School Intent for Maths

At St Columba’s, Mathematics is at the heart of our curriculum and a priority for all children so that when they leave our school, they feel confident in fluency, reasoning and problem solving. We aim to foster a love of Maths in our children through close support, shared learning, celebration of achievement, and teaching resilience to overcome difficulty.

We aim to provide each child with regular practice to develop their fluency in Mathematical skills and operations. We also aim to teach our children how to reason through problems logically and apply those problem-solving skills to different situations. Our approach is to foster curiosity and encourage children to seek answers and explanations throughout their lessons and their work. We believe this approach will enable children to feel confident to face and solve problems of a practical nature once they leave our school.

We use a mastery approach to teaching Maths in our school so that the curriculum is accessible to all children and no child feels left behind. As students move through the content at the same pace, they are able to share their learning and understanding of concepts with their peers, leading to shared discussions. This also ensures there are realistic but high expectations for all our pupils.

Teachers follow the White Rose scheme of work, supplemented by a variety of resources and teaching strategies to ensure the highest quality of coverage. Students’ knowledge of times tables is a whole school priority as so much of Maths is dependent on these multiplication facts, and quick recall allows for more confident progression in the subject. We also prioritise time and opportunity for close support, reinforcement of prior learning, and additional reactive teaching for those who have missed or not fully grasped learning.