Rawdon St. Peter's C of E Primary School

Maths

Intent 

Rawdon St. Peter’s key ethos statement ‘Unlocking Every Child’s Potential’ is a fundamental value of maths teaching. The pupils are supported to develop their independent and collaborative skills, being supportive of others’ and helping each other to understanding mathematical concepts. The teachers encourage a growth mindset approach and key teaching points are delivered ensuring all pupils are challenged and achieve success.  

The intent of our mathematics curriculum is to design a curriculum which is accessible to all and will maximise the development of every child’s ability and academic achievement, through small steps in learning, a positive mind set, and a ‘can-do’ attitude. 

We deliver lessons that are creative and engaging. We want children to make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning skills and competency in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. Maths is delivered as a hands-on, interactive subject where pupils are encouraged to explain their workings verbally, in written form and through concrete manipulatives to realise and explore that there is more than one way to solve a problem. They also are taught to consider and explore the most effective methods to use as a mathematician. 

We intend for our pupils to be able to apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects. We want them to know that maths is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment.  

As our pupils progress, we intend for them to be able to understand the world, have the ability to reason mathematically, have an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject. 

Implementation 

Rawdon St. Peter’s follows the National Curriculum through the use of the ‘White Rose Maths Scheme’. The scheme, which is designed to approach the maths curriculum using ‘small steps’ in learning, ensures that pupils’ conceptual understanding and skills are built upon each year to deepen and consolidate prior learning and understanding.  

We have adopted a mastery approach to maths, and are now part of a mastery teacher research group (TRG) through the White Rose maths hub. This allows schools within the TRG workgroup to share good practice and develop the whole school mastery approach. 

Resources are carefully planned and considered at each stage of learning. They link to each element of maths from EYFS to Year 6 and support learning and understanding with different mathematical concepts. Age appropriate concrete manipulatives are in classes and all pupils are encouraged to access these. Resources are modelled and applied to learning in all classes in each year group, ensuring that pupils have an understanding of which resources are useful for the different topics being taught.   

Lessons are planned to include ‘Fluency’ and ‘Reasoning and Problem Solving’ questions and tasks. This is to ensure pupils’ develop a breadth to their understanding and apply their knowledge in different contexts. Pupils are encouraged to explain their reasoning and their approaches to mathematical problems; they are encouraged to listen to others’ methods to realise that there is more than one way to approach maths and to explore the most efficient methods to take forward in their own learning. 

Impact 

Pupils at Rawdon St. Peter’s value and enjoy maths. They are eager to make progress and learn new mathematical concepts as well as practise and embed the maths that they have already learnt previously. 

Regular and ongoing assessments are used to inform teaching to support and enable the success of each child. These factors ensure that we are able to maintain high standards, with achievement at the end of KS2 well above the national average and a high proportion of pupils demonstrating greater depth at the end of each phase.  

Maths teaching ensures that pupils are secondary ready and also ready for the world of work.