Intention

To develop confident, competent and creative mathematicians who are able to reason and solve problems through the knowledge they gain.

We follow the Maths No Problem scheme from Reception to Year 6 which has a spiral approach builds on methods and strategies in each year group to ensure children are confident in a range of methods and develop problem solving strategies.

There is a consistent format to lessons throughout the school and each year builds on the equivalent chapter from the year before in line with the national curriculum. Methods and pictorial representations develop as the children move through the curriculum building on what they have learnt the year before.  Additionally, fluency sessions are planned in throughout the week outside of maths lessons to revise and solidify key facts.

Implementation

Throughout the school, maths lessons are taught daily following a familiar format with regular, ongoing assessment to allow planning to be adapted as deemed necessary by the class teacher. Each year group follows the objectives outlined in the National Curriculum using the Maths No Problem scheme to support teachers in their planning. There are five main stages of a Maths No Problem Lesson,  these components are exploration, structured discussion, practice, journalling and reading. However not every component will be in every lesson – teachers use ongoing assessment to ensure the learning in each lesson is well-rounded and complete. Within these components are opportunities for the children to reason, problem solve and work on their fluency.
 

Within lessons children will have access to concrete resources in order to help them embed and understand new knowledge. Children will have access to concrete resources to help support understanding as well as using pictorial representations to help them understand abstract problems. Language is a crucial part of mathematics and at George Carey we ensure that children are exposed to a range of mathematical vocabulary which will be displayed in the classroom and referred to. Children are encouraged to explain their thinking and use `because` to demonstrate their understanding. From the EYFS children are encouraged to talk and wonder about mathematics.

In EYFS the `Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage` and the non-statutory guidance of `Development Matters’ and the Maths No Problem Foundations resources form the basis of our maths curriculum supporting teachers with their lesson planning and provision available. Maths — No Problem! Foundations is designed with all the theory and rigor that underpins a true mastery approach. It meets all the requirements of the national curriculum’s Early Years Foundation Stage as well as embedding learning through play in Reception.

Impact:

Teachers assess regularly throughout each term and make use of short topic quizzes to assess learning as well as termly formal assessment. This indicates next steps for learning. Where children are not making expected progress, interventions will be provided to support these children. As George Carey follows a mathematics mastery approach it is expected that children will be supported to `keep up` rather than `catch up`. This will help to ensure that children achieve their end of year expectations. A key goal is that children will be able to recall number facts suitable to their stage across all operations which will allow children to store these in their long term memory- providing more space within their working memory for new taught concepts.