Maths

Intent

At St Richard’s we aim to create a curiosity in our children, through our creative and rich maths curriculum, enabling them to become competent and independent mathematicians.  Mathematics is an essential part of a balanced curriculum and we follow a 'mastery approach' to teaching mathematics; an inclusive method based on our firm belief  that all our children can achieve.

 We intend for all children to build a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts, which provides a strong foundation for the fundamental skills needed to solve the problems found in everyday life. Mathematics is taught through three key areas of mastery; varied fluency, mathematical reasoning and problem solving. In doing so we aim for our children to build resilience, develop a greater sense of number, confidently articulate their thinking and connect maths to the real world.

Implementation

We follow the White Rose Maths scheme of learning to ensure full curriculum coverage. Within this scheme, each National Curriculum objective is broken down into fluency, reasoning and problem solving and our teaching staff use mathematical challenges to teach for mastery – an approach that can extend and deepen the understanding of pupils within each year group.

 Carefully shaped lessons and meaningful resources that secure fundamental maths skills and stimulate deep conceptual and procedural knowledge underpin our maths curriculum. At St Richard’s, we value the importance of arithmetic and children are taught daily sessions to reinforce key skills and improve fluency. We ensure lesson objectives are shared in small steps and children are sufficiently challenged through a range of other resources.

 Attainment and progress are assessed against the small steps within the scheme and our progression of skills. This is done through teacher assessment and student voice against each lesson's objective, end of block and termly White Rose assessments, as well as end of the year assessments (SATS for Year 2 and Year 6, Quest assessments for Years 3, 4 and 5). Resources from NCETM provide further challenge and assessment of mastery and mastery at greater depth.

 In 2024, we introduced Mastery in number for EYFS and KS1, further embedding deep conceptual understanding of fluency and number sense, developing strong foundations in early subitising, addition and subtraction.

Impact

The learning in mathematics ensures children understand how number is essential to everyday life and to provide the children with memorable experiences that enables a passion for the subject – children at our school are keen to talk about their work and their love of maths is reflected in the high quality work they produce.  From the very start, we help the children to grow as curious mathematicians to ensure they make progress to meeting their Early Learning Goals. We continue to improve overtime by ensuring positive outcomes for all year groups allowing children to progress well- encouraging a commitment to life-long learning.  

 The children at our school are guided on a learning journey that ensures they are ready for their next steps at secondary school with the skills needed to be happy, articulate and confident mathematicians.