Mathematics Curriculum Statement

At Willow Brook we know that pupils who do well in Mathematics tend to have spent more time on the subject and are aware of their successes in it. Therefore, teachers ensure daily dedicated time for teaching; practise key mathematical concepts; and celebrating achievement through timely feedback.

As such, our intent is to:

  • Purposefully plan and deliver a curriculum that has been intelligently designed by choice (not chance) where rehearsal sequences align closely with curriculum sequences allowing children to attain a mastery of mathematics with a water-tight understanding of concepts that create a solid foundation upon which further study is built.
  • Plan for successful progression from the beginning of the Early Years Foundation Stage to develop core content to encourage children’s motivation, delivering core facts, concepts, methods and strategies. In order to achieve this, we use ‘White Rose’ as a skeletal structure for our curriculum allowing pupils to develop familiarity with facts and methods crucial to solving problems. We ensure children with SEND receive synthetic instruction and rehearsal through pre- and post- teaching methods to help them learn planned content from our curriculum.
  • Use scaffolds, such as frames and physical apparatus, in a carefully planned manner to reveal useful information rather than as a crutch to be relied upon. We seek to scaffold our learning as a temporary measure rather than a long-term support mechanism as we know reliance and dependence upon manipulatives can hinder progression through the curriculum.
  • Provide children with the ability to work through all aspects of the national curriculum, that is solving problems linked to fluency, reasoning and problem solving.
  • Identify pupils who are more likely to struggle or fall behind to then give them time to complete tasks so that they can commit core facts and methods to their long-term memory.
  • Deliver low stakes testing to help pupils remember content with timed testing to help pupils learn maths facts to automaticity.
  • Incorporate school-wide approaches to the calculation policy and desired expectations of presentation in pupils’ books (see Appendix 1 – Calculation Policy below for this).
  • Incorporate school-wide approaches to providing time and resources for our teachers to develop their subject knowledge and to learn valuable ways of teaching from each other.

To implement this we:

  • Teach younger pupils non-distracting and accurate mathematical methods (as outlined in Appendix 1 – Calculation Policy). For instance, in children’s first few days in EYFS, simple number games, songs and imaginative play.
  • Teach older pupils efficient, systematic and accurate mathematical methods that they can use for more complex calculations (as outlined in Appendix 1 – Calculation Policy).
  • Ensure teachers build lessons where pupils experience success in solving word problems by sequencing and modelling successful mathematical methods and strategies to ‘convert’ the deep structure of word problems into simple equations.
  • Ensure teachers know that:
    • New content draws upon and makes links with the content that pupils have previously acquired.
    • It is not possible for pupils to develop proficiency by emulating expertise but by ‘seeing’ the journey to expertise.
    • They must use systematic instructional approaches to engineer success in learning in all stages and phases.
    • They must impart core content in alignment with the detail and sequence of the planned curriculum.
    • They must help pupils to avoid relying on guesswork or unstructured trial and error.
  • Set purposeful and regular homework that requires pupils to systematically rehearse content at home.
  • Will ensure that our daily focused lessons are enriched beyond the discrete timetabled hours in the classroom with whole school themed weeks, competitions and special assemblies. These allow children to learn through story and statistical analysis of real-world data sets.
  • Carefully perform monitoring processes to assess the effectiveness of our curriculum planning.
  • Observe staff teaching Mathematics and give feedback that closely aligns with our Intent, Implementation and Impact statement to refine the delivery of Mathematics as a school.
  • Ensure teachers receive relevant continuous professional development.

To assess the impact we: 

  • Will see pupils that are confident in using linked facts and methods that are the building blocks of strategies before these strategies are taught.
  • Will see pupils that are well prepared for their assessments after having learned all the facts, methods and strategies that align with our curriculum.
    • As such, our outcomes in maths are continually at or above national expectations and those children who require more support still make good progress from Foundation Stage through to Year 6.
  • Will see children’s attitudes towards mathematics are positive.
  • Will see rapid progress being made against measurable benchmarks in each class.
  • Will see our 5 C’s reflected in children’s work and attitudes towards mathematics as a subject:
    • We will see caring attitudes towards Maths throughout the school with children’s work proudly displayed both in their classrooms and around the school.
    • We will see confident children in classrooms who are able to articulate their understanding of the subject and are eager to engage with a variety of question types.
    • We will share our successes with the wider community to show children that an enjoyment and celebration of mathematics is universal and that mastery of the subject is something to be proud of.
    • We will see creativity displayed by children as they find methods and algorithms to solve challenging questions.
    • We know that to achieve all of the above a good measure of resilience is needed, but at Willow Brook, being committed to your aims is second nature.
  • Will see staff that know our children well and can articulate what children know and what they need to know next as a result of daily dialogue, marking and intervention work.

Calculation Policy:

To view our Calculation Policy, please review the link at the end of this paragraph. It takes into consideration the need for concrete, pictorial and subsequently abstract thinking from the moment children enter our school in EYFS up to Year 6.

Calculation Policy

Long Term Plans:

Our Long Term Plans have been built out to accomodate a mastery approach towards Mathematics: allowing children the chance to learn non-distracting and accurate mathematical methods over a set period of time where rehearsal sequences align closely with curriculum sequences. To view our long term plans, please visit the links below:

EYFS            Year 1              Year 2              Year 3                Year 4                Year 5               Year 6

Progression:

Progression across our mathematics curriculum is mapped out in order to ensure that children build on key skills and concepts taught in previous years. The maths curriculum has been split into ten discrete subject areas although there is naturally some overlap. This can be seen in our Long Term Planning documentation (above) and is shown between years in the documents below:

Number & Place Value          Addition & subtraction          Multiplication & Division          Fractions Including Decimals & Percentages          

Ratio & Proportion          Algebra          Measurement          Properties of Shapes          Position & Direction          Statistics