Maths and Numeracy
The National Curriculum states that:
“A high-quality mathematics education…provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.”
At Blue Gate Fields Junior School, our overarching vision is for our pupils to be equipped with the skills, knowledge and language to successfully meet the demands of the curriculum, whilst enjoying the learning and recognising the relevance and usefulness of mathematics in the wider world. By providing our children with a conceptual understanding of mathematics, we will support their ability to reason, problem solve and tackle challenge. We want to inspire our children and promote mathematical curiosity that will equip them with the life skills needed to grasp future opportunities.
Our aims:
- To deliver a distinctive small step, strategy focused curriculum to embed concepts and allow children to hold onto their learning.
- To support children in developing a deeper conceptual understanding of maths so that they can solve complex problems in unfamiliar contexts
- To provide all children with the vocabulary and language needed to reason with mathematics and articulate their thoughts and ideas
- To encourage children’s independence by creating a safe and stimulating learning environment where mistakes are valued
- To support children in developing their growth mindsets so that they have the confidence to persevere and grapple when seeking solutions to challenging problems
- To inspire and promote mathematical curiosity and a love for learning
- To develop a reasoning based curriculum, rather than a calculating curriculum, which lead to reasoning mindsets rather than calculating mindsets in our children.
We teach a curriculum that follows high quality, adaptable planning that supports excellent teaching and learning. Our intent is to develop a reasoning based mathematics curriculum, rather than a calculating curriculum, which will lead to reasoning mindsets rather than calculating mindsets in our pupils.
We have high expectations of success (driven by growth mindsets), use hands-on resources and keep talk central to our pedagogy. Our curriculum is a mastery curriculum.
We teach using a concrete, pictorial, abstract approach which builds firm foundations and cautions against accelerating into content beyond age related expectations. Pupils are encouraged to work towards greater depth understanding within the expectations. The matrix shown within our policy demonstrates how pedagogical intervention is required to teach maths effectively and for children to acquire the necessary skills, concepts and reasoning abilities.
Our pupils are taught to pattern sniff, describe, visualise, conjecture, tinker with ideas, experiment, invent and generalise. We want them to ask, ‘What if…?’ They will experience a mathematics curriculum that will equip them with the life skills needed to grasp future opportunities.
The White Rose online planning, materials and resources support the planning of a mastery curriculum. In addition, materials from Nrich are used by more experienced staff members to enhance the core planning.
