Mathematics

Intent

Our maths curriculum nurtures a love for maths through mastering number fluency and providing children with skills to become confident at problem solving while exploring links to the world around us. At Green Street Green we recognise that mathematics is essential to everyday life, crucial to science, technology and engineering and necessary in most forms of employment. Therefore, we provide a high quality education that promotes a foundation for understanding the world, ability to reason mathematically and a sense of passion and curiosity about the subject. Pupils at Green Street Green are curious about mathematics, allowing them to seek out connections between concepts and demonstrate their ability to reason mathematically. We aspire for all of our children to foster an enthusiastic, resilient and independent approach to mathematical concepts drawing on their prior knowledge and developing the capability to apply their understanding to future problems.

Implementation

At Green Street Green we follow a Mastery approach in mathematics, to support children in achieving this we primarily use White Rose Maths. We believe that Mastery is not just being able to memorise key facts and procedures and to answer test questions accurately and quickly. Mastery involves knowing why and knowing how. It means being able to use one’s knowledge appropriately, flexibly and creatively and to apply it in new and unfamiliar situations. For all maths concepts our teachers ensure that children are “challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems.” After developing fluency, children need to show that they can apply their knowledge in mathematics and then move on even further to prove they have mastered the concept. Throughout the Years 1-6 we have developed and refined our curriculum to allow teachers and learners to achieve a secure and deep understanding of each Mathematical Concept. It is also designed to give our teachers the opportunity to address key points individually, ensuring that all children have a secure and deepened understanding of those points, before being provided with the opportunity to ‘go deeper’ within them. In Early Years and where appropriate in Year 1 the principles of the EYFS Framework will be followed, and there will be the opportunity to explore maths and develop their understanding of Mathematical concepts through play and carefully planned activities. Within our mathematics lessons, teachers consistently provide opportunities for children to explain or justify their mathematical reasoning using correct mathematical vocabulary.

Impact

We believe that using the correct mathematical language is vital for thinking, learning and life-long communication. We understand that knowing the correct mathematical terminology allows our children to extend and develop their reasoning skills as they explain and justify their thinking. It provides the opportunity to review existing knowledge; to explore new ideas and to extend their understanding. Teachers encourage the use of spoken language in all maths lessons as this allows both children and teachers to evaluate the learning, support others’ suggestions, challenge ideas, reason or justify and ask questions. Therefore, our teachers are relentless in ensuring that children not just learn and remember the correct vocabulary, but also to use these words regularly to communicate mathematically, this is supported by the use of stem sentences. Using mathematical vocabulary can help support all children to make links across areas of mathematics, across the curriculum as a whole and also within real-life situations. We firmly believe that a good understanding of mathematics vocabulary can support children, through enabling them to build confidence, communicate and problem solve, and is therefore a fundamental part of every mathematical learning opportunity.