‘And even the hairs of your head are all counted,’

Matthew 10:30

Maths Subject Leader - Miss Browning

Why I am passionate about Maths ...

Hello, I am Miss Browning, and I am the subject Leader for Mathematics at St James' Catholic Primary School. As a confident Mathematician, I enjoy Maths and find problem-solving fun and exhilarating and wish to inspire that in our pupils at St James'. I believe that developing confidence and resilience in Maths is the most important thing we can do to prepare children for their future, as it not only impacts their education but their everyday lives. 

Maths - Statement of Intent 

At St. James', we believe that mathematics is a tool for life. It is an essential life skill that is used throughout our daily lives. We want to ensure that every child leaves school with high standards of numeracy  so that they have the best chance of succeeding in the modern world. Throughout our school community, we strive to give pupils opportunities to solve problems and reason mathematically in real-life contexts.

We aim to ensure that all pupils:

‐ become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils have conceptual understanding and are able to recall and apply their knowledge rapidly and accurately to problems

‐ reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language

‐ 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.

Our Vision

Developing and increasing pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding of mathematics is core to our curriculum. The National Curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics to solve problems, calculate and reason. This policy will underpin our work to ensure that all pupils are confident in each of the areas of mathematics including Number and Place Value; Addition and Subtraction; Multiplication and Division; Fractions; Measurement; Geometry and Statistics. It will ensure; high standards are achieved, that mathematics is taught well and that pupils make good progress at every stage.

Intent

• To promote and develop children’s enjoyment and enthusiasm for Mathematics through exciting, practical, first-hand learning and opportunities to explore and investigate.  

• To ensure that the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum for mathematics and numeracy are taught well and applied across all subjects of the curriculum. 

• To ensure that the school’s schemes of work and guidelines for mathematics are taught, thoroughly, systematically and progressively to all pupils by all staff. 

• To help pupils to become mathematicians by developing their problem solving and reasoning skills so that they can apply their independent thinking and questioning across the curriculum.  

• To ensure that from the EYFS onwards, pupils are confident in their understanding and application of their basic skills in number and the number system and that they build upon their prior learning at every stage.  

• To encourage children to use their increasing knowledge, skills and understanding of mathematics to investigate, ask questions and solve challenging problems. 

• To develop pupils’ confidence and skill in mental calculation methods to underpin their written methods as they explore the areas of mathematics and address increasingly complex problems.  

• To bring mathematics to life and make it real, to ensure that children understand the importance of Mathematics in their everyday lives.  

• To make certain that all children, particularly those with special needs or disability; those who are ‘stuck’ and those finding it hard, are well supported.  

Implementation

1. An appropriate range of teaching and learning strategies will be used in all mathematics lessons to capture pupils’ interest and to promote effective learning and progress.
2. Teachers will use the schemes of work and guidelines, supported by an appropriate range of teaching and learning resources, to develop the knowledge, skills and understanding of every child, ensuring that all pupils, including those with SEND, achieve high standards for their ability and make appropriate progress.
3. Children will be encouraged to; ask questions, solve problems, discover new information, apply and consolidate their knowledge, skills and understanding through first-hand experience, investigations and practical work.
4. Teachers will make use of the immediate and wider environment to help pupils apply mathematics and see the relevance of mathematics to their own lives. They will set challenging work, tasks and problems to increase children’s’ knowledge, skills and understanding and to extend their thinking.
5. Teachers will assess children’s work in mathematics through formative and summative judgements by; asking questions, observing learners during lessons, observing pupils solving practical problems and listening to pupils’ discussions. Work will be marked regularly and frequently and pupils will be given appropriate, verbal feedback which tells them how well they have done and what they need to do next to improve. 
6. The mathematics subject leader will support the teaching and learning of mathematics by; providing strategic leadership and direction for mathematics, monitoring progress and standards across the school, reviewing and revising the mathematics policy, monitoring and supporting teachers in the teaching of mathematics, keeping staff up to date on new developments in mathematics, monitoring the effectiveness of the planning and development of mathematics, auditing, monitoring the effective and appropriate use of resources and obtaining new resources.

Impact

This policy will ensure that all pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including the varied and regular practice of increasingly complex problems over time. They will be enabled to reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, understanding relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language. Effective teaching will ensure that they can solve problems by applying their mathematics with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions. As pupils progress through the school they will become increasingly confident mathematicians. This policy should be read in conjunction with other key policies including; assessment, teaching and learning, special needs and equal opportunities, deployment of support staff.

Click here to download our Maths and Calculation policies.