Christian Vision:

"Do your little bit of good. It's those bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." 

- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Curriculum Vision:

“Our curriculum promotes social mobility;

we give our children the roots to grow and the wings to fly.”

Mathematics at St George’s

Intention 

Maths is an essential skill which prepares us to lead an independent life. It enables us to make sense of, and function successfully in the world.  We use maths every day without realising – every time we check our watch to see what time it is, check our wallet to see if we can afford to go shopping, check a timetable to find out what time our train is leaving, measure the ingredients we need to follow a recipe – the list is endless!  We want our children to leave St George’s with a solid basis on which to build further mathematical knowledge and ability, in order that they may become successful adults and reach for the stars!  This is just one way that our curriculum drivers are woven into our maths curriculum.  Developing a healthy mind so that children have the resilience to persevere with tricky problem-solving, or learning those difficult times tables facts, taking maths learning outside to develop active maths, using our outdoor spaces for learning and finding the maths in the world around us are all ways in which Maths at St George’s is engaging and inspiring our children through our drivers: Reach For The Stars; Healthy Body, Healthy Mind and The Natural World.                           

Implementation 

At St. George’s, we teach maths using the Mastery approach based on the White Rose schemes of learning, meaning that we expect children to demonstrate a deep, conceptual understanding of each topic, make links between topics, and be able to build on this over time.  

Children develop their understanding through a CPA (Concrete, Pictorial and Abstract) approach and learning progresses through opportunities to develop fluency, reasoning and problem solving. They have the opportunity to use a wide range of resources to support their learning: our core manipulatives are Base 10, Numicon, place value counters and multi-link cubes which are developed throughout the school.  However, we also ensure that children have the opportunity to use other manipulatives, and different models and images, such as tens frames, part-whole models, number lines and place value charts. Mathematical skills are developed across the curriculum and key maths knowledge and vocabulary is an integral part of Daily Dashboard sessions, where children use rehearsal and retrieval strategies to ensure they can rapidly recall facts to support their work in maths. 

Maths lessons always involve an element of rehearsal and retrieval, whether through Flashback 4s, times tables or number bonds recall, so that children can move these facts, skills and strategies into their long term memory. Being able to have automaticity of recall for key facts means that our children can apply these to their reasoning and problem-solving challenges more confidently and efficiently.

Impact 

All children at St. George’s are taught maths within their own year group, with structure and scaffolding in place to ensure that each child reaches their full potential in the subject. The school has a supportive and challenging ethos and our approaches support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills, as well as empathy and the need to recognise the achievement of others. Regular and on-going assessment informs teaching, as well as intervention, to support and enable the success of each child. Termly pupil progress meetings enable teachers and leaders to track progress and identify areas for support and intervention. 

Why we value the White Rose Maths Scheme?

White Rose Maths is an organisation that provides maths resources and Schemes of Learning for pupils of all ages, from early years to secondary school. The Schemes of Learning outline yearly frameworks that break down what children need to learn during each week of each term to master the learning objectives laid out by the National Curriculum. The resources that are aligned with the White Rose Maths frameworks are designed to be enjoyable, engaging and varied, to help pupils develop a love of learning and work towards mastery with differentiated resources.

What defines White Rose Maths more than their resources and frameworks is their approach to teaching maths. At the heart of their resources and frameworks is the motto “Everyone Can Do Maths: Everyone Can!” — a slogan that we wholeheartedly agree with!

Their mission is to support primary school teachers and parents all over the UK in helping children work towards maths mastery and change attitudes towards this subject, encouraging a growth mindset in both teachers and learners. Adopting a White Rose Maths approach to teaching means making sure all children have the same opportunities to learn and the support they need to fully grasp concepts. At St. George’s we have high expectations of both the teaching and learning of Maths to ensure:

• Children master and use basic facts to automaticity
• They develop fluency in the fundamentals of Mathematics
• All children reason mathematically to a high standard and confidently create complete chains of logical reasoning
• Children are able to use and apply the correct mathematical vocabulary and fully articulate their thinking
• Children have a sound understanding of the language and context of mathematics leading to deep understanding of problem-solving contexts
• Children confidently solve problems from a young age, linking and applying all areas of mathematics
• Children are efficient mathematicians who are able to metacognitively draw upon and evaluate the best strategies in a given situation
• Children’s long term memory is developed in Maths 
• Children develop transferrable skills to use and apply in other curriculum areas
• Learning in small steps with a clear sequence of learning promotes a keep up not catch up ethos.
• Children at all stages to discover the cohesiveness of mathematics, how concepts build and how concepts link together. This is achieved by reviewing prior learning and building on in small steps, noting at every opportunity how things fit into the bigger picture of maths.

From Year 1 upwards, multiplication and division facts are vitally important. They are a foundation of some of the more challenging concepts in mathematics.

In school we are using the ‘Times Tables Rockstars’ app on the iPads, which is a fun and challenging programme designed to help students master the times tables! A significant amount of work will be completed in school in and out of maths lessons to support your child to become a Rock Star, Rock Legend or maybe even a Rock Hero by mastering any multiplication fact up to 12×12 in less than 3 seconds!

We also hold competitions within school, between classes and year groups to  compete for the Rock Wrangle Trophy!

The children can use this app at home to become confident and rounded mathematicians. It will support them to become fluent in tables facts. When it comes to times tables, speed AND accuracy are important – the more facts your child remembers, the easier it is for them to do harder calculations.

Each child has their own TT rockstars log in. Please click the link below to move to the TT Rock Stars online page. Play, enjoy and become a Times Tables Rock Star.

https://ttrockstars.com/login

If you have further questions please see your child’s class teacher.