St Margaret's Maths Intent

Maths Intent at St Margaret's.

Here at St Margaret’s CE Junior School, we recognise what a high quality mathematics curriculum can offer to our pupils.

All pupils are entitled to a Maths curriculum, enabling them to become competent and independent mathematicians. At St Margaret’s CE Junior School, we help all children develop the skills and processes necessary to use Maths as part of their everyday lives. We deliver lessons that are creative and engaging. We teach skills through context, providing purpose and meaning, making mathematical experiences enjoyable, practical, relevant and realistic. This helps children to develop a positive attitude towards Maths and develop the ability to work independently with confidence in their work.

When teaching mathematics at St Margaret’s, we intend to provide a curriculum which caters for all the needs of all individuals. We incorporate sustained levels of challenge through varied and high quality activities which focus on fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Pupils are required to explore Maths in depth, using mathematical vocabulary to reason and explain their workings. A wide range of mathematical resources are used and pupils are taught to show their workings in a concrete fashion, before establishing ways of pictorially and formally representing their understanding. They are taught to explain their choice of methods and develop their mathematical reasoning skills. We encourage resilience, as one of our main school values, and acceptance that struggle is often a necessary step in learning. We want pupils to build a deep conceptual understanding of concepts which will enable them to apply their learning in different situations.

Through mathematical talk, children will develop their ability to articulate, discuss and explain their thinking. We will provide the children with the necessary resources to allow all children to access the curriculum and encourage them to use this where appropriate to explain their logic and reasoning.

By following the White Rose Maths scheme, it enables us to confidently ensure that our children develop a Mastery in Mathematics. We intend for our pupils to be able to apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects. Maths is a journey and long-term goal, achieved through exploration, clarification, practice and application over time. At each stage of learning, children should be able to demonstrate a deep, conceptual understanding of the topic and be able to build on this over time. We believe that all children can achieve in mathematics.

As our pupils progress, we intent for them to able to understand the world, have the ability to reason mathematically, have an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.