Infant School Maths Curriculum

Our Number Journey at St Mary's Infant School

Vision

At Prestbury St Mary’s Infant School, we foster positive attitudes, believe all children can achieve in mathematics, and use a Teaching for Mastery approach to ensure that pupils have a deep and secure understanding of the concepts that they are taught. We use mistakes and misconceptions as an essential part of learning and provide challenge through rich and sophisticated problems before acceleration through new content.

Underlying this approach is the belief that all children should work together to become fluent mathematicians who are able to reason and solve a variety of problems by applying what they have learned in a range of contexts. It is intended that all children, regardless of their starting point, will maximise their academic achievement and leave Prestbury St Mary’s with an appreciation and enthusiasm for Maths, resulting in a lifelong positive relationship with number. This would begin in EYFS through Mathematics and Communication and Language and continue through Key Stage One.

Curriculum Intent

 We aim for all pupils to:

· Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics so that they develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.

· Have an appreciation of number and number operations, which enables mental calculations and written procedures to be performed efficiently, fluently and accurately.

· Solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including in unfamiliar contexts and to model real-life scenarios.

· Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry and develop and present a justification, argument or proof using mathematical language.

 Curriculum Implementation

Maths work is delivered through whole class lessons which are carefully planned to help develop children’s mathematical understanding, following the White Rose Hub scheme which supports the 2014 National Curriculum. Key concepts are broken into small steps to ensure all children are able to access the learning. Conceptual understanding is developed through concrete and pictorial representations, before more abstract methods are introduced (see Calculation Policy), and children are given opportunities to explain their reasoning as part of our daily Maths lessons. This enables children to gain a deep understanding of a mathematical concept so that the learning is sustainable over time and it allows children to build upon prior knowledge whilst always striving to consolidate key skills that they have already learned. In addition to daily Mathematics lessons, children also receive regular fluency sessions or ‘Maths Meetings.’ These sessions provide an opportunity for practising key number and arithmetic skills. The sessions are taught and focused, encouraging children to make connections, see patterns, build their arithmetical fluency and work together to explore mathematical ideas.

Children are supported through specific planned interventions and are challenged by being exposed to a variety of rich and sophisticated problems.

EYFS

The early teaching of mathematics involves providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems, and describing shapes, spaces, and measures. As with Key Stage One, EYFS practitioners follow the White Rose Scheme for planning and delivering work. Lessons are introduced with the whole class, where methods are modelled practically and pictorially before children are invited to work and play in carefully designed provision activities. Practitioners then work with small groups or individuals on the skills that have been taught. Throughout the year, fluency sessions are gradually built in to the weekly timetable, so that children have regular opportunities to consolidate their understanding and master the maths curriculum. By the end of the year there are opportunities for children to increase their independence in recording their work as appropriate to ensure they are well prepared for the move to Year 1.

Assessment and feedback

Assessment informs the teaching and learning sequence. Children who not making the required progress are given extra support through interventions and support in class in order to meet our aim of supporting pupils in the bottom 20% of our cohorts. Feedback is given on children’s learning in line with our marking and feedback policy. Formative assessment within every lesson helps teachers to identify the children who need more support to achieve the intended outcome and who are ready for greater stretch and challenge through planned questioning or deepen it activities.  In order to support teacher judgments, children are assessed using current and reliable tests in line with the national curriculum for Maths. Analysis of any tests that the children complete is undertaken and fed into future planning, with interventions planned for those pupils identified as needing additional support. Summative assessments are completed at the end of the academic year and help influence the overall judgement reported to parents in the end of year report.

Homework

Although the central foundation of pupils’ learning takes place at school, we recognise that this learning is greatly improved when children are given help and encouragement at home. Children are given weekly homework that is based entirely on the small steps that have been covered in daily lessons that week. The concepts and key methods/ vocabulary that have been used in school are communicated to parents in the introduction of the homework task, so that pupils are able to work with consistency and increasing fluency on the maths objectives. The homework is tailored to suit a range of pupil needs, with ‘Do It, Twist It and Deepen It’ tasks that increase in difficulty, so that the work mirrors the Teaching for Mastery approach that is used in school.

Curriculum Impact

As a result of the mathematics planning and teaching at Prestbury St Mary’s, we aim for pupils to demonstrate confidence and engagement in their learning due to all being challenged at a level that is appropriate for their needs.

Lessons use a variety of concrete, pictorial and abstract methods (in-line with the calculation policy) to support learning, and attainment is tracked and monitored to ensure all children make good progress.

At Prestbury, a mathematical concept or skill has been mastered when a child can show it in multiple ways, using mathematical language to explain their ideas, and they can independently apply the concept to new problems in unfamiliar situations.

Children should be able to demonstrate quick recall of facts and procedures and have the fluidity to move between different contexts and representations of mathematics, while making connections. Children at Prestbury show confidence in believing that they will achieve, and they show a high level of pride in the presentation and understanding of their work.