“The essence of Mathematics is not to make simple things complicated, but to make complicated things simple.” - S. Gudder

Intent

Our intent for the mathematics curriculum at St James' Primary School is to foster a deep, lasting understanding of mathematical concepts and to instill a love for learning through a balanced approach that nurtures confidence, curiosity, and resilience. We aim to provide students with a strong foundation in number fluency, problem-solving, and logical reasoning, equipping them with essential skills to succeed in both mathematics and other areas of learning.

Our curriculum is designed to engage students through hands-on, inquiry-based learning that promotes critical thinking and encourages them to explore multiple approaches to solving problems. We focus on developing students' ability to persevere through challenges, fostering patience and resilience. By connecting mathematical concepts to real-world applications, we help students appreciate the relevance and importance of mathematics in their daily lives and future ambitions.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive environment where every child feels confident and capable of achieving their potential in mathematics. Collaborative learning opportunities allow students to develop effective communication and teamwork skills, while also building respect for different perspectives and approaches.

Ultimately, our mathematics curriculum at St James' Primary School aims to cultivate a community of curious, reflective, and capable learners who are well-prepared for the next stages of their education and inspired to use their mathematical knowledge positively in the world.

Implementation

At St James’ CE Primary School, we structure our mathematics around the White Rose curriculum from EYFS to Year 6. This is to ensure that the distinct domains of mathematics are covered in sufficient depth and clarity. The White Rose curriculum structures the learning within these domains so that knowledge, concepts and procedures are carefully sequenced over time to build skills and knowledge systematically. We also ensure that we use the most up to date White Rose curriculum, which is revised each year based on research and teacher feedback. However, we do not use the White Rose resources exclusively as we want to ensure that teachers remain able to adapt and alter the learning to fit the needs of their pupils. This allows teachers to draw on Nrich, NCETM resources, and others, in order to ensure that the needs of the children in their class are being met. 

We use a three-step approach to teaching mathematics, based on the ideas of Steve Lomax and the Glow MATHSHUBS. In lessons, this takes on the following structure: Teach it, Practise it, Do it, Twist it (challenging understanding) and Deepen it (challenging mathematical thinking). This approach allows children rich opportunities to develop their fundamental knowledge while still providing variation in which they can build their fluency, reasoning and problem solving.

The structure and connections within mathematics are emphasised, so that pupils develop deep learning that can be sustained. Lesson design identifies the new mathematics that is to be taught, the key points, the difficult points and a carefully sequenced journey through the learning. Teachers use precise questioning in class to test conceptual and procedural knowledge and assess children regularly to identify those requiring intervention, so that all children keep up. Children’s explanations and their proficiency in articulating mathematical reasoning, with the precise use of mathematical vocabulary, are supported through the use of stem sentences provided by the teacher. Key facts such as multiplication tables and addition facts within 10 are learnt to automaticity to avoid cognitive overload in the working memory and enable pupils to focus on new concepts.

The curriculum is designed to have an emphasis on number, with a large proportion of time spent reinforcing number to build competency. Lessons are planned to provide plenty of opportunities to build reasoning and problem solving elements into the curriculum. When introduced to a new concept, children have the opportunity to use concrete objects and manipulatives to help them understand what they are doing. Alongside this, children are encouraged to use pictorial representations. These representations can then be used to help reason and solve problems. Both concrete and pictorial representations support children’s understanding of abstract methods.

Mathematical topics are taught in blocks, to enable the achievement of ‘mastery’ over time. These teaching blocks are broken down into smaller steps, to help children understand concepts better. This approach means that children do not cover too many concepts at once which can lead to cognitive overload. Each lesson phase provides the means for children to achieve greater depth, with children who are quick to grasp new content, being offered rich and sophisticated problems, within the lesson as appropriate.