At St. David’s, we believe that our maths curriculum will create enthusiastic, creative and articulate mathematicians. Through a robust curriculum, we aim to develop the children’s problem solving, independence, resilience and reflective skills – skills that can be easily transferable across the curriculum and into the wider world.

As a school, we believe that fluency is key. Children need to have a secure understanding of the mechanics of mathematics in order to deepen their knowledge of the maths curriculum further. This is of greater importance due to the transient nature of our school. When skills are fluent and secure, the impact of moves between schools can be reduced.  In sessions, children are encouraged to delve deeper into their understanding of mathematics and explore how it relates to the world around them. By inspiring and empowering our children with these skills, we are enabling them to be successful in solving everyday problems as they grow up. From the early stages of number fluency in the foundation stage, children will progress on to being empowered to solve complex, multi-step problems in upper key stage 2. Independence and use of appropriate manipulatives is encouraged and nurtured to empower children to see themselves as successful mathematicians and use their skills productively in their play and work.

Children are enabled to explore their ideas and feel safe in knowing that mistakes are an intrinsic part of the learning process. They are supported to discuss these misconceptions with their peers and staff alike, so that they can say, I know where I went wrong and what I need to do next. Use of appropriate vocabulary is modelled throughout lessons by both staff and children, allowing everyone to ‘talk like a mathematician’. Once a child can articulate their understanding of a concept, they truly begin to make connections within their learning.

We want our children to be confident in making rich connections across mathematical ideas as a result of developing fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated, contextual problems during their time at St. David’s. 

They will:

• Be competent in their age-related basic skills

• Be confident and resilient risk-takers

• Be curious and inquisitive mathematicians

• Understand the importance of maths in other subjects and the wider world

• Explain their mathematical reasoning in solving problems

• Have a thorough understanding of appropriate mathematical vocabulary

• Work independently and collaboratively to check and correct their work, understanding their mistakes so that they are less likely to make them again

We monitor the impact of our maths provision through pupil voice, lesson drop-ins or monitoring of books. Children are assessed at the end of each ‘chapter’ of work and more formally at the end of each term (in KS2), to support the teacher judgement of their attainment. Children in Year 2 complete the optional, KS1 SATs papers at the end of the academic year to support teacher assessments. Our core subject trackers are updated regularly to reflect each child’s attainment against the National Curriculum objectives.