Maths

Intent

At Christ Church Academy, our intent is to ensure that every child develops the mathematical knowledge, skills and confidence needed for future learning and life. We recognise maths as a vital subject that underpins critical thinking, problem solving and logical reasoning. Our aim is for all pupils to think mathematically, enabling them to question, explore, reason and make connections across different areas of the subject. Our inclusive approach ensures that every child, regardless of background or ability, is inspired to become a confident and resilient mathematician who can think deeply and make meaningful connections within and beyond the subject.

Implementation

As part of our mastery journey we have chosen to follow the White Rose Scheme to achieve a consistent coherent approach to teaching and learning (from Year R – 6). We teach the child, not just the curriculum, ensuring flexibility to adapt provision where necessary.

The curriculum is designed to build upon previous learning year-on-year (as a spiral curriculum) as well as revisiting prior learning to help retain knowledge. Maths is practised daily to ensure key mathematical concepts are embedded and children can recall this information to see the links between topics in maths.

In the Early Years Foundation Stage, children learn through a balance of adult-led teaching and rich, informal opportunities for mathematical thinking during child initiated activities. In KS1 and KS2, maths is taught for 1 hour and our lesson structure starts with Flash Back 4 or Daily Practice at the start of each lesson for 15 minutes to aid their long-term memory. Then pupils move onto the main session which introduces new concepts, modelling, guided practice and then independent tasks which focus on the arithmetic and then reasoning, problem solving and deepening understanding.

Lessons use a ‘Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract’ approach with carefully chosen manipulatives to guide children through their understanding of mathematical processes when a new concept is introduced (typically this in EYFS, KS1 and those who find a particular concept challenging).

Pupils are taught times tables in lessons, according to the National Curriculum. To aid with times tables retention, we use TT Rockstars and Numbots (for KS1).