Maths

Curriculum Intent

Mathematics introduces children to concepts, skills and thinking strategies that are essential in everyday life and support learning across the curriculum. It helps children make sense of the numbers, patterns and shapes they see in the world around them, offers ways of handling data in an increasingly digital world and makes a crucial contribution to their development as successful learners.

Children delight in using mathematics to solve a problem, especially when it leads them to an unexpected discovery or new connections. As their confidence grows, they look for patterns, use logical reasoning, suggest solutions and try out different approaches to problems. Mathematics stimulates curiosity, fosters creativity and equips children with the skills they need in life beyond school.

We aim for our children to:

•    Show mastery and greater depth skills.
•    Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non- routine problems.
•    Reason mathematically, seeing relationships and generalisations, applying strategies and using mathematical language.
•    Develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
•    Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time.
•    Have an understanding of the world, an ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the power of maths and an enjoyment and curiosity for the subject.
•    Be numerate in everyday life.

Maths also occurs in many cross-curricular ways. It can appear in a variety of lessons such as history, geography, art, computing and PE and we believe it is important for our children to see these links and the value of maths. We see maths essential to everyday life.

Curriculum Implementation

At Sandwich Infant School, children study mathematics daily following the Power Maths Scheme of Learning. This is a blocked scheme, which allows for depth and breadth of learning within each strand of mathematics. We also supplement using resources from White Rose.

Fluency, Reasoning and Problem Solving: Every learning session includes the opportunity to develop fluency skills, construct chains of reasoning using relevant knowledge alongside relevant terminology and solve increasingly complex problems in a systematic and coherent way.

Mathematical Vocabulary: Sessions include explicit reference to vital mathematical vocabulary and the use of stem sentences to support and encourage all children to communicate their ideas with mathematical precision and clarity. These sentence structures often express key conceptual ideas or generalities and provide a framework to embed conceptual knowledge and build understanding.

Recall is also supported throughout the school as we use various "flashback" technics to recap prior learning

EYFS

At Sandwich Infant School we understand the importance of early experiences of maths.

This approach places a significant emphasis on developing a strong grounding in number – understanding that this is a necessary building block for children to excel in the subject.

Mathematics Number

•    Have a deep understanding of number to 10, including the composition of each number.

•    Subitise (recognise quantities without counting) up to 5.

•    Automatically recall (without reference to rhymes, counting or other aids) number bonds up to 5 (including subtraction facts) and some number bonds to 10, including double facts.

Numerical Patterns

•    Verbally count beyond 20, recognising the pattern of the counting system.

•    Compare quantities up to 10 in different contexts, recognising when one quantity is greater than, less than or the same as the other quantity.

•    Explore and represent patterns within numbers up to 10, including evens and odds, double facts and how quantities can be distributed equally.

Curriculum Impact
At Sandwich Infant School, the expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. We aim for each child to be confident in each yearly objective and develop their ability to use this knowledge to develop a greater depth understanding to solve varied fluency problems as well as problem solving and reasoning questions.

However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on. Where necessary, earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.

Formative Assessment:
We assess our children’s mathematical ability and learning through formative assessment each session, where feedback is given either verbally or their books are marked to support the progress of our children.

Teachers then use their assessment to influence their planning. Children are rapidly identified as needing further challenge or additional support, and we ensure that this is provided in a timely manner.