Maths at St Paul’s

At St Paul’s we strive to ensure that our children become confident, resilient and knowledgeable mathematicians. Our lessons help us to develop understanding of important maths concepts through creative and practical activities, which will help us in everyday life.

All lessons are focused on helping our children to develop their skills and understanding in line with the aims of the National Curriculum.

The national curriculum for mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately.

• Reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language.

• Can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.

Maths lessons at St Paul’s are busy, active, practical, and include a lot of mathstalk. Children have daily maths lessons of approximately one hour, and when possible, these are during the morning. 

We have adopted a mastery approach to teaching maths in accordance with the 2014 Curriculum to cater for our mixed ability classes. All years use the White Rose Maths Schemes of Learning as their main planning document, and usually follow this set order of teaching.

As we follow a Concrete – Pictorial – Abstract approach to teaching, children have access to a range of concrete apparatus in every lesson and a classroom learning wall supports current learning. New concepts are set in a context.

You will also see children using and applying their maths skills and understanding in other curriculum areas, such as taking measurements in Science or reading maps in Topic lessons.