Intention 

Maths is an essential skill which enables us to lead an independent life. It enables us to make sense of, and function successfully in the world for the rest of our lives.  

We use maths in our everyday lives without realising – every time we check our watch to see what time it is, check our wallet to see if we can afford to go shopping, check a timetable to find out what time our flight is leaving, measure the ingredients we need to follow a recipe …  

We want St. Mary’s students to leave our school with a solid basis on which to build further mathematical knowledge and ability, in order that they may become successful adults. 

Implementation 

At St. Mary’s, we teach maths using the Mastery approach, meaning that we expect children to demonstrate a deep, conceptual understanding of each topic, make links between topics, and be able to build on this over time.  

Children are constantly challenged to explain why, to prove how they know, to convince that they are correct or to find all possible outcomes. They have the opportunity to use a wide range of resources to support their learning such as tens frames, Dienes, bead strings, Numicon, Rekenreks, place value counters and other small apparatus. Mathematical skills are developed across the curriculum in subjects such as Science, Forest School, Design and Technology and PE. 

Impact 

All children at St. Mary’s are taught maths within their own year group, with structure and scaffolding in place to ensure that each child reaches their full potential in the subject. The school has a supportive and challenging ethos and our approaches support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others. Regular and on-going assessment informs teaching, as well as intervention, to support and enable the success of each child. These factors ensure that we are able to maintain high standards, with achievement at the end of KS2 above the national average and a high proportion of children demonstrating greater depth. 

Why we value the White Rose Maths Scheme?

White Rose Maths is an organisation that provides maths resources and Schemes of Learning for pupils of all ages, from early years to secondary school. The Schemes of Learning outline yearly frameworks that break down what children need to learn during each week of each term to master the learning objectives laid out by the National Curriculum. The resources that are aligned with the White Rose Maths frameworks are designed to be enjoyable, engaging and varied, to help pupils develop a love of learning and work towards mastery with differentiated resources.

What defines White Rose Maths more than their resources and frameworks is their approach to teaching maths. At the heart of their resources and frameworks is the motto “Everyone Can Do Maths: Everyone Can!” — a slogan that we wholeheartedly agree with!

Their mission is to support primary school teachers and parents all over the UK in helping children work towards maths mastery and change attitudes towards this subject, encouraging a growth mindset in both teachers and learners. Adopting a White Rose Maths approach to teaching means making sure all children have the same opportunities to learn and the support they need to fully grasp concepts. At St. Mary's we have high expectations of both the teaching and learning of Maths to ensure:

• Children master and use basic facts to automaticity
• They develop fluency in the fundamentals of Mathematics
• All children reason mathematically to a high standard and confidently create complete chains of logical reasoning
• Children are able to use and apply the correct mathematical vocabulary and fully articulate their thinking
• Children have a sound understanding of the language and context of mathematics leading to deep understanding of problem-solving contexts
• Children confidently solve problems from a young age, linking and applying all areas of mathematics
• Children are efficient mathematicians who are able to metacognitively draw upon and evaluate the best strategies in a given situation
• Children’s long term memory is developed in Maths 
• Children develop transferrable skills to use and apply in other curriculum areas
• Learning in small steps with a clear sequence of learning promotes a keep up not catch up ethos.
• Children at all stages to discover the cohesiveness of mathematics, how concepts build and how concepts link together. This is achieved by reviewing prior learning and building on in small steps, noting at every opportunity how things fit into the bigger picture of maths.

White Rose Online Maths Tools