Maths at St Peter & St Pauls

At St Peter and St Pauls, our Maths curriculum is designed to equip our pupils with the skills they need to develop their fluency and understanding of maths in order to allow them to flourish in their future lives as God intended them to. 
Our maths curriculum covers fluency in using the number system and calculating, reasoning and problem solving

In our maths lessons we provide enriching experiences to engage learners. In developing our curriculum we have taken into consideration:

Cognitive Psychology – an understanding of how children learn and remember.

The Characteristics of Effective learning – enabling children to develop self-awareness, self-esteem and critical thinking skills.

Communication: Speaking and listening lies at the heart of our curriculum. We believe that all pupils should be able to express themselves clearly for a range of purposes. We model and teach the verbal reasoning and questioning required for developing mastery in thinking about mathematics.

The National Curriculum provides a framework for mathematics, but the school is aware of the need for flexibility and creativity in teaching and learning styles in response to the needs of individual children. The emphasis in the National Curriculum is to ensure that all children become fluent in using the number system, are able to reason and explain mathematically, and that they can solve problems using applied maths knowledge.

At St Peter & St Paul’s we use the strongly research based schemes of Learning (SOLs) provided by White Rose. Their progression through the curriculum ensures that every area is covered systematically and with depth of understanding before going deeper with reasoning and problem solving opportunities.

We utilize physical resources to allow children to explore the number system, patterns and relationships between numbers by adopting the CPA approach: concrete, pictorial, abstract. This allows children to manipulate numbers physically, then to represent finding and understanding in a visual form, before relying on abstract symbols (numerals). We celebrate the use of all the CPA representations with a whole school project to highlight the usefulness of manipulatives for exploring, explaining and exemplifying our maths knowledge. This approach also ensures sufficient challenge for pupils to stretch themselves and take risks in their learning, as more open questioning leads to open ended investigation.  

Maths in Early Years
Reception have begun their first year at school by deeply exploring maths and developing their maths lens for looking at the world. Our aim has been to show the children how maths is all around them and the connections the can make, and the patterns they can see, are the key to unlocking their mathematical skills and knowledge.

The children have started studying the various representations of numbers within 5, including the geometry of familiar shapes and British coins. We have begun to explore decomposing these numbers to see all the ways that these small numbers can be made.

Maths in Key Stage 1

Year 1’s maths lessons have focused on familiar numbers within ten to support their transition from EYFS to Key stage 1. We have introduced new concepts of representation, such as part whole models and bar models to strengthen their knowledge and fluency in using 1 digit  numbers for addition and subtraction.

Year 2 children have covered their teens numbers for security and supporting transition their new year group. Knowledge of counting in 10s supported their step up to using 2 digit numbers within 100 in addition and subtraction.

Maths in Key Stage 2

In year 3, children build on their year 2 knowledge, working towards adding and subtracting 2-digit and 3-digit numbers with exchanges. They continue to use a  variety of representations, including base 10, place value counters, double-sided counters, number lines, part-whole models and bar models.

At St Peter & St Pauls we make use of the reseach and expertise of the NCETM (National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics as well as materials from NRICH (the university of Cambridge Faculty of mathemetics)

The resources below will help you to understand the teaching of maths in school as well as how you can support deep and flexible understanding of maths at home. 

Revisions of the Year 1-3 Summer Schemes of Learning will be uploaded later in the year.

Here you will find the calculation policy that all staff will be following when they teach the four rules of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We know that, as parents and caregivers, you want to play a role in your child's education and understanding the way they are being taught at school will enable you to help and encourage them at home.