Policy (updated Jan 2022)
Our Mission
We believe that every child can master an understanding and love of maths with the right kind of teaching and support.
1 – Aims and objectives
1.1 Mathematics teaches children how to make sense of the world around them through developing their ability to calculate, reason and solve problems. It enables children to understand relationships and patterns in both number and space in their everyday lives. Through their growing knowledge and understanding, children learn to appreciate the contribution made by many cultures to the development and application of mathematics.
1.2 Our objectives in the teaching of mathematics are:
- to promote enjoyment of learning through practical activity, exploration and discussion;
- to promote confidence and competence with numbers and the number system;
- to develop the ability to solve problems through decision-making and reasoning in a range of contexts;
- to develop a practical understanding of the ways in which information is gathered and presented;
- to explore features of shape and space, and develop measuring skills in a range of contexts;
- to help children understand the importance of mathematics in everyday life;
- to develop the cross-curricular use of mathematics in other subjects.
2 – Teaching and learning style
2.1 The school uses the Singapore approach to teaching mathematics. During our daily lessons, we encourage children to ask as well as answer mathematical questions. They have the opportunity to develop their understanding of mathematical concepts by working through the Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract approach. All lessons develop the pupils’ reasoning capabilities and mathematical understanding. Wherever possible, we encourage the children to apply their learning to everyday problems.
2.2 In all classes, teachers have high expectations of all the pupils and believe that with good quality teaching they can all learn the objectives for their chronological age group. We ensure that children of all ability levels get support from the teacher and the support staff as needed.
3 – Mathematics curriculum planning
3.1 Mathematics is a core subject in the National Curriculum, we teach objectives for each year group as set out in the National Curriculum. Our long term scheme of work follows the high quality textbook ‘ Maths No Problem’.
3.2 It is the class teacher who plans for the teaching of mathematics using the Maths No Problem textbooks. The lessons are planned in advance week by week. The subject leader regularly monitors these plans and discusses them with individual teachers.
3.3 We plan the activities in mathematics so that they build on the children’s prior learning. While we give children of all abilities the opportunity to develop their skills, knowledge and understanding, we also plan progression into the scheme of work, so that there is an increasing challenge for the children as they move up through the school.