations of mathematics, through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time
• use strategies that are underpinned by a secure and appropriate knowledge of number facts, and mental skills that are needed to carry out the process and judge if it was successful, so that pupils have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems
• 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.

Please see our Calulation Policy below, which explains how we represent and teach addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in all year groups. 

On Wednesday 11th October, Ms Greet and Miss Cowan invited parents into school to explore how we represent maths in all year groups and the importance this plays in the children aquiring 'Maths Mastery'. 

All our maths teaching is supported by high-quality resources which provide opportunities for plenty of practice. Children use objects and pictures to physically represent mathematical concepts alongside numbers and symbols – this is what we refer to as representation. The use of representations is vital at all ages to secure understanding in new learning steps and to connect with prior learning.

Parents and carers were then given a tour around the school with the opportunity to visit classes and see maths teaching and learning up close.