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Maths

Maths curriculum statement 

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems.  It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject. At William Ford we also aim to ensure that the Christian ethos of the school is promoted summed up in the school’s vision statement – ‘learning from Jesus Christ, the prince of peace, to work diligently, act generously and live at peace with everyone.

 

INTENT

  • Our maths curriculum inspires a curiosity and fascination about numbers, shapes and patterns.
  • Our maths curriculum is broad and balanced. It is taught as a discrete subject as we believe this approach immerses our children within maths, encourages them to use mathematical vocabulary and begin to explore and analyse the world as a mathematician.
  • Where meaningful, our maths curriculum has links with other subjects so that our children broaden their understanding and apply their learning to different contexts (for example, in the Year five children create a graph to show the results of an experiment to find the best thermal insulator.
  • Our maths curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced for all our children.
  • Our maths curriculum is ambitious for all our children, including those with SEND, enabling every child to work to their full potential.

IMPLEMENTATION

  • Our maths curriculum is purposeful and engaging. We use resources from White Rose Maths which are colourful and use a lot of pictures. This helps to engage the children and makes it easier for visual learners.                                                                               
  • The key concepts within our maths lessons are regularly revisited through our spiral curriculum, this enables our children to know more and remember more about maths.             
  • Children access their maths lessons through high quality teaching during which they participate in a wide range of engaging learning experiences. White Rose Maths makes use of a lot of physical materials such as counters, cubes and number lines.                                             
  • There is a strong focus on children using mathematical vocabulary in problem-solving exercises. There is a lot of emphasis on reasoning. Every lesson contains one or two reasoning questions which require the children to put into practice what they have learned.                          
  • All maths lessons build upon prior learning and have clearly defined end points.                        In maths lessons, teachers check pupils’ understanding effectively, identifying and correcting misunderstandings and introducing intervention groups if necessary.
  • Teachers use open-ended questions which are accessible to all children but provide a challenge for those who really want to develop their skills.

IMPACT

  • We evaluate the knowledge, skills and understanding that children have gained in their maths lessons against carefully planned end points to measure progression.
  • Our maths curriculum ensures children have the knowledge and cultural capital to succeed in the next steps of their education.
  • In the monitoring of the maths curriculum, we constantly strive for improvement through review and evaluation.