Curriculum: Mathematics

  

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Mathematics is a creative and highly inter-connected discipline that has been developed over centuries.

It is essential to everyday life, critical to science, technology and engineering, and necessary for financial literacy and most forms of employment. A high quality mathematics education therefore provides a foundation for understanding the world, the ability to reason mathematically, an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, and a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.

Numeracy is a proficiency which involves confidence and competence with numbers and measures. It requires an understanding of the number system, a repertoire of computational skills and an ability to solve number problems in a variety of contexts.

At Winterbourne Boys’ Academy, numeracy and mathematics are closely integrated with children developing a proficiency in numeracy through the wider contexts of mathematics. Mathematics is a creative discipline providing the solution to some of history's most intriguing problems.

Aims

Our aims are to:

• ensure that all pupils become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics and that pupils develop conceptual understanding over time and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately;
• ensure that pupils can reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations and developing an argument, justification or proof using mathematical language;
• ensure pupils can solve problems by applying mathematics to a variety of problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions;
• extend each child to his or her fullest potential, building on previous experiences and recognising individual capabilities;
• enable children to achieve a high standard in numeracy and a range of other mathematical skills and apply these skills with confidence and understanding when solving problems;
• foster interest, confidence and enjoyment in mathematics and inspire children to appreciate the mathematics of many cultures;
• provide opportunities to apply mathematical learning in everyday situations and enable children to use and apply their knowledge in the world outside;
• enable children to have a sense of the size of a number and where it fits in the number system and know by heart number facts such as number bonds, multiplication facts, doubles, and halves;
• enable children to calculate accurately and efficiently, both mentally and with pencil and paper, drawing on a range of calculation strategies and understanding of the required operations;
• enable children to recognise when it is appropriate to use a calculator, and be able to do so effectively (typically introduced near the end of Key Stage 2 only to support pupils' understanding);
• encourage children to explain their methods and reasoning and use correct mathematical terms and to judge whether their answers are reasonable and have strategies for checking them;
• provide contextual challenges which span the whole application of mathematics, including the use of data, geometry and measures.

Lessons

Children are taught mathematics as according to the National Curriculum.

All mathematics lessons are based upon common objectives for the class. Within each part of the maths lesson, there is suitable differentiation to meet the needs of the whole class, groups and individual children.  Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly should be challenged through being offered rich and sophisticated problems before any acceleration through new content. Those who are not sufficiently fluent with earlier material should consolidate their understanding, including through additional practice, before moving on.

Pupils should make connections across different areas and ideas to develop fluency in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They should also apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects.

Information and communication technology (ICT)

Calculators should not be used as a substitute for good written and mental arithmetic. They are therefore only used to support pupils’ conceptual understanding and exploration of more complex number problems, if written and mental arithmetic are secure. Teachers will use their professional judgement about when ICT tools will be used.

Spoken language

The national curriculum for mathematics reflects the importance of spoken language in pupils’ development across the whole curriculum – cognitively, socially and linguistically. The quality and variety of language that pupils hear and speak are key factors in developing their mathematical vocabulary and presenting a mathematical justification, argument or proof. They will be assisted in making their thinking clear to themselves as well as others and teachers will ensure that pupils build secure foundations by using discussion to probe and remedy their misconceptions.