Maths
Our Vision
Mathematics is fundamental to everyday life. It teaches children how to make sense of the world around them, whether it be calculating the amount of money they need to purchase an item or weighing ingredients when following a recipe. Mathematics is full of exciting opportunities that allow children to be explorative in their learning and to solve problems in a range of contexts.
At Hartwell, our vision is that children develop a positive attitude towards maths that will stay with them. We aim for our pupils to be fluent with key number facts and to calculate accurately and efficiently using the four operations. We believe that it is vital for children to develop their conceptual understanding and to discover the many rich connections within mathematics. As a school, we endeavour to guide children through the problem solving process. Our ambition is that children leave Hartwell Primary School as confident and resilient problem solvers with the vocabulary necessary to reason mathematically.
Please click here to see our Maths School Development Plan 2023-24.
The Maths Curriculum
At Hartwell, we follow the National Curriculum for Mathematics. The curriculum is split into three stands: fluency, reasoning and problem solving. We have chosen to deliver the curriculum through the White Rose Maths scheme because it is well sequenced to avoid learning deficits. It also supports a mastery approach to teaching and learning in maths. The progression document below outlines the objectives within and across year groups:
Please click here to see our Progression Document.
Long Term Maps
In order to teach maths effectively, our long-term maps are carefully structured. Some things have to be learned before others, e.g. place value needs to be understood before working with addition and subtraction. Multiplication is taught before finding the area of shapes. Although topics move on, there are plenty of opportunities to revisit key skills. For example, addition is consolidated by adding money and fractions later on in the year.
Please click here to see our Long Term Maps.
Small Steps:
Each unit of work is then broken down into small steps. These small steps avoid cognitive overload by breaking down a unit into smaller chunks. Each step carefully builds on the previous step before linking to the next.
For example, in Year 4, children learn to subtract where no exchange is necessary before moving on to subtraction where an exchange is required.
Calculation policy & CPA approach:
We believe that the CPA model is at the heart of a mastery curriculum. Our calculation policy shows a clear progression through the school from concrete (the ‘doing’ stage), pictorial (the ‘seeing’ stage) to abstract (symbols and numbers).
Please click here to see our current Calculation Policy.
RTPs
RTPs (ready to progress criteria) are the most important elements of the maths curriculum. Pupils who have mastered the RTPs for their year group will have the foundations they need to make good progress in the following year group. At Hartwell, RTPs are given priority in terms of teaching time and they are regularly reviewed during arithmetic lessons, maths meetings and morning work. Here is a copy of the RTPs for each year group:
Please click here to see our Ready to Progress Criteria.
Vocabulary
We believe that it is vital to teach children the correct mathematical vocabulary across all areas of mathematics. Carefully modelling and rehearsing these key words supports the children to reason mathematically and justify their responses. The document below lists the key words for each year group:
Please click here to see our Maths Vocabulary.
SMSC in Maths
Spiritual, moral, social and cultural development (SMSC) is the over-arching umbrella that encompasses personal development across the whole curriculum. The document below exemplifies this in relation to mathematics:
Please click here to see our SMSC in Maths.
Times Tables
In Class 3, children begin striving to reach the 144 club. This is a times tables challenge completed on a weekly basis in class. Once the children have completed their jumbled 144 grid in less than 5 minutes, they receive a certificate in celebration assembly. The children then complete timed maths sheets, involving multiplication and division calculations with missing numbers. They also aim to complete their decimal grid further up in KS2.
Please click here to see our 144 Grids.
Please click here to see our Maths Sheets.
Please click here to see our Maths Sheets.