Maths

Mathematics is one of the core national curriculum subjects. We aim to produce confident mathematicians who can use and apply their knowledge and understanding in a variety of contexts. Children are encouraged to take risks and to face challenges and problems with a positive approach.

Mastery Curriculum

The Maths Mastery Curriculum places conceptual understanding at the heart of children’s learning. We follow the Herts for Learning Programme which aspires to produce a secure and sustainable progress in learning maths - based upon a deep understanding of concepts, in parallel with fluency, -enabling connections to be made between mathematical ideas.

The aims of this mastery curriculum are that all pupils:

• Become fluent in the fundamentals of maths

• Reason mathematically

• Solve problems

Key features of teaching for mastery at Southtown:

• Keeping the class working together with whole class direct teaching

• Practical opportunities and use of a variety of approaches, including games and visual representations

• Frequent opportunities to reason and problem solve

• Emphasis placed upon learning through reasoning, developing multiple strategies and deep understanding

• Rich mathematical talk supported by the teachers’ questioning ( getting the right answer isn’t enough if children don’t know why the answer is the right one)

• Development of understanding through linking ‘concrete’ (materials and resources) to ‘abstract’  ( such as calculations) via pictorial representations ( diagrams and drawings).

• Longer time spent on key topics so learning can be deepened and embedded

• Differentiation

• Pre-teaching and follow up teaching sessions as needed

• Increase in challenges, through depth and breadth questioning, open-ended tasks and

problems- to develop reasoning skills.