Rode Heath Primary SchoolMathematics
Our maths curriculum produces individuals who are: numerate, enthusiastic, problem solvers, curious, creative, reflective, resilient and confident.
Intent
Here at Rode Heath Primary School, we embrace a Mastery Curriculum approach to our mathematics teaching. This means spending greater time going into depth in particular areas/concepts as opposed to quickly moving through the curriculum and the year group objectives.
We have high expectations that all children will achieve, and to do this, we believe that all children should be given the opportunity to explore, pattern find, become fluent, reason and problem solve and that there should be carefully crafted questions and activities and a wide range of manipulatives at hand for each child to accomplish this.
We strive to ensure that the whole class moves through content at the same pace and when we differentiate, it is through depth rather than acceleration; everyone is given time to think deeply about the maths and we strive to develop a positive attitude in order to build self-confidence, resilience and a sense of achievement. The school’s values of: teamwork, fairness, resilience and curiosity are embedded in all that we do.
Pupil premium is used to ensure that all children have full access to the mathematics curriculum. For children with SEND, our maths curriculum and the resources we use are adapted so that all children have an opportunity to receive their full educational entitlement and make use of considered and measurable interventions to support those who need it. Our maths curriculum is designed so that all may be challenged to fulfil their potential. We passionately believe that all children can reach these high standards.
Implementation
In EYFS, we ensure that maths is part of their daily diet and give the children a wide range of experiences and opportunities to apply their mathematical skills. In order for the mastery approach to become successful in KS1 and KS2, we have created a bespoke maths lesson structure, incorporating the Maths No Problem scheme.
The way we structure our lessons ensures a more consistent approach to teaching maths; a greater emphasis on the sequence of learning; a better use of open ended investigational type questions, maths language via stem sentences and working walls and the continued development of mathematical pedagogy.
Fluency is a key component of the maths curriculum and there are opportunities outside the main lesson time, where children can learn and apply facts in order to be more efficient when solving problems.
The mastery approach at RH also ensures that there is a greater expectation on all children; little chance for passive learning as there is a greater emphasis on talking maths, collaborating, exploring and investigating; the use of equipment is encouraged and there are always planned opportunities for children to make connections between subjects. Children are constantly pushed to the limits of what they are learning.
Rode Heath Maths Mastery Definition
When taught to master maths, children develop their mathematical fluency without resorting to rote learning and are able to solve non-routine maths problems without having to memorise procedures. Evidence shows that children need to be able to understand a concept, apply it in a range of situations and then be creative to really understand it. This means spending greater time going into depth about a subject as opposed to quickly moving through the curriculum and moving children onto learning in the next year group. The Five Big Ideas about teaching for mastery underpins all that we do: coherence, representation and structure, mathematical thinking, fluency and variation.
Impact
At RHPS, there is a consistent approach to the teaching of maths mastery across the school.
Children will make good or better progress from their own personal starting points. By the end of KS2 they will be able to fluently recall their times tables up to 12x; they will have a great understanding of place value; secure with the four operations; understand the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages; use measurements effectively and accurately; understand how ratio and proportion can be used; solve algebraic problems; have a good understanding of geometry and be able to analyse statistics. End Points are included to show where children should be at the end of their year group.
This is measured through a variety of methods such as: summative and formative assessments each term, pupil voice, lesson observations, learning walks, questioning and marking of books.
For a full breakdown of our results, please click on this link: Whole School Data Overview 2024
Click on this link for some great ways to start off your child's mathematical learning journey (really useful for Reception and Year One).
Maths - No Problem!
In order to further develop our maths mastery curriculum, we use the Maths No Problem scheme right the way through our school from Year One to Year Six. It follows the Signapore approach to teaching mastery maths. It helps pupils develop a deep, long-term and adaptable understanding of maths.
Parent Videos
We have added some videos below to help you understand the fundamental idea behind the scheme and the methods we use to teach number bonds, subtraction, mental calculations, multiplication, long division and bar modelling (this is used to represent numbers in a problem).
Fundamental Idea
Number Bonds
Subtraction
Mental Calculations
Multiplication
Long Division
Bar model 1
Bar Model 2
Files to Download
