Intent:

At St Mark’s, our Mathematics mastery curriculum strives to enable children to aspire to achieve excellence.  Mathematics teaches us how to make sense of the wider world through an ability to calculate, to reason and to problem-solve. By developing children’s resilience in these areas, we endeavour to develop a positive attitude towards the subject and one where children have the ambition to use their knowledge in new and unfamiliar situations.

Our aim is that children will:

• Be fluent in their recall of number facts and the number system.
• Calculate accurately both mentally and using written methods.
• Apply their knowledge when reasoning mathematically.
• To have the resilience to solve problems.
• Make accurate use of a wide range of mathematical vocabulary.
• Be comfortable in celebrating mistakes and learning from them.
• Have an enjoyment of Maths to inspire a lifetime of learning.

Implementation:

Our Mathematics curriculum has been designed for children to progress in their understanding in small steps. Children will master concepts at their own level of understanding and pace. Those who grasp concepts quickly will move on to secure and deepen their understanding sooner whilst children who are not sufficiently fluent yet consolidate their understanding with additional practise and support. Repetition and revisiting of concepts previously addressed is a key focus when seeking to achieve effective retrieval of knowledge.

Each lesson follows our three stages:

Try it – where children practise their understanding of the concept.

Secure it – where questions challenge how embedded the concept is, both in familiar and unfamiliar contexts. Addressing and identifying misconceptions are a key component of these activities.

Deepen it – where understanding of the concept is applied through problem solving.

At St Mark’s our curriculum largely follows the White Rose scheme of learning however we seek to expose children to a wide variety of rich materials including Nrich, I See Reasoning and CanDoMaths. Our Calculation Policy enforces progression in written calculations which follow a concrete, pictorial, abstract approach. A bank of resources is available in every classroom which are utilised by both children and teachers alike. Working walls also form a source of guidance reflecting the learning journey for the current mathematical strand that is in focus, relevant vocabulary and a celebration of misconceptions. Feedback is provided to children at the point of learning so that any misconceptions can be addressed before moving on to the next stage of learning. For those children who find maths challenging, resilience will be sought from appropriate interventions and relationships developed with supporting adults to secure progress in an environment of celebrating success.

Times Tables Rock Stars

Times Tables Rock Stars is an online game where the children can take part in answering recall questions either individually or against their friends in an engaging way. This can be accessed on tablets or laptops.

Each week, Times Tables Rock Stars will be set according to the times table that is being learnt for their homework. Although it is not compulsory for your child to use Times Tables Rock Stars, we hope that it will provide a fun way of improving their speed of recall should they wish to.

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