MATHEMATICS

At St Raphael’s we aim to develop in children an inspiring and positive attitude to mathematics. We want them to have an understanding of mathematics through a process of enquiry, reasoning and problem solving using a range of learning strategies: working both cooperatively, collaboratively and independently. We do this by teaching maths using a mastery approach using the Power of Maths. Teachers have high expectations of all children and they believe that all children have the ability to succeed. Through our teaching we want our children to gain confidence in mathematics so that they can express their ideas fluently and talk about the subject using mathematical language.  This begins in the EYFS where the predominant focus of the early maths curriculum is development of an understanding of number. Subitising is an essential part of developing number sense in early year’s children, by helping them to relate numbers to actual items or groups of items.

Our lessons are built on the following principles of a mastery lesson:

• Coherence – breaking down mathematical concepts into small, well sequenced, manageable steps.
• Variation – procedural and conceptual
• Representation and structure – carefully choosing ways to reveal the structure of the mathematics, and representing it in a variety of ways.
• Mathematical thinking – chains of reasoning and use of precise mathematical vocabulary.
• Fluency – number and table facts and recognising the relationship between them.

The national curriculum for Mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.
• Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
• Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Maths

• Five-year-olds will be expected to learn to count up to 100 (compared to 20 under the old curriculum) and learn number bonds to 20 (was up to 10);
• Simple fractions (1/4 and 1/2) will be taught from KS1, and by the end of primary school, children should be able to convert decimal fractions to simple fractions (e.g. 0.375 = 3/8);
• By the age of nine, children will be expected to know times tables up to 12x12 (was 10x10 by the end of primary school);
• Calculators will not be introduced until near the end of KS2, to encourage mental arithmetic.