Curriculum Intent

At St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, we believe that all children are entitled to a strong mathematical foundation. We aim to develop children, who are passionate about mathematics.  We are committed to developing their enjoyment and curiosity about the subject, as well as an appreciation of the beauty and power of Mathematics.

A mastery approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics is used at St.Joseph’s, as we believe, that this makes maths accessible to all and will maximise the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement. 

We are committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of Maths in the wider world. That they are also able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in their lives; in a range of different contexts and subjects. We want them to understand that mathematics is essential to everyday life and is necessary for most forms of employment. 

In line with the National Curriculum for mathematics (2014), our overall intent focuses on all pupils being able to:

  • use and understand a wide range of appropriate mathematical language to discuss, explain and justify their mathematical thinking and reasoning. 
  • explore and deepen their mathematical understanding through a C-P-A approach, allowing exploration, acquisition of fluency skills and application of skills to a range of problems and lines of enquiry. 
  • become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. 
  • Become fluent in calculation and have confidence and flexibility with number. 
  • move fluently between different representations of mathematical ideas. 
  • reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language. 
  • 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. 
  • make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. 
  • apply mathematical knowledge across the curriculum in science and other subjects relating mathematical knowledge and skills to real life situations. 
  • access challenges of rich and sophisticated problems when they grasp fluency concepts rapidly rather than progressing to new content. 
  • consolidate learning and concepts through repetition and intervention to acquire sound foundations for fluency of mathematics. 

Curriculum Implementation

At St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, we are committed to providing a motivating, challenging and comprehensive maths curriculum that is accessible to all and links the use of mathematics across a range of subjects, adding meaning to the learning of maths. Our whole school approach to the teaching and learning of maths involves the following; 

  • Our maths planning is based on Schemes of Learning from White Rose Maths and enhanced by a wide range of resources. This ensures a progressive and thorough curriculum in every year group. Teachers know which objectives must be taught and assessed in each year group and can follow progressive small steps to ensure pupils have a comprehensive understanding of maths. 
  • In reception, year 1 and year 2 children are being taught using ‘Mastering Number’ from NCETM, which aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense. Attention will be given to key knowledge and understanding needed to support success in the future.
  • Teachers are encouraged to plan in Powerpoint or equivalent, creating slides for each ‘small step’ with teaching points and activities to be completed. This format ensures evaluation of each lesson and subsequent lessons are adapted accordingly. 
  • WRM (White Rose Maths) promotes kinaesthetic learning to ensure children acquire fluency of skills by introducing concepts in a practical/concrete way to progress to pictorial then abstract (C-P-A). Refer to Appendix 1 for examples of different representations that may be used. 
  • Teachers deliver one curriculum for all, providing opportunities to stay together and to work through new content as a whole group. Teachers teach the whole class, allow pupils time to practise and bring the class back together to move on. Differentiated learning is provided through a selection of tasks to consolidate fluency, use skills to solve problems or use skills and reasoning skills to solve higher-level challenge problems. Teachers should use their professional judgement to determine the activities, timing and organisation in each lesson in order to suit the teaching objectives and ensure children understand each small step. 
  • For pupils who may struggle or possibly ‘fall behind’ with parts of the curriculum, in class support is provided on a daily basis. Additionally, intervention and consolidation is provided in the afternoon or lunchtime to ensure they are ready for the next lesson. For SEN pupils (who are significantly below age related expectations) a separate curriculum may be more appropriate. 
  • Throughout KS1 and KS2, pupils have daily maths lessons. In Early Years, pupils have a daily maths input and also opportunities to practise and consolidate their knowledge through a range of planned, child initiated activities. 
  • The teaching of mathematics at St.Joseph’s Catholic Primary School promotes the use of mathematical vocabulary through encouraging children to explain their thinking, strategies and mistakes during lessons to embed understanding and to support peer on peer learning as children learn well from peers. 
  • During lessons, we encourage children to self-mark, using a purple pen. After activities, the whole class discusses answers, strategies and mistakes. This provides children with immediate feedback and time to reflect on their learning. Mistakes are discussed and correction time given as part of a lesson. Children respond well to this and learn well from their mistakes. We see assessment as an integral part of the teaching process and strive to make our assessment purposeful, allowing us to match the correct level of work to the needs of the pupils, thus benefiting the pupils and ensuring confidence and progress. 

