Maths

At St Stephen’s CE Primary School every child succeeds in learning Mathematics and is excited by finding out about new concepts. Our children have practical, hands-on learning experiences, using resources to develop their mathematical reasoning. Throughout the year, pupils at St Stephen’s will develop their knowledge in Place Value, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division as well as Fractions, Decimals and Measures.

We have an up to date policy for written calculation methods to ensure that children learn accurate and efficient methods that build on their understanding of number.  Alongside sharing this policy with parents, we also run regular workshops for parents to introduce them to the methods used at school, so that they are able to support their child’s mathematical learning at home.  At St Stephen’s we ensure that our children learn Mathematics in exciting ways, using real-life contexts and motivating problems to deepen their understanding.

St Stephens Maths Policy

Maths Calculation Policy

Mathematics Curriculum

Mathematics yearly overview KS1

Mathematics yearly overview KS2

Mathematics Overview Maps by Year Group

Year 1 WRM overview

Year 2 WRM overview

Year 3 WRM overview

Year 4 WRM overview

Year 5 WRM overview

Year 6 WRM overview

Our children talk about their learning in Mathematics in every lesson, as using mathematical vocabulary and being able to explain their reasoning are key mathematical skills. We teach a broad curriculum in Mathematics with practical opportunities to learn about shape, space, measure and handling data, such as surveying other children at break times and measuring parts of their bodies to investigate ratios.

St Stephen’s dedicates part of every maths lesson to developing the pupils’ arithmetic skills but also exposing all children to some form of problem solving. Through this stimulation children begin to develop links across all four operations as well as encouraging them to have fun with maths through trial and error, acting out the problem, or establishing a pattern. Pupils are eager to discuss how they solved a problem and show strong mathematical reasoning as a consequence.

We use technology in Mathematics lessons to help our children visualise mathematical concepts, to model real-life situations and to make learning number facts fun. In KS2, we are really keen that all our children learn their number facts and therefore run daily 10 minute ‘number’ sessions outside of the Mathematics lesson to rehearse and secure number facts. We are also keen that every child knows all of their times tables (up to 12 x 12) by the end of Year 4. We work on this at school and we are so grateful for the support that parents provide at home.

At St. Stephen’s, our aim is that all children become confident, knowledgeable and eager learners in Maths. We know that Maths is a different experience for each pupil and we strive to ensure that all pupils are happy in their learning. In order to best address the different levels of confidence, from years 2 to 6, we have split each year group into two classes. Each separate group will have pupils of the same ability but levels of confidence may differ. One class will be catered towards those pupils who are relatively confident and happy to work independently and the other class will have a higher staff to pupil ratio in order to ensure that less confident pupils feel supported and happy in their learning journey. Of course, a pupil’s confidence is not a stationary thing and will grow throughout the year at which point we as teachers will judge using our professional knowledge what the best place is for that pupil. We have found from previous practise of this structure that pupils are much happier and as a result progress has been inevitably better.