Mathematics

Aims of our Maths curriculum

With the introduction of curriculum 2014 we, at St Finbar’s, have made the transition in teaching methods to what is termed ‘Mastery Teaching’. This style of teaching has revolutionised the way in which maths is taught, learnt and viewed by all in the school. Since their introduction in Summer 2017, everyone is beginning to believe maths is a subject that they can achieve in and many children are being challenged to explore concepts in more depth.

We aim to provide a high-quality mathematics education with a mastery approach so that all children:

• become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics;
• reason mathematically;
• can solve problems by applying their mathematics.

We incorporate sustained levels of challenge through varied and high quality activities with a focus on fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Children are required to explore maths in depth, using mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain their workings. A rang of mathematical resources are used and pupils taught to show their workings in a concrete fashion, before establishing ways of pictorially and formally representing their understanding. They are taught to explain their choice of methods and develop their mathematical reasoning skills. We encourage resilience and acceptance that struggle is often a necessary step in learning.

How Maths is organised in our school

What we hope is achieved

In St. Finbar’s, we believe that mathematics is a tool for life. It is an essential life skill that is used throughout our daily lives, but is also a powerful tool that can help us to understand and change the world. We aim to ensure that every child leaves school with high standards of numeracy as well as literacy, so that they have the best chance of succeeding in the modern world. Throughout our school community, we strive to promote a philosophy of ‘Numeracy for Life’ through our mathematical teaching and learning, giving pupils opportunities to solve problems and reason mathematically in real-life contexts, and making enriching mathematical links between all areas of the curriculum, future career choices, and real life events and situations.

We aim to ensure that all pupils:

‐ become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems

‐ reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language

‐ can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions

In our teaching of mathematics at St Finbar’s, we aim to:

· Inculcate an enjoyment and love of maths.

· Promote a philosophy of ‘Numeracy for Life’ through our mathematical teaching and learning.

· Enable pupils to have opportunities for mathematical thinking and discussion.

· Provide opportunities for pupils to demonstrate and use their mathematics.

· Provide a role-model by using maths for practical purposes, and organisational and administrative tasks.

· Give pupils opportunities to use maths in everyday situations and a problem-solving context.

· Help pupils to understand that mathematics is a powerful tool for communication.

· Instil confidence in using mathematics.

· Help pupils recognise that mathematics is a search for pattern and relationship.

· Instil a fascination for mathematics and the manipulation of numbers.

· Encourage pupils to take responsibility for their own learning.

Documents

National Curriculum Mathematics

Maths Curriculum Overview

Fun Maths Games to do for Free at Home