Sugar Hill Primary School

at Sugar Hill Primary School

“Mathematics is the most beautiful and most powerful creation of the human spirit.” Stefan Banach

“I love that once you know the basic rules of maths, you can do whatever you want with it.” Rachel Riley

Intent:

At Sugar Hill, we take the view that being a fluent mathematician is essential to everyday life and a carefully structured curriculum and high quality education therefore provides pupils with:

The ability to become fluent in the fundamentals of numeracy, to reason mathematically, solve problems by applying knowledge of mathematics, and develop a sense of enjoyment and curiosity about the subject.
A capacity to recall basic arithmetic facts rapidly and accurately; and the capability to apply them where necessary.
The belief that everyone can, and truly should, be successful in the study of mathematics. At Sugar Hill we do not accept that ‘some children cannot do maths’ or that prior attainment should limit what a child is capable of learning. Mathematics is for everyone at Sugar Hill.
The expectation that they progress through programmes of study through sequential steps, are given opportunities to embed and consolidate knowledge of topics and that pupils make connections between topics and apply their mathematical understanding to sciences and other subjects across the curriculum.
Strong knowledge and understanding of technical terms, mathematical vocabulary and concepts.
Consistent challenges in all areas of mathematics through being offered rich and thought-provoking problems in order to develop the depth of their understanding in the subject area.
Knowledge and preparation for our local area and the wider world by being able to use their understanding from the subject when carrying out tasks in their everyday lives.

Cultural Capital:

The mathematics curriculum at Sugar Hill will offer children the opportunities to draw upon skills, behaviours and knowledge. To be able to do this, all pupils are:

- Taught practical lessons that allow them to investigate, record and develop a depth of understanding
- Given an understanding of how local businesses work
- Given the opportunities to plan, budget for and resource areas of the school
- Able to participate in external workshops and competitions
- Provided with opportunities to work with secondary schools and further education institutes to challenge their conceptual understanding of numeracy
- Through local visits and visitor experience, given opportunities to become increasingly aware of the opportunities available in the wider world through the study of mathematics

Implementation:

At Sugar Hill, children study mathematics daily and in doing so they cover a broad and balanced mathematical curriculum including elements of number, calculation, geometry, measures, statistics, ratio & proportion and algebra. Alongside daily numeracy sessions an additional 30 minutes a day is spent focusing on arithmetic which is aimed at ensuring consolidation in the key areas of mathematics whilst building fluency and the ability to think about numbers in a different way. Due to the interconnected nature of mathematics, at Sugar Hill we aim to teach numeracy in a cross curricular manner, where possible, as well as discretely to teach the practical application of mathematical skills. We focus not only on the mathematical methods but also pay particular attention to mathematical vocabulary and use a variety of resources to broaden and deepen mathematical understanding.

In implementing the school’s curriculum:

Teachers consistently reinforce an expectation that all children are capable of achieving high standards in mathematics.
The large majority of children progress through the curriculum content at the same pace.
Differentiation is achieved by allowing children ownership of tasks which emphasise deep knowledge and through individual support and regular intervention where required.
Teachers use precise questioning in class to assess children regularly to identify those requiring intervention, so that all children keep up.
Practice and consolidation play a central role. Carefully designed variation within topics builds fluency and understanding of underlying mathematical concepts.
Teachers provide regular challenge and move learning on so that all children are able to tackle a variety of problems and apply their understanding.

In KS1, mathematical problems are almost always presented with objects (concrete resources) for children to use. Children may also use manipulatives in KS2. Teachers use careful questions to draw out children’s discussions and their reasoning and then lead children through strategies for solving problems. Independent work provides the means for all children to develop their fluency further, before progressing to more complex related problems. Mathematical topics are taught in blocks, to enable the ‘depth of understanding’ over time. Each lesson phase provides the means to achieve greater depth, with more able children being offered rich and sophisticated problems, as well as exploratory, investigative tasks, within the lesson as appropriate.

Impact

As mathematicians, Sugar Hill pupils will be confident in calculating with number, able to apply their knowledge to real-life scenarios and be able to justify with confidence and technical accuracy why they have chosen relevant methods when tackling problems, applying their understanding and completing investigative work. They will also work methodically where appropriate and be unafraid of using concepts such as trial and error when completing open ended problems and puzzles. The school has a supportive ethos and our approaches in numeracy support the children in developing their collaborative and independent skills.