Our ambition, at St Paul’s, is for our children to have a love of mathematics; creativity and the ability to reason and solve problems in mathematics and other subjects, as well as in ‘real life’.  We aim for our children to be strong communicators: proficiently using mathematical vocabulary both orally and in writing, and demonstrating the use of models and representations to support their reasoning. We strive for our children to be happy, confident, competent and independent learners - fluent mathematicians, who can recall and apply mathematical skills, knowledge and conceptual understanding in a range of contexts.

At St Paul’s, we acknowledge the importance of mathematics to our child’s future. The subject impacts everyday life, is fundamental to science, technology and engineering, essential for financial literacy and necessary for most forms of employment. We want every child to acquire basic mathematical concepts and computational skills and have the self-confidence and resilience to meet their full potential.

To ensure consistency and progression, we use White Rose Maths resources, which is a scheme in line with delivering a mastery approach. The scheme has been written to comprehensively deliver the National Curriculum for KS1 & KS2 mathematics, and to support every child's journey to develop deeper mathematical understanding through the careful sequencing of concepts, small step learning points and rehearsal in order for children to embed learning to their long term memory.

In Early Years and Nursery, continuous provision is carefully planned to ensure a variety of mathematical activities are available for children to access freely. These activities encourage the learning of maths in a child led environment, where teachers and teaching assistants model use questioning to encourage children to explore mathematical concepts. Mathematical language is modelled to children in order to encourage discussion during play and through the use of books and rhymes. In Reception, children are also taught in small groups each day, where the White Rose planning is used to support the Early Learning Goals, to ensure that children are given the opportunity to master the fundamental mathematical skills.

In KS1 and KS2, lessons give children ample opportunity to explore and embed their mathematical skills, using practical resources to support a concrete - pictorial - abstract (CPA) learning pathway. Where possible, new concepts are shared within the context of an initial related problem, which children are able to discuss. This initial problem-solving activity prompts discussion and reasoning, as well as promoting an awareness of maths in relatable real-life contexts that link to other areas of learning. As a result, all children are exposed to challenging questions which are modelled by the teacher. This allows children to be exposed to the process of reasoning and problem solving in a ‘safe’ environment, where staff explain their thinking and strategies used to solve problems.

During lessons, the large majority of children progress through the curriculum content at the same pace. Challenge and support for pupils is achieved by emphasising deep knowledge and through individual support and intervention  approach.   All lessons include a fluency activity to sustain prior learning, consolidate number facts and build confidence. New concepts are shared within the context of an initial problem, which children are able to discuss in partners. This initial problem-solving activity prompts discussion and reasoning, highlighting the significance and usefulness of mathematics in relatable real-life contexts which link to other areas of learning.

Careful questioning is used to develop pupils' ability to orally explain their thinking and reasoning, make links and use precise mathematical vocabulary. Teachers model strategies to solve problems using concrete resources, a variety of representations and abstract methods, and discuss strategies used by children as well as link new and prior learning.  Children then progress to their independent work, where each question varies one small element to move children on in their thinking. Children complete intelligent practice independently, including a challenge, and ending in a ‘reflect’ section which tests children’s depth of  understanding . For children who are quick to grasp new content, on offer are a range of problems including exploratory, investigative tasks, within the lesson as appropriate.   

As a result, our children will become fluent and confident mathematicians, who enjoy and are curious to learn more about the subject. They will be resilient, enthusiastic and competent mathematical problem solvers, able to apply their skills and knowledge within mathematics lessons, across the curriculum and in real life. Our children will have a positive ‘can do’ attitude towards mathematics and see mistakes as an opportunity to learn. The majority of children will consistently achieve age related expectations and above and will be well equipped and ready for the next stage of their learning journey.

If you would like to find out more about White Rose Maths and the 2019 Ofsted Framework, please click on the following link:   

https://whiteroseeducation.com/latest-news/wrm-curriculum-and-the-new-ofsted-framework

Year Group overviews can be found below:  

Calculation policies, which show the methodology and models used, can be found below:

The following documents show the content taught each week in each year group:

The following documents show how Power Maths is linked to the National Curriculum:

The following websites will help your child to practise a range of maths skills including counting, addition and subtraction, times tables, fractions, measuring, shapes, angles and telling the time. Please encourage your child to spend time on these sites: