Maths

Rationale 

At Pensby Primary School, it is our aim to promote and develop an enjoyment and enthusiasm of maths so that our children develop positive attitudes towards maths. We strive to help pupils become mathematicians by developing their problem solving and reasoning skills so that they can apply their independent thinking and questioning across the curriculum; recognising that maths is essential to their everyday and future life.

We recognise that fluency must come first in the teaching of maths and have priortised fluency across all key stages. Through our work with the Maths Hub and Blackpool Research School’s Adapt Maths project, we know that children who have secure and automatic recall of number facts are better able to reason mathematically, solve problems and tackle more complex concepts because their working memory is not overloaded by basic calculations. Fluency is therefore much more than speed; it is the ability to recall, apply and manipulate mathematical knowledge efficiently and accurately. Therefore, strong number sense is priortitised as an additional element of our maths curriculum, providing daily opportunities for children to explore number relationships, patterns and structures so that children see connections between numbers and calculations. By securing fluency from the earliest stages of learning, children develop confidence, resilience and independence as mathematicians. This deep understanding allows them to access more challenging mathematical concepts and apply their knowledge successfully across the curriculum and in real-life situations. We therefore place a strong emphasis on developing automaticity, number sense and conceptual understanding alongside reasoning and problem-solving, ensuring that all children have the foundations needed to become successful mathematicians.

In EYFS and Key Stage One we use Mastering Number alongside Power maths and this approach aims to secure the development of good number sense for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.  We work with the children to develop fluency in calculation and build confidence with number. Attention will be given to key knowledge and understanding needed in Reception classes, and progression through KS1 to support success in the future.

Our curriculum ensures that mastery approaches are evident throughout all of our teaching sequences, enabling our children to use and apply their existing knowledge and allowing them to move confidently and fluently between different representations of mathematical ideas. We follow the mastery curriculum designed by Power Maths, linked specifically to White Rose. Built around a child‑centred lesson design that models and embeds a growth mindset approach to maths, our maths lessons focus on helping all children to build and understand maths concepts. Our lessons are structured to spark curiosity and excitement and nurture greater confidence in maths and problem solving through the ‘I do, we do, you do’ approach. This approach allows our children to explore and investigate and independently apply their practice in a range of problems.

We use Learning by Questions (LbQ) in Key Stage Two as an additional element to our maths curriculum, interactively developing skills in varied fluency, reasoning and problem solving and allowing teachers to identify gaps in knowledge quickly and efficiently through the use of immediate feedback and assessment. The use of LbQ supports Pensby Primary’s whole school approach to the teaching of maths in using live data as a means of enhancing the assessment for learning element of the Power Maths curriculum.

Pensby Primary’s approach to maths ensures that we are able to meet the needs and range of abilities of all children through a focus on targeted teaching and intervention. Decisions about when to progress are always based on the security of the children’s understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Fluency, reasoning and problem solving are developed through a well organised curriculum that allows children to contextualise maths, encouraging them not to see mathematical skills in isolation so that they develop an interest and engagement in maths as they progress into the next key stage.