Mathematics

Intent - What Do We Aspire for Our Children?

Our Curriculum Intent for Mathematics

At Cuddington, all children are entitled to access all aspects of the curriculum, enabling them to achieve confidence and competence in mathematics. The fundamental idea is that all children develop a deep understanding of the mathematics they are learning. This is central to the planning and provision of mathematics at Cuddington. Learning is carefully sequenced, taking into account what has been taught before, and what knowledge and skills are needed for the next stage of our children’s mathematical development. Mathematics is purposefully planned to be taught explicitly across the wider curriculum in subjects such as (but not limited to) science, history and geography. 

Three key aims rest at the heart of our mathematics curriculum:

1. For children to be fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics,

2. For children to reason mathematically, 

3. For children to solve routine and non-routine problems with increasing independence. 

By achieving these aims, our children will leave Year 6 as knowledgeable, skilful and confident mathematicians ready for the next phase of their learning. 

Implementation - How Will We Deliver the Curriculum?

The majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace.... Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on (NC, 2014, p.3).

Key Features of Our Approach:

• The large majority of pupils progress through the curriculum content at the same pace. 

• Teachers reinforce an expectation that all pupils are capable of achieving high standards in mathematics. 

• Pupils are taught through whole-class teaching, where the focus is on all pupils working together on the same lesson content at the same time. 

• Teaching is underpinned by a small-steps curriculum design philosophy and supported by carefully crafted lessons and curated resources to foster deep conceptual and procedural knowledge. 

• Differentiation is achieved by emphasising deep knowledge and/or through individual support and intervention. 

• If a pupil fails to grasp a concept or procedure, this is identified within the lesson structure and timely intervention ensures the pupil is best placed to move forward. 

• Key facts such as multiplication tables and addition facts within 10 are retained throuh retrieval practice to develop automaticity; this avoids cognitive overload in the working memory and enables pupils to focus on new concepts.

High Quality Resources

 White Rose premium resoucres are used to support the implementation of our curriculum. However, to ensure that children have an enriching mathematics curriculum, teachers carefully select other resources to support their teaching. Through the use of these we ensure:

• Teachers introduce new concepts in a logical sequence.

• Concepts are taught through high quality mathematical models and images.

• Mathematical models are consistently used through school.

• Teachers are supported with their subject knowledge.

• Our calculations policy is consistently applied.

Linking Curriculum and Pedagogy

We have a researched informed approach to teaching mathematics and our curriculum is implemented through a mastery approach to teaching mathematics. Therefore, our school has adopted a lesson design philosophy that links closely to Rosenshine's 'Principles of Instruction.' At the foot of the page is a document outlining each part of a lesson and how it links to research informed practice. A large emphasis of our teaching and curriculum design is centred around ensuring children retain the concepts they have been taught. One of the ways we do this is by providing opportunities for daily retrieval practice. This is done through frequent, short burst, low stakes testing such as the White Rose 'Flashback 4' quizzes. These quizzes recap learning from the previous lesson, previous week, last term, and preceding year. 

Impact - How Do We Know Our Mathematics Curriculum is Effective?

Pupil Voice

Each term, the views of children from across the school are sought to assess our children's enjoyment of mathematics. Pupil voice has been a significant factor in the policy choices our staff have made. For example, pupils from Key Stage 2 explained that they liked having lessons structured in a way that they gradually became increasingly independent. This then became part of our whole staff professional development cycle.

Assessment

 Through daily recapping, teachers are always formatively assessing children, enabling teachers to be responsive to our children's needs. Furthermore, our lesson design structure is shaped in a way that ensures misconceptions are identified during the lesson and immediately addressed at the point of learning. 

In December and June, each child from Y2,3,4,5 and 6 take NTS standardised tests (December) with National tests for Y2 and Y6 in May and Y3,4 and 5 taking Summer Term NTS standardised tests.

For further information regarding the mathematics curriculum, please contact Mr Hutchinson: hutchinson@cuddington.cheshire.sch.uk

Mathematics in the Early Years 

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