At Holy Trinity & S. Silas, it is our intention that our pupils develop into confident, resilient and creative mathematicians. Fluent recall of key number facts is vital, but we also encourage children to apply this knowledge creatively to solve mathematical problems, challenging them to explain their reasoning. It is our intention that HTSS children:

  • Enjoy maths
  • Leave feeling confident in key knowledge and skills
  • Have fluent recall of key number facts
  • Apply their knowledge creatively to solve mathematical problems
  • Feel able to explain their mathematical reasoning
  • Feel confident asking and investigating mathematical questions

Our maths curriculum supports the development in our children of our school 3Cs of care, courage and cooperation:

Care:

  • Take risks in maths, showing care to themselves if they make mistakes and an understanding that that is how they learn (growth mindset).
  • Respect each other’s ideas and support each other to work together.
  • Develop an understanding of civic care and responsibility, recognising that mathematical literacy (being able to interpret data, statistics, and financial information) is vital for making informed, responsible decisions in adulthood.
  • Appreciate the value of using concrete equipment and resources across key stages, encouraging independence and an awareness and understanding for those who work in different ways.
  • Use maths to show care for the world around them, making links between their learning, real life, and the wider community.

Courage:

  • Be curious about mathematical ideas and problems, ask their own questions and pursue their own ideas.
  • Take risks within their own learning, having the courage to learn from mistakes and to ask for help if needed.
  • Be confident in communicating mathematical thinking with others, having the courage to use and apply precise mathematical vocabulary.
  • Be confident in communicating their mathematical understanding in a range of ways, including concrete representations, pictorial representations and more abstract calculations.
  • Have the courage to challenge ideas, spot patterns and make generalisations.
  • Show courage in self-reflection by analysing their own work, reflecting upon mistakes or misconceptions and learning how to improve their reasoning.
  • Try a range of strategies to help solve problems, persisting if first attempts fail.
  • Recognise and discuss how their new learning builds upon their prior learning, noticing connections between current and prior maths learning.

Cooperation:

  • Cooperate by listening carefully and actively building upon other people’s mathematical ideas to reach solutions.
  • Share their ideas with each other and understand the importance of this in developing and strengthening ideas.
  • Share their mathematical thinking with one another (including mistakes) and understand that it helps improve our collective understanding of mathematics.
  • Actively cooperate in group problem-solving tasks by taking on different roles.
  • Develop fluency through the collective practice of the fast and accurate recall of number facts through sentence stems, choral chanting, singing, memorisation games and repetition.

Implementation:

In Reception, we follow the Mastering Number programme, designed by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics. This focuses in depth on the foundational knowledge that children need to secure by the end of Reception, such as a deep understanding of numbers to ten – how they can be represented and ordered, and how they are related to each other through addition and subtraction. You can find out more about Mastering Number in Reception here: https://vimeo.com/700756760

In Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, we follow the schemes of work designed by White Rose Maths. These carefully designed schemes of learning ensure that children build up their mathematical understanding step-by-step, with frequent reminders of prior learning giving children a firm foundation on which they can build more complex mathematical thinking. Using the same schemes and workbooks throughout KS1 and KS2 ensures that children are consistently seeing and using the same diagrams and models of mathematical concepts. Our children explore mathematical ideas using physical resources and pictorial representations before finally moving to the abstract (such as written equations).

To see an overview of our maths curriculum for each year group, including videos to give you a flavour of how maths is taught, please go to the White Rose website. Click here for Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6.

To see how we represent calculations, you can look at the addition/subtraction calculation policy here and the multiplication/division calculation policy here.

If you would like some ideas of high-quality maths games, activities and challenges for children to try at home, explore the excellent Nrich website at https://nrich.maths.org/parents/primary

For additional information about our maths curriculum, you are welcome to come in and arrange a meeting with your child’s class teacher or speak to our maths lead, Mr Martisius.