Intent

At St John Fisher Primary our aim is for all children to have an equal playing field in developing a passion for maths and to be the best they can be. Every effort is made so that children leave for Secondary School as fluent mathematicians; with an ability to reason and explain choices; to solve more complex problems and to achieve in maths. The school has a supportive ethos and our approaches support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others. We have an ambitious curriculum and have the highest expectations of our pupils, differentiation is achieved by emphasising deep knowledge and thorough individual support and intervention. Practice and consolidation play a central role. Carefully designed variation within this, builds fluency and understanding of underlying mathematical concepts.

Teaching is underpinned by a CPA approach and we use the Power Maths scheme and resources to support our children to foster deep conceptual and procedural knowledge. The use of Knowledge Organisers supports our children as they meet new mathematical concepts and this new learning is then embedded at home through home learning/knowledge organiser tasks.

Mathematical topics are taught in blocks, to enable the achievement of ‘mastery’ over time. Each lesson provides the means to achieve greater depth, with more able children being offered rich and sophisticated problems, as well as exploratory, investigative tasks, within the lesson as appropriate.

Children can underperform in Mathematics because they think they can’t do it or are not naturally good at it.  We are committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of Maths in the wider world and that they are also able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in their lives in a range of different contexts. We want all children to enjoy Mathematics and to experience success in the subject, with the ability to reason mathematically and feel confident in their abilities. We are committed to developing children’s curiosity about the subject, as well as an appreciation of the beauty and power of Mathematics.

Aims of our numeracy curriculum

• For all pupils to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
• For all pupils to be able to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language

For all pupils to be able to 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.