At Mount Hawke Academy, we aim for all of our children to be successful mathematicians, finding enjoyment in, and being curious about, maths. Our maths curriculum has been designed to ensure that our children possess the knowledge and skills that will enable them to succeed now and into their futures. We teach an engaging and accessible mastery approach to ensure that every child can reach their full potential, showing mathematical fluency and working logically, applying maths knowledge to solve problems. Our approach aims to provide all children with full access to the curriculum, enabling them to develop independence, confidence and competence – ‘mastery’- in mathematics in order to be independent mathematicians who are well equipped to apply their learning to the wider world.
Starting in our Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), the activities and experiences are frequent and varied, allowing children to build on and apply understanding of numbers to ten. Our youngest pupils develop their concept of the number system through the use of concrete materials, pictorial representations and teacher led sessions. They have practical experiences to develop their understanding throughout the continuous provision and as part of their everyday routines and activities. Our EYFS uses the Mastering Number Programme from NCETM, a programme designed to ensure children have a thorough understanding of number and the number system. This programme makes up the majority of maths taught sessions, with the remainder being teacher designed in order to cover other aspects of the curriculum. In order to ensure that all aspects of the curriculum are covered we have created a long-term plan that identifies key concepts to be taught, including those from the Mastering Number programme.
The environment inside and outside has been specifically designed to help our children embed mathematical principles through their own investigation and questioning. This supports our children to develop positive attitudes and interests in mathematics.
In Key Stages One and Two, mathematical concepts are taught in blocks and have been carefully sequenced to enable learners to make connections. Within each of these blocks we then have ‘small steps’ which are again sequenced in order of difficulty and dependency. Each step builds carefully from the previous one, building on our children’s prior knowledge to develop new knowledge and skills. Following our block approach, certain strands of maths are not covered until later in the term. To ensure frequent revisiting of concepts, we use recap sessions to reinforce learning from previous weeks, terms and years.
Our curriculum is designed to deepen knowledge by building fluency, conceptual understanding and confidence in using correct mathematical vocabulary. Children are encouraged to solve problems through the use of concrete resources, pictorial representations and abstract thinking.
Our maths lessons include the opportunity to develop fluency skills, construct chains of reasoning using relevant knowledge alongside relevant terminology and solve increasingly complex problems in a systematic and coherent way.
Our pupils will be successful and proficient mathematicians, who can apply their maths to other contexts, solve problems, fluently recall facts and reason mathematically, justifying their answers with confidence.
Please download our additional information below:
