Intent

At Roman Hill Primary School, we want children to enjoy grappling and exploring maths through a range of fluency, reasoning and problem-solving activities, all serving the end goal of creating enthusiastic, logic learners who love maths. Through the planned curriculum offer, we aim to give all children a diet of essential skills in fluency, broad challenge and reasoning problems that require thought and focus and problem-solving experiences which ignite curiosity and logic.   

The new National Curriculum states that: “Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.” 

At RHPS, we aim to equip the children of the school with the important building blocks in maths for them to build on in high school and further. We realise our children come into school from a range of backgrounds therefore focus is required on securing crucial number knowledge in EYFS. This is built on using concrete, pictorial and abstract approaches and manipulatives in KS1 then extended in KS2 into all areas of the national curriculum. By the time the children leave us, they should be competent in all areas of the curriculum. Our offer in maths encompasses SEN, SEMH and disability needs.  

Implementation:

Our scheme of work is based and adapted from White Rose. It is tailored slightly to reflect gaps in learning for the children in our demographic. Each area of learning is blocked however staff have the freedom and flexibility to move units if they feel it is necessary. Each year group is supported by a progression document which identifies the skills to be taught, the essential skills that underpin learning and how many times they should be covered across an academic year. These documents are used to inform weekly planning which is formally monitored termly for coverage. 

Our Mathematics curriculum is led and overseen by the Mathematics Subject Leader. A regular programme of monitoring, evaluation and staff support takes place along with the celebration and sharing of good practice. It is crucial for all staff working with pupils to have both good subject knowledge and good pedagogical knowledge in order to help pupils make the best progress possible. There is an ongoing commitment to evolve and improve the quality and impact of Mathematics on offer to all the children. The work of the subject leader involves supporting colleagues in their teaching, being informed about current developments in the subject, ensuring relevant high-quality CPD is provided and providing a strategic lead and direction for mathematics in the school through their development plan. 

The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress will always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly will be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material will consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on. We achieve this through a range of strategies, such as the use of differentiated challenges. 

Impact:

As a result of our maths teaching, children are engaged and enjoy mathematics. They see how their learning relates to previous learning and their own experiences. Learning is assessed, through summative and formative processes, and monitored to ensure that all pupils make good progress. By using the CPA approach pupils will demonstrate a good understanding of mathematical concepts. Children are confident using mathematical vocabulary to talk about their learning and can make links between topics.  

Children are summative assessed termly. These test results are used to inform planning with a question level analysis. In addition, teaching staff will assess children against the learning objective in every lesson. Children are discussed in depth at termly pupil progress meetings with the class teacher and subject leader and we make any changes to provision and/or intervene accordingly. We pass all assessment information on to the next teacher at the end of the year, so that s/he can plan for the next school year.