Mathematics at Spring Bank Primary School

At Spring Bank, our intent for mathematics is to teach a rich, balanced and progressive curriculum using maths to reason, problem solve and develop fluent conceptual understanding in each area. At Spring Bank, we are committed to ensuring that all children enjoy and develop a positive attitude to mathematics by providing a secure and deep understanding of fundamental mathematical concepts and procedures by the time they leave us to go to secondary school. We want children to see the mathematics that surrounds them every day and enjoy developing vital life skills in this subject.

We are committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of Maths in the wider world and that they are also able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in their lives in a range of different contexts.

We want all children to enjoy Mathematics and to experience success in the subject, with the ability to reason mathematically.

We are committed to developing children’s curiosity about the subject, as well as an appreciation of the beauty and power of Mathematics.

Aims of the curriculum:

The National Curriculum for mathematics aims 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 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.

At Spring Bank we:

• Promote positive attitudes to learning new skills and concepts as well as extending and consolidating skills already acquired.
• Encourage children to communicate their ideas accurately with enthusiasm and confidence in a nurturing environment.
• Develop the use of mathematical vocabulary to embed, enhance and extend knowledge and learning.
• Use mental strategies as an inherent part of mathematics throughout the school, demonstrating their mental agility at all levels of competency.
• Provide opportunities for problem solving within a meaningful context at all levels. 
• Emphasise the ability to work independently or cooperatively in sharing ideas and expertise with peers. Paired and small group work is an integral part of the children’s learning throughout the school.
• Promote mathematics as a useful tool throughout the whole curriculum.

Teaching and Learning: The Mastery Approach

In September 2018, Spring Bank started its journey towards a mastery approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics.

The rationale behind changing our approach arose from our involvement in the West Yorkshire Maths Hub, the Teaching for Mastery Programme and our belief in the philosophy that all children can achieve the aims of the National Curriculum (NC) within their year group.

Our teaching for mastery is underpinned by the NCETM’s 5 Big Ideas:

Mathematical Thinking is central to the deep and sustainable learning of maths; it involves:

• Looking for pattern to discern structure.
• Looking for relationships and connecting ideas.
• Reasoning logically, explaining, conjecturing, and proving.

Representation and Structure ensures concepts are explored using concrete, pictorial and abstract representations, they are designed to clearly show the concept being taught, and in particular the key difficulty point, exposing the structure of the Maths.

The principle of Coherence means that lessons are broken down into small, connected steps that gradually unfold the concept, providing access for all children and leading to a generalisation of the concept and the ability to apply the concept to a range of contexts.

Variation is both conceptual and procedural, this allows the children to understand how maths is connected and applied.

Fluency is about developing number sense and being able to the most appropriate method for the task at hand; to be able to apply a skill to multiple contexts.

Although the starting point is always the National Curriculum, at Spring Bank we use the White Rose Maths Hub (WRMH) materials to plan our learning for EYFS, Key Stages One and Two. This links to the core principles of the Mathematics curriculum and the skills are built upon year by year.

The WRMH Schemes of Learning (SOL) are created around the idea that the children begin learning in the concrete (using manipulatives like counters, Numicon, base 10), use them to then draw pictorial representations (being able to draw a variety of models to support their calculations) and then on to the abstract (being able to use standard algorithms to record a calculation). This is the same for each year group.

WRMH SOLs have been modified by the class teacher, where necessary, to reflect the wider curriculum and/or the needs of individual classes.

In the Foundation Stage the learning is based on the revised EYFS framework thus ensuring that the children are working towards achieving the Early Learning Goal for development in mathematics. Teaching takes a mastery approach. Emphasis is placed on working practically (concrete) as well as orally. The learning environment, in general, also allows for children to make mathematical progress through play and independent enquiry. Towards the end of the Reception year mathematics lessons may become more formal to allow for a smooth transition into Year 1.

Please see the documents below for the overview of learning and our Calculation Policies.