Mathematics

The Saint John Fisher Philosophy

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 in most forms of employment. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Aims of the National Curriculum for Mathematics

Mathematics teaching is timetables for on hour every day, usually in the morning, in Key Stages 1 and 2.

The National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems
• Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language
• Can 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.

Our maths policy outlines our aims for the teaching of this curriculum.

Big Maths and hardwiring basic skills

One of the biggest barriers to high standards in a primary school is the learning loss of basic skills. Finding time each week to revisit the recently learnt basic skills is not easy but is still vital! This is why we have set up the Big Maths Beat That system here.

All children have a short (10 minutes) daily big maths session. Big Maths provides a clear framework for getting all children numerate, along with a weekly assessment, i.e. a ‘progress check’ (Big Maths Beat That) that is linked into that framework.

At the moment we are teaching the ‘Learn Its’ in this big maths session. The ‘Learn Its’ cover all the addition and multiplication facts needed. Once a week the children take a big maths Learn Its challenge which assesses those essential facts that, once secure, will allow a child to continue their journey, tackling increasingly complex questions more logically and successfully. Teachers will ensure that the child can recall their Learn Its instantly before attempting the next challenge. In order to make this successful, children will be grouped so that they are focusing on learning a small set of facts, and learning these really well, so that they they can recall them instantly without the need for calculation. Children then find it fun and motivating to repeat and revisit questions they can already do as they seek to achieve their best ever score!

Because Big Maths Beat That allows every child to improve their score easily, children can feel great about their Maths. We even use fun jingles to motivate the children and add an extra fun dimension.

There are 15 steps of progression that every child is travelling along on their ‘Learn Its’ journey. Big Maths Beat That has an assessment for each step and so we can use it to find out the current step of the child. Which step have they mastered? Knowing precisely where a child is up to with their Maths ability is vital information for the child’s maths teacher. This is always the starting point for teaching maths.

Your child will know which learn-it they are currently working towards, here are the facts they need to master for each one:

Supporting your child

The support parents and carers can give is of great benefit to a child’s mathematical development. Even if you don’t feel confident with mathematics, you can still make a huge difference to your child’s numeracy confidence and ability. This can involve being positive about mathematics, pointing out where we use mathematics in everyday life, and praising your child for their effort.