Curriculum statement for teaching and learning of Maths Mastery at St. Thomas’ Catholic Primary School

National Curriculum Intent

The national curriculum for mathematics intends to ensure that all pupils:

1. 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.
2. reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing and argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
3. can solve problems by applying their mathematics to variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and preserving in seeking solutions.

Mathematics is an interconnected subject in which pupils need to be able to move fluently between representations of mathematical ideas. The programmes of study are, by necessity, organised into apparently distinct domains, but pupils should make rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. Children should also apply their mathematical knowledge to other areas of the curriculum such as, science and geography. We follow the White Rose maths scheme, along with Primary Stars for Key Stage 1 and Testbase for Key Stage 2.

The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich mastery and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding including through additional practice, before moving on.

Calculation Policy

At St. Thomas' we teach addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in each year group. This skill progresses each year. The way we teach each of the operations can be seen, in detail, for each year group in our Calculation Policy below.