Maths
Flying High in Maths at St Helen’s
At St Helen’s, our vision is ‘Flying high together, soaring on wings like eagles’. We believe that every child is entitled to a high-quality mathematics education, which will provide a foundation for them understanding the world. As a result, they will have an appreciation of the beauty and power of mathematics, plus a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
Please see below more information about our vision for Maths at St.Helen's, this is encapsulated in our Maths Teaching and Learning Guide that all staff follow to ensure that we have consistency in teaching Maths across the school.
Maths Teaching and Learning Guide Updated Sept 2023
Intent:
Our teaching follows the National Curriculum with these aims:
- 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 an argument, 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
Implementation
We are on an exciting journey of embedding teaching for mastery to ensure that children of all ages are ‘flying high’ by acquiring a deep, long-term, secure and adaptable understanding of the subject. Our approach is framed around the Five Big Ideas (NCETM) which underpin teaching for mastery. You can find out more about the Five Big Ideas here: https://www.ncetm.org.uk/teaching-for-mastery/mastery-explained/five-big-ideas-in-teaching-for-mastery/ The children are taught through whole-class interactive teaching where the focus is on all children working together on the same lesson content at the same time, as happens in Shanghai and several other regions that teach maths successfully. This means that the children are on a journey together, allowing no child to be left behind, by following a small step sequence which is reviewed daily to respond to the needs of the children. Small group interventions are used to build in smaller steps to minimise the risk of any child falling behind to ensure that misconceptions are overcome and gaps are closed. This enables the children to be ready to progress onto the next concept.
To find out more about our maths lessons, click here.