Intent:
At Stoke-On-Tern Primary School, we provide a quality first education in maths that equips children with the foundation for understanding the world: the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the relevance of maths in everyday lives and a sense of enjoyment and self-confidence in their own mathematical ability.
We enable all pupils over time to acquire mastery of maths. Mastering maths means pupils of all ages acquiring a deep, long term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject.
The national curriculum for maths aims 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 an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.
3. 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.
Implementation:
Teaching for mastery
At Stoke-On-Tern Primary School, we teach maths for mastery. 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 are always based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly are challenged through being offered rich mastery and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.
We encourage resilience, adaptability and acceptance that struggle is often a necessary step in learning.
Planning:
We recognise that subject knowledge is key to successful teaching for mastery, as well as an understanding of the learning steps required, and the order of those steps.
Over the past year, we have introduced the NCETM mastery materials incrementally. Since September 2024, all year groups are following the NCETM Prioritisation Curriculum with the exception of Year 6 ( this will be introduced as a final step for full implementation in September 2025).
We use the NCETM Primary Mastery Professional Development Materials along with other high-quality resources (e.g. White Rose Maths) to deliver teaching for mastery with confidence. Throughout the programme there is a balance of factual/procedural fluency and conceptual understanding.
Coherence:
Teaching is carefully sequenced in small steps that allow for deep and sustainable learning; developing images, techniques and concepts that are vital precursors to later ideas.
Representation and Structure:
Concrete and pictorial representations are a key feature of early maths teaching as they expose the structure of the concepts taught. Some key representations children will meet time and time again. A secure grasp of visual representations allows children to develop sound conceptual understanding and progress confidently to using mathematical symbols.
Resources:
A wide range of mathematical resources are used and pupils are taught to show their workings in a concrete, pictorial and abstract form wherever suitable. They are taught to explain their choice of methods and develop their mathematical reasoning skills.
Staffing:
Several members of staff have participated in the Mastery training through local maths hubs. Additionally, we have the support of a maths specialist teacher.
Oracy:
As a school we are committed to developing and promoting the role of oracy within maths to deepen and enhance pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the subject. Pupils are given opportunities to engage in dialogue, both with the teacher and their peers, which encourages them to articulate, justify and expand their ideas. Pupils are taught key mathematical vocabulary and have opportunities to share, develop and consolidate their understanding through talk.
Fluency:
We place an emphasis on learning key facts such as multiplication tables and number bonds to automaticity to avoid cognitive overload in the working memory and enable pupils to focus on new concepts.
Impact:
Through discussion and feedback, children talk positively and enthusiastically about their maths lessons. Pupils have increased confidence in their own abilities and demonstrate greater resilience when challenged mathematically.
Pupils are continually assessed within lessons and encouraged to use reasoning to explain their answers.
We use termly teacher assessments and standardised tests to monitor pupil progress.
Through regular fluency checks, pupils are able to demonstrate improving recall of key facts and procedures. This includes the recollection of the times tables and number bonds.
‘Mathematics is not just a collection of skills; it is a way of thinking. It lies at the core of scientific understanding, and of rational and logical argument.’
Dr Colin Sparrow, Lecturer in Mathematics, University of Cambridge
Maths National Curriculum
Stoke-on-Tern maths curriculum documents:
Year 1 Curriculum Map Year 2 Curriculum Map Year 3 Curriculum Map Year 4 Curriculum Map
Year 5 Curriculum Map Year 6 Curriculum Map
Curriculum Prioritisation Overview Year 1 to year 6