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. A high-quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

At Little Leigh, we intend to:

• Ensure that our children are provided with opportunities to recap and catch up on any Mathematics missed during school lockdown.
• Ensure our children have access to a high quality maths curriculum that is both challenging and enjoyable.
• Provide our children with a variety of mathematical opportunities, which will enable them to make the connections in learning needed to enjoy greater depth in learning.
• Ensure children are confident mathematicians who are not afraid to take risks.
• Fully develop independent learners with inquisitive minds who have secure mathematical foundations and an interest in self-improvement.

At Little Leigh, we want to develop outward looking, creative children who are not afraid to take risks.   This we will do by implementing a high quality Mathematics curriculum.

Our implementation is to develop through secure understanding of the curriculum and subject area.

Multiple representations to suit ALL learners through the CPA approach. 

Objects, pictures, words, numbers and symbols will be used throughout our children’s mathematical journey. Our mastery approach includes all of these to help our children explore and demonstrate mathematical ideas, enhance their learning experiences and expand their understanding. These elements will help to cement knowledge so our children really understand what they have learnt.

All children, when introduced to a new concept, will have the opportunity to build expertise in this topic by taking this approach. Our children are encouraged to concretely represent mathematical concepts. Objects and pictures are used to demonstrate and describe abstract ideas, alongside numbers and symbols.

Concrete – children have the opportunity to use concrete objects and resources to help them understand and articulate what they are doing.

Pictorial – children then build on this concrete approach by using pictorial representations, which can then be used to reason and solve problems.

Abstract – With the foundations firmly laid, children can move to an abstract approach using numbers and key concepts with confidence.

Underpinning all this is teaching ‘Quality first teaching’ linked to teaching standards.

All teachers:

1. ‘Know where their children are’ through the use of concise summative assessment, prior learning, assessment, maths conversations

2. ‘Understand where their children need to be’ through a secure understanding of year group expectations and/or pre key stage expectations and perceptive, ongoing, formative assessment

3. ‘Know how they are going to get them there’ through the use of a range of strategies, resources and interventions to promote independence, mastery and high expectations of ALL.

4. Effectively deploy adults, specifically during introductions, plenaries & intervention sessions

5. Plan for progression during, between and after lessons.

A mathematical concept or expertise has been mastered when our children can show it in numerous ways, using mathematical vocabulary to explain their ideas, and can independently apply the concept to new problems in unfamiliar situations.