Maths
At the Grove, we believe that children deserve a creative and ambitious mathematics curriculum, rich in skills and knowledge, which ignites curiosity and prepares them well for everyday life and future employment. Our mathematics curriculum gives children the opportunity to:
- Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, 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.
- 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.
- Communicate, justify, argue and prove using mathematical vocabulary.
- Develop their character, including resilience, confidence and independence, so that they contribute positively to the life of the school, their local community and the wider environment.
Our Maths curriculum at the Grove provides breadth and balance, is relevant and engaging and matches the needs and abilities of all our children to ensure that all pupils are able to excel. As a school, we believe in the importance of following the concrete-pictorial-approach as a means to developing a solid understanding of mathematical concepts which can be applied in a variety of contexts through reasoning and problem solving challenges.
Children receive five maths lessons each week. From Reception to Year 6, we adhere to our calculation policy which outlines the progression of strategies and methods to be taught and we have an accompanying vocabulary progression document which we also follow.
We have created our medium-term plans in line with White Rose small steps, but have altered the order to suit and benefit the needs of our children so that connections between units of learning are easier to recognise. From Reception to Year 6, children follow the scheme of ‘White Rose’ which supports children in learning the fundamentals behind the meanings of numbers and exploring other key mathematical areas.
Progression documents such as our calculation policy are carefully used to ensure that children are not being stretched outside their year group but rather deepened within it.
Retrieval practice is a fundamental part of our mathematics curriculum as it is proven to strengthen memory and make it easier to retrieve the information later (Rosenshine, 2012; Jones, 2019; Barton, 2017). Opportunities for retrieval practise occur in many places in the mathematics curriculum, for example:
- Five in five- A set number of fluency questions to be completed regularly throughout the week in KS1 and KS2. This will be based on the arithmetic and mental strategies document. This will be a mixture of questions to aid retrieval of knowledge and concepts taught over time, focused on re-activating recently acquired knowledge.
- Times Tables Rock Stars - Completed at least three times a week in KS2.
Times tables play an important part in our math's learning, with children developing their fluency in rapid recall of tables up to 12 x 12 by the end of year 4. While the rapid recall of times tables are being developed, children are also learning how to apply and manipulate their understanding of this to reason and solve problems. In addition to this, children from Y1 – Y6 have the opportunity to consolidate and apply their times tables knowledge by using Times Tables Rock Stars to support learning at home.