Curriculum Impact

Children at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School will have developed a love of mathematics and will be able to apply their mathematical skills across the curriculum. 

The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning and transferable skills.  With the implementation of the mathematical journey being well established and taught thoroughly in all key stages, children are becoming more confident mathematicians and by the time they are in upper Key Stage 2,  pupils will be developing their ability to solve a wider range of problems, including increasingly complex properties of numbers and arithmetic, and problems demanding efficient written and mental methods of calculation. 

Children make at least good progress in Mathematics from their last point of statutory assessment, or from their starting point in Reception. The impact of our Maths curriculum at St Joseph’s is not only measured by assessment procedures, which allow us to measure outcomes against all schools nationally: 

  • EYFS % of pupils achieving a ‘Good level of development’ (GLD)
  • End of KS1 % of children working towards or at the expected standard and at Greater depth in mathematics
  • End of year 4% achieving fluency of times table recall.
  • End of KS2 % of children working towards or at the expected standard and at Greater depth in mathematics

It is also measured by how effectively it helps our children develop into well-rounded individuals who carry with them the Maths knowledge, skills and attitudes which will make them lifelong learners who are ready for the next stage of their education and valuable future citizens. We hope that as children move on from us to further their education and learning that their passion for Mathematics and high aspirations travel with them and continue to grow and develop as they do.

As a school, we continually seek out ways to improve our teaching of Maths by taking part in regular professional development, working on projects with national bodies (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), and implementing evidence based research from the Education Endowment Fund as well as participating in a Teacher Research Group (TRG) within the Archimedes NE Maths Hub.

Curriculum Intent

At St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, we believe that all children are entitled to a strong mathematical foundation. We aim to develop children, who are passionate about mathematics.  We are committed to developing their enjoyment and curiosity about the subject, as well as an appreciation of the beauty and power of Mathematics.

A mastery approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics is used at St.Joseph’s, as we believe, that this makes maths accessible to all and will maximise the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement. 

We are committed to ensuring that children are able to recognise the importance of Maths in the wider world. That they are also able to use their mathematical skills and knowledge confidently in their lives; in a range of different contexts and subjects. We want them to understand that mathematics is essential to everyday life and is necessary for most forms of employment. 

In line with the National Curriculum for mathematics (2014), our overall intent focuses on all pupils being able to:

  • use and understand a wide range of appropriate mathematical language to discuss, explain and justify their mathematical thinking and reasoning. 
  • explore and deepen their mathematical understanding through a C-P-A approach, allowing exploration, acquisition of fluency skills and application of skills to a range of problems and lines of enquiry. 
  • become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately. 
  • Become fluent in calculation and have confidence and flexibility with number. 
  • move fluently between different representations of mathematical ideas. 
  • reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language. 
  • 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. 
  • make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. 
  • apply mathematical knowledge across the curriculum in science and other subjects relating mathematical knowledge and skills to real life situations. 
  • access challenges of rich and sophisticated problems when they grasp fluency concepts rapidly rather than progressing to new content. 
  • consolidate learning and concepts through repetition and intervention to acquire sound foundations for fluency of mathematics. 

