Maths

Welcome to our Maths information section.  We follow the White Rose Maths Scheme, supplemented by materials from NCETM and the Mastering Number programme.

Intent 

At St Thomas More we provide a hands-on, well-resourced Maths curriculum that motivates and engages all pupils.  We seek to make explicit links with the rest of the curriculum so that children can gain an understanding of how inter woven Maths is in other subjects and everyday life.  We hope this will show children how Mathematics may influence and play a vital part in their chosen career, and their everyday life. 

At St Thomas More we aim to instil a love of learning in Mathematics, in each and every child, and provide them with the skills they need to be independent learners throughout their school career, and beyond, with a ‘can do’ attitude.

Implementation 

At St Thomas More, children study mathematics daily covering a broad and balanced mathematical curriculum including elements of number, calculation, geometry, measures and statistics.  Due to the interconnected nature of mathematics, at St Thomas More we aim to teach maths in a cross curricular manner as well as discretely to teach the practical application of mathematical skills. We focus not only on the mathematical methods but also focus on mathematical vocabulary and to use Maths Mastery to broaden and deepen mathematical understanding.

We aim for each child to be confident in each yearly objective and develop their ability to use this knowledge to develop a greater depth understanding to solve varied fluency problems as well as problem solving and reasoning questions. We follow White Rose for Mathematics program, including their assessments at the end unit of work, and end of term assessments.  We also supplement this scheme by using a variety of different resources from the NCETM.   Children from Year 2 are encouraged to use ‘Times Table Rockstars’ at home to support their multiplication recall.

Schools in England are required to administer an online multiplication tables check (MTC) to Year 4 pupils. The purpose of the MTC is to determine whether pupils can recall their times tables fluently, which is essential for future success in mathematics. It will help schools to identify pupils who have not yet mastered their times tables, so that additional support can be provided. To support the children with their multiplication practice we use ‘Times Table Rockstars’ as an online and fun learning platform which also offer resources to be used in the classroom.  This is available for all year groups from Year 2 to Year 6.

Impact 

Throughout each lesson formative assessment takes place and feedback is given to the children through verbal feedback, marking and next step tasks to ensure they are meeting the specific learning objective. Teacher’s then use this assessment to influence their planning and ensure they are providing a mathematics curriculum that will allow each child to progress. The teaching of maths is monitored on a termly basis through book scrutiny, learning walks and lesson observations. Each term children from Year 1 and above complete a summative assessment, the Progress in Understanding Maths Assessment (PUMA), to help them develop their testing approach and demonstrate their understanding of the topics covered. Key Stage 1 & 2 complete end of unit assessments available through White Rose at the end of each unit.  The results from both the formative assessment and summative assessment are used to determine children’s progress and attainment.

The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress should always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through the offer of rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on, often with manipulatives or with scaffolding.

Please see the Maths Progression documents, Curriculum Overview and National Curriculum below.
National Curriculum - Mathematics.pdfMaths Progression Map.pdfCurriculum Map - Maths.pdf

Supporting materials for parents to use to help understand the strategies and methods used are attached below for your reference. 

 A-guide-to-place-value A-guide-to-subtraction A-guide-to-multiplication A-guide-to-division A-guide-to-fractions A-guide-to-algebra