Intent 

We believe that mathematics is an important foundation stone to learning that embraces every part of life.  At Saint Gregory’s we want all pupils at our school to experience the beauty and power of mathematics and develop a sense of curiosity and enthusiasm for the subject.  In maths, we strive for all of our children to see themselves as mathematicians and foster positive ‘can do’ attitudes. We want our children to be confident to ‘have a go’ and talk about their maths; noticing patterns, relationships and making connections. 
 

Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries, providing the solution to some of history’s most intriguing problems. It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. To be a mathematician, children need to apply their mathematical skills and knowledge across the curriculum, making connections both within maths and across other subjects too.

In line with the National Curriculum (2014) we aim for all pupils:

• To become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics so that they develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge efficiently, flexibly and accurately with pace. 
• To reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, drawing out relationships and generalisations and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language. 
• To solve problems by applying their knowledge to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions. 
• To become self-motivated in seeking challenges and have a resilient approach to working.
• To believe that maths is something we can all do and gain enjoyment of maths through a growing self confidence in their own abilities. 
• To move fluently between the distinct domains in the programmes of study from the National Curriculum (e.g. Geometry, Number and Place Value) and make rich connections across. To apply their mathematical knowledge to other subjects, using the skills taught.
• To see the applicability of maths in everyday life.

Maths at St Gregory’s:

The St Gregory’s mathematics curriculum is taught discretely. We follow the ‘Can Do’ Maths scheme which ensures consistency and progression of skills. The maths curriculum has been structured and sequenced in order to engage pupils in purposeful learning by building on prior knowledge and helping to connect knowledge, understanding and skills year-on-year both within maths and across other subjects too.

Mathematics is taught with the priorities of the curriculum for mathematics at the forefront: fluency, reasoning and problem solving. These three focuses will be evident throughout our planning and teaching. Our curriculum for maths is designed to enable children to gain a secure and deep understanding in mathematics. The principles of teaching for mastery are at the forefront of our curriculum design and delivery so that pupils have the best chance to master maths and be ready to move on to the next stage in their learning. These principles underpin how we teach maths at St Gregory’s. 
 

Our maths curriculum starts from the moment the children enter our school in EYFS. We understand that the foundations for becoming a mathematician are laid in the Early Years Foundation Stage and what they learn in EYFS impacts on them being ready for the next stage in their education. 
More information about EYFS maths can be found HERE.

The starting point that we strive for every child to have upon entry to Y1 in order that they can start working towards the aims of the National Curriculum are:

• To be able to count confidently.
• To understand and know about the composition of numbers to 10. 
• To develop spatial reasoning skills.    
• To identify patterns and talk about what they notice. 

Once children enter Y1, they work progressively towards the aims of the National Curriculum following the Can Do Maths scheme. 

Our maths curriculum is designed to give time to teach curriculum content and additional time outside of the maths lesson for practice and retrieval – these sessions are called Number Sense. 

Y1 and Y2 follow the ‘Mastering Number’ programme for 4 sessions a week as their number sense session. This programme was developed by the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics in 2021 and aims to develop solid number sense, including fluency and flexibility with number facts which will have a lasting impact on future learning for all children. The fifth session is a Deliberate Practice session where Arithmetic/Intervention/Fluency of key facts are covered. 

Typical Lesson Design:
Opportunities for children to develop fluency, reason and solve problems are embedded throughout our lessons. Manipulatives are also a key part of our lessons and we recognise how important they are in helping children understand the structure of mathematics and therefore essential in supporting understanding. We know concrete, pictorial and abstract representations all play a vital role in securing understanding and we move between the different representations in our lessons. 
1) Hook It:  Wonder, notice, connections. 
2) Teach It: Live modelling of the new learning with explicit use of potential misunderstandings. 
3) Practise It: All children practise together and notice something about the structure of the mathematics.
4) Do It: Up to 5 examples – exploring standard and non-standard form, what it is / is not. 
5) Secure It: Exploring misconceptions, mistakes, active arguments (Go deep)
6) Deepen It: Apply understanding to solve new problems (Go deeper)
7) Review It: Lesson Recap: key vocabulary and assess / reflect on learning. 

Maths Curriculum Coverage

Coverage is based on the National Curriculum 2014 Programmes of study with objectives allocated across phases and year groups, to ensure a progression of knowledge, skills and understanding.  Here is an example showing the coverage in Year 3: 

Maths Skills Progression

The Skills Progression documents show the skills, knowledge and content taught in each year group, considering age appropriate development and ensures progression is enabled through careful and informed planning. This documents allows teachers to see what has been taught before aiding links and connections to be made between learning. 

See Maths Vision for more information.