Intent

At Tidemill, we strive to cultivate a love of mathematics in all of our children, ensuring an excitement and enthusiasm for the subject. We aim to equip children with a powerful set of tools, through developing an ability to calculate, reason and solve problems. We teach our children how they can use and apply their mathematical knowledge and understanding across a range of contexts. This is linked to our Tidemill skills and attitudes and will enable our children to engage with the world around them mathematically while providing them with tools for later study and work.

Implementation

Daily maths lessons ensure that children are taught with a strong emphasis on developing fluency, reasoning and problem-solving skills. Each topic begins with a pre-assessment, giving teachers a clear understanding of the prior children’s knowledge and misconceptions. In class, we develop children’s learning across all strands of maths through a variety of approaches. We provide children with concrete manipulatives to secure their understanding of core concepts. As they move through the school, they are expected to use both pictorial and written methods as outlined in our whole school calculation policy. Through careful curriculum planning, children revisit concepts regularly to ensure they develop a deep and meaningful understanding of mathematics.

In addition, children at Tidemill are encouraged to show resilience in mathematics. Across the school, an atmosphere is created where children are confident in taking risks and recognise that making mistakes is something that everyone does, which helps them to become resilient and develop as reflective learners.     

All lessons in Key Stage 1 and 2 follow the national curriculum objectives for mathematics. Teachers use this as the basis for their lessons, aiming to build confidence and mastery in order to provide and broad and balanced curriculum. Lesson sequences are carefully planned to ensure that there is a clear progression in learning and the children’s prior knowledge is built upon and developed. Through daily maths lessons and fortnightly maths conferencing, children are given the opportunity to deepen their understanding of a variety of concepts. To help children succeed in maths, there is a strong focus on developing knowledge and understanding of times tables and arithmetic skills, which are regularly taught and practised.  Regular formative and summative assessment takes place to ensure all children make strong progress.