Maths Intent Statement, Aims and Progression Maps
Maths Intent Statement & Aims Hipsburn Primary
At Hipsburn Primary, we believe that a deeply connected and sustained understanding of maths is vital for developing confident and resourceful learners who are able to apply their understanding of maths flexibly to better understand the world around them. We firmly believe that our children require a rich and varied maths curriculum which provides them with the opportunities to explore, refine and synthesise their knowledge and understanding in order for learning to be both meaningful and transferrable. Through our approach, we aim to better prepare the children in our school to move on to more advanced mathematical concepts in secondary school and beyond.
At Hipsburn Primary we follow a mastery approach to Mathematics. We use a carefully planned small-step based curriculum that allows all children to fully understand their learning behind each concept before moving on. Lessons are progressive and challenging for all which allows pupils to access fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Practical and visual resources are fundamental to learning and are an important element of our teaching. Lessons are carefully crafted to use a concrete - pictorial - abstract approach using objectives from the National Curriculum document.
At Hipsburn Primary we aim to provide a stimulating environment that allows pupils to develop mathematically, enjoying their learning and reaching their full potential. We want pupils to have the opportunity to investigate in maths and be curious. Investigative opportunities will be interwoven into everyday mathematics lessons. Pupils will deepen their learning through applying skills and knowledge independently to a range of different contexts.
Underpinning principles
- Mathematics teaching for mastery assumes everyone can learn and enjoy mathematics.
- Mathematical learning behaviours are developed so that pupils focus and engage fully as learners who reason and seek to make connections.
- Teachers continually develop their specialist knowledge for teaching mathematics, working collaboratively to refine and improve their teaching.
- Curriculum design ensures a coherent and detailed sequence of essential content to support sustained progression over time.
Lesson design
- Lesson design links to prior learning to ensure all can access the new learning and identifies carefully sequenced steps in progression to build secure understanding.
- Examples, representations and models are carefully selected to expose the structure of mathematical concepts and emphasise connections, enabling pupils to develop a deep knowledge of mathematics.
- Procedural fluency and conceptual understanding are developed in tandem because each supports the development of the other.
- It is recognised that practice is a vital part of learning, but the practice must be designed to both reinforce pupils’ procedural fluency and develop their conceptual understanding.
In the classroom
- Pupils are taught through whole-class interactive teaching, enabling all to master the concepts necessary for the next part of the curriculum sequence.
- In a typical lesson, the teacher leads back and forth interaction, including questioning, short tasks, explanation, demonstration, and discussion, enabling pupils to think, reason and apply their knowledge to solve problems.
- Use of precise mathematical language enables all pupils to communicate their reasoning and thinking effectively.
- If a pupil fails to grasp a concept or procedure, this is identified quickly, and gaps in understanding are addressed systematically to prevent them falling behind.
- Significant time is spent developing deep understanding of the key ideas that are needed to underpin future learning.
- Key number facts are learnt to automaticity, and other key mathematical facts are learned deeply and practised regularly, to avoid cognitive overload in working memory and enable pupils to focus on new learning.
Hipsburn Primary School has been working with the Great North Maths Hub, coordinated by NCETM for six years now. The Great North Maths Hub is part of a programme funded by the Department for Education to ensure excellent teaching in Mathematics. Our teachers have been provided with excellent opportunities through the Great North Maths Hub which have included working with a mastery specialist teacher; working alongside other schools and sharing of good practice with teachers. We are currently participating in the Mastering Number project for our second year in KS1. For our sustaining mastery year, our project will be Mastering Number at KS2 to secure firm foundations in multiplicative relationships.
See Flyers below: 1. Mastering Number 2. Sustaining Mastery
In order to ensure children have a secure and deep understanding of the content taught, we have previously used and followed the White Rose Maths Hub yearly overviews and plans. Moving on from the pandemic and addressing the needs of our children; we have been working closely with Maths Hub to introduce and use the NCTEM Prioritisation materials and resources in addition to White Rose resources to plan a step by step approach focusing on smaller steps. This provides an opportunity to recalibrate and prioritise our curriculum. Teachers now use the NCTEM primary mastery materials to assist them in their professional development and enable them to deliver teaching for mastery, planning carefully crafted lessons.
Our Aims
In line with the aims of the National Curriculum for mathematics, at Hipsburn Primary School, we aim to ensure that we:
- Promote children’s curiosity and enable them to safely risk take, learning from firsthand experiences both inside and outside of the classroom.
- Enable our children to gain deep and sustainable learning in mathematics which they are then able to confidently apply to a range of real life contexts.
- Support the development of our children’s mathematical knowledge and understanding through the use of a CPA approach (concrete, pictorial, abstract).
- Support children to become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time.
- Promote children’s ability to reason mathematically and make connections by following a line of enquiry and having routine opportunities to discuss their thinking and understanding.
- Provide children with routine opportunities to solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication.
- Enable our children to develop conceptual understanding, recall of number facts and patterns, applying them both rapidly and accurately.
- Enable our children to gain deep and sustainable learning in mathematics which they are then able to confidently apply to a range of real life contexts.
- Provide our children with opportunities to demonstrate ‘mastery’ through well planned, imaginative and simulating cross-curricular links.