St Benedict's
Maths
Intent
Our aim is for all children to think mathematically, enabling them to reason, solve problems and assess risk in a range of contexts. We aim to foster positive attitudes, fascination and excitement of discovery through the teaching and learning of mathematical concepts. We ensure pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, developing conceptual knowledge and an ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. Children at St Benedict’s develop a ‘can do’ attitude and perceive themselves as mathematicians. We broaden children’s knowledge and understanding of how mathematics is used in the wider world.
Implementation
As a school, we follow the blocking sequence from the White Rose Maths Hub, to build children’s depth of understanding when teaching each mathematical skill. Our mathematics curriculum offers a broad range of experiences designed to provide pupils with the mathematical understanding, skills and knowledge needed to deal with everyday situations, learning in other areas of the curriculum and investigations within mathematics itself. Through the mathematics curriculum, we will encourage and develop a mastery level of skills in mental calculation concepts, develop and reinforce problem-solving strategies, develop and maintain speed of recall and introduce, practice and understand a range of mathematics vocabulary. At mastery level there are fewer topics and each topic is taught in a greater depth, place value comes first, we focus on mathematical thinking and language, we use resources to support, problem solving is central and children calculate with confidence.
Impact
At mastery level a pupil really understands a mathematical concept, idea or technique if he or she can describe it in his or her own words, explain it to someone else, represent it in a variety of ways (e.g. using concrete materials, pictures and symbols – the Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract approach), make up his or her own examples, see connections between it and other facts or ideas, recognise it in new situations and contexts and make use of it in various ways, including in new situations
