Maths at St Nic's

At St Nic’s all children take part in a daily maths lesson. As a school we have adopted a Mastery Approach which means that all of the children within a year group work on the same topic at the same time. We want all of our children to have the same opportunities in their maths learning, so we make use of time outside of maths lessons to work with children who need additional help to keep up with the rest of the class. This means that these children do not end up with gaps because the rest of the class have moved ahead of them. We also  run challenge groups outside of the main maths lessons for children to work on more complex problems, such as those found in the First Maths Challenge and Primary Maths Challenges. This makes sure that these children have the chance to deepen their learning, rather than racing ahead.

The children have regular opportunities to practice their basic maths skills and revisit topics they have previously covered as we believe this will help them to secure their knowledge. We have subscriptions to  TimesTables Rock Stars, MyMaths and Doodle Maths to support with this. The children are able to access these programs from home.

Our Maths Curriculum

At the heart of our maths curriculum is the aim that all our children become curious, confident and flexible mathematicians.

The following statements indicate how we intend to do this:

• To adapt the mastery approach to suit the needs of our children by including frequent revisiting of previous topics
• To deliver lessons using ‘small steps’ informed by the White Rose Mixed Age Planning documents
• To use flexible lesson structures to ensure each year group covers the requirements of the National Curriculum by the end of the phase
• To use a range of concrete, pictorial and abstract representations to support children’s learning as appropriate for their stage and understanding
• To ensure frequent reasoning and problem-solving opportunities within a unit of work
• To encourage independence and resilience through explicit teaching of problem-solving strategies
• To develop and maintain fluency with core methods and facts through frequent fluency sessions
• To narrow the attainment gap through pre-teaching and ‘same day catch up’ sessions
• To provide opportunities for parents to develop their understanding of how they can support their child’s mathematical learning outside of school
• To use both formal and informal assessment strategies to monitor children’s mastery of core ideas
• To make the most of natural topic links to provide a meaningful context for applying mathematical knowledge and understanding

Websites to Support Maths Learning