Intention:

Maths is a universal language which everyone around the world can speak and has been developed over centuries. It is important to everyday life and helps us to understand the world around us. You will use it to develop life skills like managing your money, reading the time and measuring quantities in cooking and baking. Maths is central to other subjects in the curriculum, and allows us to access measuring and accuracy in DT,  comparing and analysing in science and reading maps in geography. Without maths you wouldn’t be able to: catch a bus, spend your pocket money, follow a map or hang a picture on the wall. Maths is there to spark curiosity and enjoyment in you for solving problems and proving your theory.

Implementation:

The National Curriculum states that all children become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, reason mathematically and solve problems by applying their mathematical skills. At St. Walburga’s, our maths curriculum follows White Rose Maths Hub schemes of work.

• Children access concepts that are broken down into areas of number, measurement, statistics and geometry. Individual units (e.g. Place Value or Fractions) are revisited annually to ensure retention of knowledge and building on prior learning.
• Unique to St. Walburga’s is our ‘Thread Method’ of teaching these units:
• Pre assessment tools are used to identify individual children's existing knowledge against unit objectives for a personalised curriculum to be devised. 
• From this, a thread of activities is devised using a range of fluency, reasoning and problems solving questions, with each child focussing on their required area of learning and having a bespoke path though each unit. By accessing only the teaching that applies to each child -  through small steps and group teaching inputs - children are always working at their own pace and towards their own personal targets.
• Teachers utilise a range of practical and visual resources, manipulatives and question stems to engage and support learning.
• Teaching of mental maths methods and arithmetic skills compliment the thread with ‘Big Maths’ CLIC:
• C - Counting (multiples and timetables)
• L - Learn Its (quick maths facts)
• I - It’s Nothing New (linking consents to deepen and extend learning)
• C - Calculation (arithmetic skills in the four operations)
• In addition, children have a weekly ‘Deep Dive’ - shared discussion and presentation on an open ended problem with multiple solutions to deepen conceptual understanding and articulation
• Learning is enriched with ‘Barvember’ challenges during the month of November - utilising bar models as a visual tool to solve problems. Additionally, older children have the opportunity to enter maths competitions with other Trust schools.

Impact:

The perfect pitch and amount of challenge to every child’s learning forms confident, resilient and successful mathematicians. Children are fluent in the fundamentals of numbers, with the ability to rapidly recall and accurately apply their knowledge to lines of inquiry in maths, across the curriculum and in unfamiliar contexts. Support is determined during each lesson to ensure secure understanding, accelerated learning and deepened understanding based on the needs of each child. By the end of their mathematical journey through school, everyone succeeds in maths and enjoys achieving; underpinned by a whole school growth mindset attitude.