Maths 2023 - 2024

Intent

At St Stephen’s we value every pupil and the contribution they have to make. As a result we aim to ensure that every child achieves success and that all are enabled to develop their skills in accordance with their level of ability. Mathematics is both a key skill within school, and a life skill to be utilised throughout every person’s day to day experiences. At St Stephen's mathematics equips pupils with a uniquely powerful set of tools to understand and change the world. These tools include logical reasoning, problem-solving skills and the ability to think in abstract ways. Mathematics is important in everyday life. It is integral to all aspects of life and with this in mind we endeavour to ensure that children develop a positive and enthusiastic attitude towards mathematics that will stay with them. The National Curriculum for Mathematics (2014) describes in detail what pupils must learn in each year group. Combined with our Calculation Policy, this ensures continuity, progression and high expectations for attainment in Mathematics. We believe it is vital that a positive attitude towards mathematics is encouraged amongst all of our pupils in order to foster confidence and achievement in a skill that is essential in our society. At St Stephen’s we use the National Curriculum for Mathematics (2014) as the basis of our mathematics programme. We are committed to ensuring that all pupils achieve mastery in the key concepts of mathematics, appropriate for their age group, in order that they make genuine progress and avoid gaps in their understanding that provide barriers to learning as they move through education. Assessment for Learning, an emphasis on investigation, problem-solving, the development of mathematical thinking and development of teacher subject knowledge are therefore essential components of the St Stephen’s approach to this subject.

Our aims are :
To foster a positive attitude to mathematics as an interesting and attractive part of the curriculum.
To develop the ability to think clearly and logically, with confidence, flexibility and independence of thought.
To develop a deeper understanding of mathematics through a process of enquiry and investigation.
To develop an understanding of the connectivity of patterns and relationships within mathematics.
To develop the ability to apply knowledge, skills and ideas in real life contexts outside the classroom, and become aware of the uses of mathematics in the wider world.
To develop the ability to use mathematics as a means of communicating ideas.
To develop an ability and inclination to work both alone and cooperatively to solve mathematical problems.
To develop personal qualities such as perseverance, independent thinking, cooperation and self-confidence through a sense of achievement and success.
To develop an appreciation of the creative aspects of mathematics and an awareness of its aesthetic appeal.

Implement

The school uses a variety of teaching and learning styles in mathematics during each lesson. The pupils are taught in class groups and seated in mixed ability groups as we believe that all pupils can attain highly in mathematics and every pupil will have different strengths and development areas. Therefore groupings within classes are flexible and pupils will work in different groups dependent on their need. The large majority of pupils progress through the curriculum content at the same pace. Differentiation is achieved by emphasising deep knowledge and through individual support and intervention. The questioning and scaffolding individual pupils receive in class as they work through problems will differ and pupils who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through more demanding problems which deepen their knowledge further. Practise and consolidation play a central role to mathematics learning. Carefully designed variation within this builds fluency and understanding of underlying mathematical concepts in tandem. Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual and procedural knowledge, and assess pupils regularly to identify those requiring intervention so that all pupils keep up. Teachers ensure that concepts are modelled to pupils using multiple representations. This ensures that procedural and conceptual understanding are developed simultaneously.

Impact

The children should

have a well-developed sense of the size of a number and where it fits into the number system
(place value)
• know by heart number facts such as number bonds, multiplication tables, doubles and halves
• use what they know by heart to figure out numbers mentally
• calculate accurately and efficiently, both mentally and in writing and paper,
• drawing on a range of calculation strategies
• make sense of number problems, including non-routine/’real’ problems and identify the
operations needed to solve them and explain their methods and reasoning, using correct mathematical terms
• judge whether their answers are reasonable and have strategies for checking them where
necessary
• suggest suitable units for measuring and make sensible estimates of measurements
• explain and make predictions from the numbers in graphs, diagrams, charts and tables
• develop spatial awareness and an understanding of the properties of 2D and 3D shapes
To provide adequate time for developing mathematics, maths is taught daily and discretely.
However, application of skills are linked across the curriculum where appropriate.

Equality and diversity

At St Stephen's, we are committed to providing a teaching environment which ensures all children are provided with the same learning opportunities regardless of social class, gender, culture, race, special educational need or disability. Teachers use a range of strategies to ensure inclusion and also to maintain a positive ethos where children demonstrate positive attitudes towards others. Support for specific individuals is well considered and planned for, to ensure that tasks provide learners with an appropriate level of challenge. At St Stephen's we celebrate diversity within the maths curriculum. This creates a learning environment which is safe, supportive and purposeful for all students and staff which, in turn, allows all our pupils to grow — academically and socially.

We aim to:

Use students’ interest in contextualized tasks
Expose students to a diverse group of mathematicians
Design work and assessments with a variety of response types
Use a variety of resources

Access and inclusion

Taking a mastery approach, differentiation occurs in the support and intervention provided to different pupils, not in the topics taught, particularly at earlier stages. There is often no differentiation in content taught, but the questioning and scaffolding individual pupils receive in class as they work through problems will differ, with higher attainers challenged through more demanding problems which deepen their knowledge of the same content. Pupils’ difficulties and misconceptions are identified through immediate formative assessment and addressed with rapid intervention – commonly through individual or small group support. If a pupil is substantially behind the expected standard the curriculum will be altered to meet the needs of the pupil.

Deepening spirituality

Spirituality is important to us at St Stephen's as we aim to implement our school values when learning mathematics by showing perseverance, determination, ambition and inclusion throughout our lessons. We use a variety of resources to enable pupils to understand the world they live in and to reflect on their own identity as well as that of others. A sense of awe and wonder is developed through study of the subject and a celebration for that which enriches the world for all. We encourage our pupils to believe that they can change the world for the better after continuing to acquire knowledge from this curriculum subject.

Assessment

Formative Assessment (AfL) - (monitoring children’s learning)
Assessment is an integral and continuous part of the teaching and learning process at St Stephen's and much of it is done informally as part of each teacher’s day to day work. Teachers integrate the use of formative assessment strategies such as: effective questioning, clear learning objectives, the use of success criteria, effective feedback and response in their teaching and marking and observing children participating in activities. Findings from these types of assessment are used to inform future planning.

Summative Assessment – (evaluating children’s learning)
More formal methods are used to determine the achievement of children at various times during the school year:

We use KPIs in the front of the children’s maths books and frequent assessments as a way of recording children’s progress in objectives covered across a specific term. This information is then moderated and used, to input data on the Lancashire Tracker available to teachers.

Standardised Testing: Standardised tests are used once a year, towards the end of the year. They allow the school to measure each child’s attainment in all areas of mathematics, and compare this with an “average” for children of that age. The results are used to monitor individual progress year on year and to identify those children who have Special Needs in mathematics. Half-termly assessments can also be used throughout the year to aid planning.

Statutory End of Key Stage Assessment

The National Curriculum requires that each child is assessed in Mathematics. This is to be completed at the end of Key stage One and Key Stage Two.

In Year 4 the children take the Year 4 multiplication Check in the summer term.

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