“Success in math does not depend on how many answers you know, but by what you do when you don’t know the answer.” — Unknown

Maths Curriculum

Throughout the Maths curriculum in Courtwood our main aim is for children to realise the enjoyment maths can bring and how the knowledge of maths can help them in many areas of their life. Through in-depth teaching we want children to adapt to a ‘can do’ attitude with maths and foster a positive attitude to the challenges they face in mathematics. We want children to be able to recognise that maths is a life skill and that it is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment therefore showing the children that maths provides a foundation for understanding the world.

At Courtwood we have adopted a mastery approach when it comes to teaching mathematics. This approach enables all children to master the mathematics curriculum and draws inspiration from a range of sources. Concepts are taught through manageable small steps which build on skills children have learnt. Our expectation is that most pupils move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. Decisions about when to progress will always be based on the security and depth of the pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. We want all pupils, within the same class, to be studying the same objective at the same time therefore, pupils who grasp concepts rapidly work on further challenge within the learning block rather than be accelerated through new content. To ensure maths is taught to a consistently high level we follow the White Rose scheme of learning. This ensures all maths objectives and domains from the national curriculum are taught in every year group to a high standard. Our children receive daily one-hour maths lessons, lessons are planned and sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before. Within every lesson there is clear teaching input followed by students completing a range of fluency, reasoning and problem-solving challenges. Through teaching mistakes and misconceptions children begin to build resilience to the challenges they face within the maths curriculum. To ensure all needs are met, teachers use a range of concrete, pictorial and abstract resources which will aid all different styles of learning. The main aim of all lessons is to develop children’s knowledge, understanding and skills, applying these to a variety of contexts. Through this, children can see that maths is an interconnected subject and children are able to make rich connections between each domain and objective within the national curriculum, we want children to have the confidence to try new challenges everyday by recognising they can use the skills they already have. An important part of the planning process for teachers is to ensure they plan which vocabulary will be explored within their lesson and ensure children begin using the correct vocabulary in day-to-day lessons. We want children to gain a rich vocabulary of mathematical terms through every lesson which they can use to support their problem-solving skills as they go through their academic journey.

Retrieval is an important part of mathematics at Courtwood and we ensure we give children time to revisit objectives weekly and put the knowledge they have learned into practice within different scenarios. After lunch every day, children complete a Flashback 4 activity. This involves the children completing 4 questions, these questions will contain tasks from objectives that they have learned in either the last day, week, month, term or year. This allows children to continue to use the knowledge they have learned and not forget it whilst giving instant assessment for teachers on which objectives may need to be revisited. Children complete weekly quizzes known as the ’99 club’ where they must get 100% within a quiz to go up to the next level. The aim of these quizzes is for children to revisit and retrieve the knowledge they have on the most important foundations within their year group/maths curriculum. By revising and understanding these objectives children gain confidence and are ready to progress with ease into their next academic year group.

At Courtwood we want all children to have confidence in maths and to be curious whilst always progressing. We understand that maths does not come easy to all children, and we work hard to ensure those children still have fun in maths whilst also learning new skills. As well as in-class interventions during maths lessons we also have a range of interventions to support the understanding and confidence of children in maths. This includes daily precision teaching and pre-teach groups.

We believe that parent involvement is important when it comes to mathematics. It is helpful for parents to understand what their children are being taught in maths, what calculation methods are used within school and how they can help with their children’s progress and confidence. We also have the expectation that children complete times on Times Tables Rockstars at home. We have embedded the importance of times tables within the maths curriculum to all students and parents.

As a school we are constantly gaining training and trying new methods to ensure our maths teaching is up to a high standard whilst also developing a new understanding of how to allow every child, no matter their ability, to enjoy and progress within the maths curriculum.

Please click on the icons below for further information.