Curriculum Implementation

At St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, we are committed to providing a motivating, challenging and comprehensive maths curriculum that is accessible to all and links the use of mathematics across a range of subjects, adding meaning to the learning of maths. Our whole school approach to the teaching and learning of maths involves the following; 

  • Our maths planning is based on Schemes of Learning from White Rose Maths and enhanced by a wide range of resources. This ensures a progressive and thorough curriculum in every year group. Teachers know which objectives must be taught and assessed in each year group and can follow progressive small steps to ensure pupils have a comprehensive understanding of maths. 
  • In reception, year 1 and year 2 children are being taught using ‘Mastering Number’ from NCETM, which aims to secure firm foundations in the development of good number sense. Attention will be given to key knowledge and understanding needed to support success in the future.
  • Teachers are encouraged to plan in Powerpoint or equivalent, creating slides for each ‘small step’ with teaching points and activities to be completed. This format ensures evaluation of each lesson and subsequent lessons are adapted accordingly. 
  • WRM (White Rose Maths) promotes kinaesthetic learning to ensure children acquire fluency of skills by introducing concepts in a practical/concrete way to progress to pictorial then abstract (C-P-A). Refer to Appendix 1 for examples of different representations that may be used. 
  • Teachers deliver one curriculum for all, providing opportunities to stay together and to work through new content as a whole group. Teachers teach the whole class, allow pupils time to practise and bring the class back together to move on. Differentiated learning is provided through a selection of tasks to consolidate fluency, use skills to solve problems or use skills and reasoning skills to solve higher-level challenge problems. Teachers should use their professional judgement to determine the activities, timing and organisation in each lesson in order to suit the teaching objectives and ensure children understand each small step. 
  • For pupils who may struggle or possibly ‘fall behind’ with parts of the curriculum, in class support is provided on a daily basis. Additionally, intervention and consolidation is provided in the afternoon or lunchtime to ensure they are ready for the next lesson. For SEN pupils (who are significantly below age related expectations) a separate curriculum may be more appropriate. 
  • Throughout KS1 and KS2, pupils have daily maths lessons. In Early Years, pupils have a daily maths input and also opportunities to practise and consolidate their knowledge through a range of planned, child initiated activities. 
  • The teaching of mathematics at St.Joseph’s Catholic Primary School promotes the use of mathematical vocabulary through encouraging children to explain their thinking, strategies and mistakes during lessons to embed understanding and to support peer on peer learning as children learn well from peers. 
  • During lessons, we encourage children to self-mark, using a purple pen. After activities, the whole class discusses answers, strategies and mistakes. This provides children with immediate feedback and time to reflect on their learning. Mistakes are discussed and correction time given as part of a lesson. Children respond well to this and learn well from their mistakes. We see assessment as an integral part of the teaching process and strive to make our assessment purposeful, allowing us to match the correct level of work to the needs of the pupils, thus benefiting the pupils and ensuring confidence and progress. 

Curriculum Impact

Children at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School will have developed a love of mathematics and will be able to apply their mathematical skills across the curriculum. 

The impact on our children is clear: progress, sustained learning and transferable skills.  With the implementation of the mathematical journey being well established and taught thoroughly in all key stages, children are becoming more confident mathematicians and by the time they are in upper Key Stage 2,  pupils will be developing their ability to solve a wider range of problems, including increasingly complex properties of numbers and arithmetic, and problems demanding efficient written and mental methods of calculation. 

Children make at least good progress in Mathematics from their last point of statutory assessment, or from their starting point in Reception. The impact of our Maths curriculum at St Joseph’s is not only measured by assessment procedures, which allow us to measure outcomes against all schools nationally: 

  • EYFS % of pupils achieving a ‘Good level of development’ (GLD)
  • End of KS1 % of children working towards or at the expected standard and at Greater depth in mathematics
  • End of year 4% achieving fluency of times table recall.
  • End of KS2 % of children working towards or at the expected standard and at Greater depth in mathematics

It is also measured by how effectively it helps our children develop into well-rounded individuals who carry with them the Maths knowledge, skills and attitudes which will make them lifelong learners who are ready for the next stage of their education and valuable future citizens. We hope that as children move on from us to further their education and learning that their passion for Mathematics and high aspirations travel with them and continue to grow and develop as they do.

As a school, we continually seek out ways to improve our teaching of Maths by taking part in regular professional development, working on projects with national bodies (National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), and implementing evidence based research from the Education Endowment Fund as well as participating in a Teacher Research Group (TRG) within the Archimedes NE Maths Hub.

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