Intent, Implementation and Impact
During their time at St Helen’s, our intention is that children will be encouraged to see mathematics as both a written and spoken language, making rich connections across mathematical ideas to develop fluency, mathematical reasoning and competence in solving increasingly sophisticated problems. They should also apply their mathematical knowledge to science and other subjects.
Teachers’ intent is to use modelling to support and guide children through the following important stages:
- developing the use of pictures and a mixture of words and symbols to represent numerical activities;
- using standard symbols and conventions;
- use of jottings to aid a mental strategy;
- use of pencil and paper procedures.
St Helen’s favours the use of agreed terminology and the use of practical resources to develop a build it, draw it, write it, say it approach.
Build it
Draw it
Write it
Say it
In order to implement this, we embrace the Mastery approach to teaching mathematics. The expectation is that the majority of pupils will move through the programmes of study at broadly the same pace. However, decisions about when to progress will always be based on the security of pupils’ understanding and their readiness to progress to the next stage. Pupils who grasp concepts rapidly will 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.
Our teachers will ensure that mathematical skills are taught every day following the White Rose guidance. We have adapted the units of learning to ensure better coverage in year 6 before statutory assessments take place, however, we mainly use the White Rose long term plans, with flexibility for teachers to adjust those units, and their order, as they see fit. We build on skills and understanding in a step by step and progressive way and continue to develop place value, the four number operations and the understanding of fractional parts throughout through daily fluency and reasoning practice.
The impact of this learning will be measured by the children making the progress that they are capable of. Our aim at St Helen’s is for children to be able to choose and use an efficient method – mental or written – appropriate to the given task. We encourage them to be flexible with their approaches. By the end of Year 6, the majority of children will have been taught, and be secure with, a compact standard method for each operation.
Throughout the school, we are committed to ensuring that all pupils:
- become fluent in the fundamentals of mathematics, including through varied and frequent practice with increasingly complex problems over time, so that pupils develop conceptual understanding and the ability to recall and apply knowledge rapidly and accurately
- reason mathematically by following a line of enquiry, conjecturing relationships and generalisations, and developing a discussion, justification or proof using mathematical language
- can solve problems by applying their mathematics to a variety of routine and non-routine problems with increasing sophistication, including breaking down problems into a series of simpler steps and persevering in seeking solutions.