Maths Intent

At Thomas Harding Junior School we recognise the importance of maths in everyday life and, as such, equip all children with the mathematical knowledge and skills they need to succeed.  Our maths curriculum provides:

•the crucial foundation for understanding the world

•the ability to reason mathematically

•an appreciation of the beauty and power of maths

•a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Using the White Rose materials as a foundation, our Maths curriculum is designed to ensure that it is challenging and coherently sequenced to enable all children to succeed to a high standard. All maths content is carefully sequenced within the curriculum so that new knowledge and skills build on prior knowledge.  This then means that children know more, and remember more over time. Our Maths curriculum allows pupils to spend a greater amount of time building their number competency so that skills and knowledge are embedded in pupils' long-term memory. Our Maths curriculum has clear progression in the acquisition of fundamental skills such as fluency, reasoning and problem solving. Our children become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics through varied and frequent practice, which increases in complexity over time. We encourage them to reason mathematically by justifying or proving their answers, using mathematical language. They solve problems by applying their mathematical knowledge to a variety of abstract contexts.

Maths is taught in a language rich environment, using a wide range of resources and practical activities that enable all pupils to explore concepts through a CPA (Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract) approach. We have a clear understanding of the value and importance of the CPA approach so that pupils experience maths in a variety of ways.

Children find retention of mathematical concepts challenging and therefore a robust programme for embedding and revisiting knowledge and skills ensures learning as a change in the long term memory. This guarantees that when pupils leave Thomas Harding they will know more, remember more and understand more. We analyse the key skills we want all of our pupils to be secure in but know that for those who are disadvantaged we need to build in a foundation of oracy, language acquisition, resilience and a growth mindset that enables pupils to believe that they can achieve. Self-regulation makes sure that there are non-negotiables in learning that are built into the maths curriculum. This allows our curriculum to maximise opportunities and that pupils take greater responsibility and pride for their own learning.